Khan Is Really Gone!

Today, I tried to visit Khan Online Philippines Official Forum hoping that it might still be there but, true to their words (at least for once), the forum was no longer available. I then tried to access KOP’s main site and to my surprise it is still there but the site only contains Level Up Games Incorporated’s (LUGi) message of KOP’s closure and information on how to migrate to Perfect World which is not, in any way, “perfect”. LOL!

Was Khan Online destined to fail?

Khan Online Vietnam didn’t go very far as well as Khan Online US which only lasted for a few months and now, at the beginning of this month, Khan Online Philippines closed their servers. The only remaining and operating Khan Online servers that I know are Khan Online Japan and Khan Online Korea. Oh yeah, there is Khan Online Thailand but their site is inaccessible as of this writing (or maybe they have this IP blocking thing in effect).

Anyway, to answer the question, I don’t think that Khan Online was ever destined to fail. I feel that it was destined for greatness because it started great but the trend changed from greatness to failure when issues on updates and illegal third party programs (cheats) surfaced.

The publisher’s inability to deliver updates and combat cheats turned off many Khanatics. Although, events weren’t lacking but the use of cheats by many players nullified the value of these events. I still don’t know why GameGuard was never acquired for Khan Online.

The lack of updates would be another indication that the game was going down hill. As an ordinary gamer who has no connection within the industry whatsoever, I am not sure if the developer stopped releasing updates to all its publishers or if the publisher (LU) stopped acquiring updates from the developer. It can be either of the two.

Why it didn’t take the Free To Play route?

This was highly suggested by many Khanatics as a last effort to save Khan Online and possibly bring back old and new players to the game. This suggestion was noted many times by a moderator in the forums but it never did happen.

While we are in the subject of Free To Play, did you know that Khan Online is Free To Play in Korea and in Japan? So, if Khan Online is Free To Play in these two countries then why didn’t LU used the same marketing strategy, which is obviously what they are doing in many of their games, to spark a renewed interest from the players?

I guess they don’t really want to continue the game anymore and instead, just put all their marketing efforts and focus on their new game which is Perfect World.

I’m not saying that going Free To Play will guarantee Khan Online’s continuance. Just look at R.O.S.E. Online, it went Free To Play but that didn’t save it although there is a difference between the two games. Gravity stopped developing R.O.S.E. but if you look at Khan Online, Mirinae still publishes the game in Korea which means they are still developing it.

What I’m saying is, at least they could have tried but unfortunately they didn’t. They just packed up their bags and left leaving hundreds of loyal Khanatics with their mouths wide open. LOL!

Well, Khan Online is Gone for good and all we can really do is move on. Khanatics have many options laid out in front of them, they can either do what LU suggested and migrate to Perfect World or play another game which is not necessarily be Perfect World or just stop playing which I don’t see anyone doing at all specially now that new and more exciting games are about to be launched here in the Philippines.