After Getting Info Almost Weekly Then Going Dark For Months, Is Blade & Soul NEO Classic Still A Thing?

In November of 2023, we received word of a "Blade & Soul NEO Classic" project in the works over at NCSoft. The "new" version of the original Blade & Soul MMORPG was going to utilize Unreal Engine 4, something the original upgraded to, and they would be adding content and changing/reverting some existing systems. If that sounds pretty vague, we agree. We had a teaser video showing off the improved colors and art for familiar Blade & Soul zones, but that was really it.

Over the course of the subsequent two months, through January 2024, we were getting frequent updates from the team via a "Soul Log" of posts on the official Blade & Soul website. These posts would preview dungeons and classes, more art comparisons, field and world boss content, and some reimagined zones. 

It seemed like NEO Classic wasn't just trying to capitalize on the recent wave of "classic" servers for just about every MMO out there, but that the team was taking some serious steps to improve the original visually, while reverting back some of the more recent (somewhat controversial) changes made to the standard MMO.

Then, everything went silent.

There hasn't been a single post on the Blade & Soul website regarding NEO Classic since a video on PvP Arena in NEO Classic was posted in very early February. That's 6 months ago.

Now, to be fair, NEO Classic never had an official global release date and the team had mentioned in other posts that the game would be released when they felt it was ready. That said, though, not a word on the site in 6 months? That's a little weird, right?

What you may not know is that NEO Classic is playable in part of the world. The MMO had a "beta/soft launch" kick off in China about 4 months ago. You can play it from other regions if you're willing to jump through a few hoops. There's a nice video over on Kanon's YouTube channel where players familiar with the original examine the Chinese version of NEO Classic.

While looking at what the Chinese servers are doing can provide insight into the future, it's hard to look at what the servers are doing and make global guesses. I mean, even monetization could be wildly different outside of China. (Hopefully it is because the Chinese monetization is a mess right now.)

But when would it be coming? That's the big question. There's obviously a chance that the team is using the Chinese version to really nail down everything for a global launch. It makes sense. The Chinese version has had its own ups and downs in activity and reception, so it makes sense to use it as a "test", but going radio silent for over 6 months now is certainly risky.

Blade & Soul players may want some of the original, more challenging systems back in the MMO and almost everyone would like a bit less aggression on the monetization, but going from almost weekly posts to nothing seems odd and does make me concerned for the game.

Will NEO Classic still come out globally? What do you think about the future for the MMO?