DarkEden versions: from the Asian original to the Steam release

Engadget reported on 15 December 2011 that DarkEden debuted in South Korea in 1997. GameBanshee, on 8 November 2011, names Joymax and SOFTON Entertainment as developers of the game for Asia.

That leaves one question open. Only Ignited's release names the original developers, so the 1997 date and the two company names are reported here as stated. If you see a different start year in a database, it is not backed by a source this archive uses.

Engadget's December 2011 report states that a North American launch planned for 2008 had been cancelled. It does not name the publisher behind that plan, and nothing else adds detail.

Ignited Games opened a North American closed beta in November 2011, with sign-up through the official site (GameBanshee, 8 November 2011). Engadget reported on 15 December 2011 that the game was launching in the US as free to play, that characters from the second closed beta were kept, and that launch events included Bible War and a Christmas Stocking Hunt.

The report repeats Ignited's description of DarkEden as "the world's first free-to-play vampire MMO", a claim that belongs to the publisher.

GameBanshee's report of 8 November 2011, bylined BuckGB, says Ignited Games planned to bring DarkEden to North America at an unspecified near-future date. It places the company in El Segundo, California, says it was founded in 2010, and notes that it had recently published WindSlayer 2 in North America. The same report says testers would receive special in-game items during the closed beta and that players who reported bugs on the forum could earn extra rewards. A closed beta announcement trailer accompanied the news.

The report describes the game as classic hack-and-slash action with isometric 2D visuals, a throwback to the early MMORPG era. Players fight for control of Eslania, a fictional eastern European country, as Vampires, human Slayers or beastly Ousters. According to GameBanshee, each race plays differently, and Vampires must drink blood to gain experience points. Ignited Games chief executive Peter Kang is the executive quoted in the release; Engadget's December report also credits him with describing the game as a nostalgic trip back to the classic era of MMORPGs.

The reports give no length for either closed beta, no tester numbers, no server locations and no date for the second closed beta, so none of those appear here.

Engadget's report of 15 December 2011, written by Justin Olivetti for Massively, says DarkEden had debuted in South Korea in 1997 and that Ignited Games had been the publisher behind the aborted 2008 launch. It states that Ignited Games did not wipe characters from the second closed beta, so those testers carried their progress into the launch.

The launch plans listed in the report include starter packs for players who joined by 11 January, a Bible War contest, a Christmas Stocking Hunt and a chase to capture Rudolph. The report does not describe prices, cash shop items or server population, and it does not say how long the events ran.

Taken together, the two 2011 reports give a clear sequence of a beta announcement in early November and a launch report in mid-December. They do not give a closing date for the Ignited Games service, a later patch history or any player numbers.

Siliconera covered the game on 5 July 2016, in a piece by Alistair Wong about Dark Eden appearing on Steam Greenlight. It calls Dark Eden an isometric, free-to-play horror MMO that first appeared in 1997 and says it has run in various countries, with the Korean version the longest-running. The article does not name a developer.

Siliconera also describes the game as Diablo-like hack and slash with a strong focus on PvP, where time of day affects combat: Vampires are weaker during the day and much stronger at night. That detail belongs to the 2016 write-up and it is unclear whether the 2011 client worked the same way.

The Siliconera piece places a Greenlight listing in mid-2016, a few months before the 28 November 2016 Steam release date shown on the store page. The sources do not say who submitted the listing.

The Steam store page gives 28 November 2016 as the release date and lists SOFTON ENTERTAINMENT as developer and publisher. The page now states "Dark Eden is no longer available on the Steam store." The delisting is undated.

A separate Steam page, Dark Eden Origin, gives 17 August 2017 as its release date under the same company. It is free to play and states that it requires a third-party Korean account.

Why the planned 2008 North American launch was cancelled, why Dark Eden left Steam, and whether Dark Eden Origin replaced it by design are all unexplained. The Steam pages give release dates and the account requirement, but no reason for the delisting and no date for it.

Nothing describes differences between the Korean, Ignited Games, Dark Eden and Dark Eden Origin clients, and no player counts are given for any of them. A reader comparing versions should treat the table of dates above as the full documented record, and treat any further claim about content differences as unconfirmed.