Netmarble releases new mobile RPG ‘Lineage II: Revolution’

South Korean game company Netmarble Games released its latest mobile role-playing game “Lineage II: Revolution” via the Google Play and Apple app stores Wednesday.

Netmarble’s new mobile game -- categorized as a “massively multiplayer online role playing game,” or MMORPG -- is based on NCSoft’s original online role-playing game “Lineage II.”

“Lineage II: Revolution,” Netmarble’s biggest mobile release of the year aimed at global success, has been garnering keen attention from users, surpassing more than 3.4 million preorders.

“We developed ‘Lineage II: Revolution’ from the start with plans to launch the game in not only Korea but global markets,” said Baek Young-hoon, the chief operating officer of Netmarble Games, at a former press conference.

Netmarble plans to bring the new mobile game to other major gaming markets overseas. It is looking to release the game in China by early 2017, followed by Japan.

“We are already working with our Chinese partner Tencent to prepare for the game’s launch in China, which includes efforts to localize certain aspects of the game to best accommodate local users,” Baek said.

In developing the new game, Netmarble said it has taken great care to smoothly transfer the same graphics, character options and game play formats offered by the game’s PC version onto mobile devices.

The most touted feature of “Lineage II: Revolution” is the “Castle Siege” -- an integral element of the original “Lineage II” -- which can at once accommodate up to 1,600 players engaged in multiplayer battles to win over a clan’s castle.

Meanwhile, NCSoft also launched another mobile MMORPG based on its original online game “Lineage” just last week. The two releases are slated to target similar users interested in the MMORPG game genre.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)