DarkEden: the gothic vampire MMORPG and its Western releases

DarkEden is a gothic, isometric 2D MMORPG. GameBanshee, in its report of 8 November 2011, describes three playable races: Vampires, Slayers and Ousters. The game is set in a fictional eastern European country called Eslania, according to the same report.

GameBanshee also names Joymax and SOFTON Entertainment as the companies behind the game in Asia. How the 2011 Western client differed from earlier versions is not documented, so this page does not describe differences.

Ignited Games, then based in El Segundo, California, opened a North American closed beta in November 2011. GameBanshee reported on 8 November 2011 that the test was live and that players could sign up through the official DarkEden website. Ignited Games' press release, as reproduced by GameBanshee, quotes the company's chief executive saying that DarkEden's "nostalgic charm provides a macabre experience that sets it apart from contemporary MMORPGs".

Engadget (Massively) reported on 15 December 2011 that Ignited Games was bringing DarkEden to the US as a free-to-play title. The report calls it "the world's first free-to-play vampire MMO". That is how Ignited Games billed the game, and this page attributes the line to the publisher, not to an independent count.

The same report says an earlier North American launch, planned for 2008, had been cancelled, and that the game debuted in South Korea in 1997. It adds that characters from the second closed beta were not wiped, and it lists launch events including Bible War and a Christmas Stocking Hunt.

The exact day of the open launch is not given, so the article date is the anchor.

The 1997 date

Engadget and MMOs.com both give 1997 for the Korean debut. Other dates circulate in game databases, but none came from a source this archive accepts, so only the 1997 year appears here.

The Steam store page of Dark Eden lists a release date of 28 November 2016, with SOFTON ENTERTAINMENT as developer and publisher. It now carries the line “Dark Eden is no longer available on the Steam store” and gives no date or reason.

A separate page, Dark Eden Origin, lists a release date of 17 August 2017 under the same company. It is free to play and states that it requires a third-party Korean account. The screenshots on this page come from that Origin page, not from the 2011 Ignited Games service.

Engadget's Jef Reahard, writing on 8 November 2011, points to the vampire's need to drink blood to gain experience points. Gaming Nexus described the Ouster race on 31 January 2008 as half vampire and half human, and its open beta coverage of 17 December 2007 mentions two distinct systems of character advancement. MMOs.com says there are no penalties for killing other players, and that a vampire's bite turns a Slayer into a vampire unless the victim is cured within 12 hours.

It is unclear when Ignited Games' North American service ended, which regional versions run today, or who built the original. No player counts or reviews are cited here.