Winged characters in dark and pink wings stand in front of a harbour with a sailing ship

Karos Online: from the ijji.com launch to the Steam return

Karos Online was built by Galaxy Gate and reached Western players on ijji.com in April 2010. Its global servers were due to close on 13 April 2012, and the game came back on Steam in December 2014.

  • Free-to-play fantasy MMORPG
  • 20 April 2010, on ijji.com
  • Playable today
Where to play todayRead the record

Image: GameXP.com / Galaxy Gate, from the Karos Steam page (2014 relaunch). Shown to identify the game; the image belongs to its owners. Checked .

Game info

Genre
Free-to-play fantasy MMORPG
Developer
Galaxy Gate
First Western release
20 April 2010, on ijji.com
Published by
ijji.com (NHN USA) in 2010, OG Entertainment in Japan in 2011, GameXP.com on Steam in 2014; Ignited Games moved the global players to Rosh Online in April 2012
Today
Playable GameXP.com's version is free to play on Steam; the original global service closed on 13 April 2012
Where to play today

Each line is sourced in the sections below.

Four dates that frame the story

  • 20Apr2010

    Karos Online launches on ijji.com, hosted by NHN USA.

    Gaming Nexus
  • 21Apr2011

    Open beta in Japan through OG Entertainment.

    4Gamer.net
  • 13Apr2012

    The Western global servers are due to close; players are moved to Rosh Online.

    Engadget, 6 April 2012
  • 24Dec2014

    A Karos version returns on Steam, run by GameXP.com.

    Steam store page

The 2010 launch on ijji.com

Gaming Nexus reported on 20 April 2010 that ijji.com, the portal hosted by NHN USA, was introducing a new MMORPG called Karos Online. The developer was Galaxy Gate and the game carried no subscription fee. The outlet called it a great addition to the portal.

The game's original Korean release date is unknown, so this page starts the Western record at the ijji.com launch.

Japan in 2011

Japan had its own service. 4Gamer reported on 20 April 2011 that OG Entertainment would start an open beta of KAROS ONLINE the next day, 21 April, at 17:00. The report shows Galaxy Gate as the developer.

A Value Press release from OG Entertainment dated 23 August 2011 says WeMade Online had partnered with the company and that the game would be playable through WeMade's GameCom from 25 August. 4Gamer's sidebar lists a service called KAROS RE:BIRTH as ended, but gives no detail, so this page does not date the end of the Japanese service.

April 2012: the global servers close

Engadget's Justin Olivetti reported on 6 April 2012 that the game would be "turning off the lights on April 13th". New accounts had been disabled and currency purchases for the cash shop had stopped. The team urged its community to move to Rosh Online, which Ignited Games published.

Ignited's release of 12 April 2012, reposted by N4G, says players on the global servers, meaning Europe and North America, would move to Rosh Online. It lists welcome packages and veteran benefits, and says Karos Points would be converted to iCash. The detail of the shutdown and the offer is on a separate page: Karos Online shutdown and the move to Rosh Online.

It is unclear when Ignited took over the Western servers from NHN and ijji.com, or whether the ijji.com servers and the global servers of 2012 were the same.

The Steam return in 2014

The Steam store page lists Karos Online with Galaxy Gate as developer and GameXP.com as publisher, released on 24 December 2014 as a free-to-play title. The Steam page lists the game as free to play as of 30 October 2026. That Steam release is a separate service from the 2012 global servers.

The dated entries

Each entry is dated and attributed.

  1. Karos Online was due to turn off its servers, one week after Engadget reported the plan.

    Source: Engadget, 6 April 2012

Karos Online by region and date

Services by region and date

  • ijji.com launch

    Operator or publisher
    ijji.com, hosted by NHN USA
    Date
    20 April 2010
    Source
    Gaming Nexus

  • Japan open beta

    Operator or publisher
    OG Entertainment
    Date
    21 April 2011
    Source
    4Gamer

  • Japan, GameCom

    Operator or publisher
    OG Entertainment with WeMade Online
    Date
    25 August 2011
    Source
    Value Press

  • Global servers close

    Operator or publisher
    Ignited Games (players moved to Rosh Online)
    Date
    13 April 2012
    Source
    Engadget, Ignited release

  • Steam release

    Operator or publisher
    GameXP.com
    Date
    24 December 2014
    Source
    Steam store page

Dates are as given in each source.

How it plays

Gaming Nexus, in its press-release based coverage of 20 April 2010, lists highly specialized character classes across melee, ranged and magic, guild PvP with massive castle sieges, and dungeons that are perpetually shifting and changing. No professional review of Karos Online turned up for this site.

Where to play today

This is the GameXP version released on 24 December 2014, not the original service that closed in April 2012. Checked October 30, 2026. Only publisher pages are listed. Private servers and client mirrors are not linked from anywhere on the site.

Questions about Karos Online

Who made Karos Online?

Galaxy Gate is named as the developer by Gaming Nexus, 4Gamer and the Steam store page.

When did the global servers close?

Engadget reported on 6 April 2012 that they would be turned off on 13 April 2012.

Where did the players go?

Ignited's release of 12 April 2012 moved global-server players to Rosh Online and converted Karos Points to iCash.

Is Karos Online on Steam?

The Steam store page lists it, published by GameXP.com since 24 December 2014, and it was playable when this site checked on 30 October 2026.