Oath of Peak is set to launch in January of next year. It’s another MMORPG, entering an arena of gaming currently dominated by the likes of World of Warcraft, Guild Wars and Lost Ark. However, it’s a love of those games that inspired Yeeha Games to embark on this journey. As Yeeha’s head of live operations Grant Zhang says, it’s the appreciation of the genre that largely drove the decision-making behind Oath of Peak.
They also wanted to make something unique, which is why it is going to feature blockchain technology:
“Our team consists of many hardcore MMORPG gamers, having been fans of games like Guild Wars and World of Warcraft. We also found that combining MMOs and blockchain tech just made sense… The developer team behind Oath of Peak is especially skilled at creating MMORPGs. Their previous title, A Chinese Ghost Story, boasted more than 18 million downloads globally, and it also happens to be one of our favorite games of all time.”
Oath of Peak is going to be free-to-play
The game will be free-to-play, which is slowly becoming an incredibly popular format for games after League of Legends, Fortnite, Apex Legends and others adopted the business model. The developers wanted to make this particular game free-to-play because community is such a strong aspect.
Zhang told me that a crucial component of the game is players working together, socializing and trading. That is made more difficult if everyone doesn’t have the game. A zero dollar price tag eliminates that issue.
On the other hand, that makes profit a bit harder. Bogging down players down with endless in-game purchases isn’t a desirable outcome for a game. As a result, they’re utilizing the NFT aspect of the game:
“We created a minor portion of the game’s assets—the Primordial Spirit Beasts—as NFTs, to give owners complete freedom in using them. Players can choose to trade, breed, level up, and use their Primordial Spirit Beasts to assist them throughout the game. The rest of the game assets behave very similarly to how they would work in a traditional MMO, including how they’re purchased and used.”
That block-chain technology, which grows more prominent every day, is a big part of the game. It’s a driving force behind the development and the desire to differentiate from other MMORPGs:
“We found Oath of Peak to be a great representation of our vision, one that was perfectly aligned with our goals. The ability for blockchain technology to give players a stronger sense of ownership and provide them with the freedom to interact with others whichever way they want to are both game changers to the MMORPG genre.”
That ownership is a key component of the game. It’s something the world’s most popular MMORPGs don’t have, which could spell a successful debut and run for Oath of Peak.
Oath of Peak comes to PC and Mobile in January release
The game is set to be released for mobile gamers and PC players. This was done largely to reduce the complexity of the game and get it out sooner with a smoother release, as Zhang said to me.
“The addition of new platforms adds a significant number of new variables. We wanted to keep the complexity to a minimum with the initial release, so that we could focus on providing the best gameplay experience possible.”
However, that doesn’t rule out the future for Xbox, PlayStation or other gamers. In fact, should the game do well on mobile and PC, there’s a real chance more consoles get the game down the road.
Oath of Peak arrives in January
Much like consoles, the game will be limited geographically at first. Players in Europe and North America will have access in January. The team plan to release the game one step at a time and that includes where it’s released. Once things are going well in those areas, they can begin to consider other areas.
Vision for the game and its players
A game this predicated on community should know that a community is often made up of diverse people with different views on things. Zhang and Yeeha Games understand this and were largely not concerned with creating something universal:
“It isn’t uncommon for players to interpret a game differently from how the developers intended. For Oath of Peak, we just wanted to provide an MMORPG experience that we would enjoy ourselves.”
They simply want the community to enjoy the game and the genre the developers have appreciated for so long. The biggest part of their vision and the plan behind the game is community. They have implemented a huge focus on that interaction, which took four years and $20 million to develop. As a result, Zhang has a message for gamers out there:
“We’ve got an MMORPG with a ton of focus on community, interaction, exploration, leveling up, and customization… If these are elements that you yourself as a gamer are after, then I highly recommend that you check out Oath of Peak!”
As for the future of Yeeha Games, everything is on the table. Zhang mentioned they have 11 games in the pipeline and have even more being discussed. Very quickly, a fledgling game developer could become a major player in the industry. Many of these games are slated for the next year, which could be massive for Yeeha Games.
With Oath of Peak set to kickstart that, the game industry, and MMORPGs specifically, are in good shape.
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