Rosh Online: The Return of Karos, from 2011 launch to the Karos move

MMOHuts carried the Ignited Games press release on 21 November 2011. It presented Rosh Online: The Return of Karos as a fantasy MMORPG set in Asmara, with quests, guild skirmishes, castle sieges and PvP, and with both experience and Fletta progression systems. The same day Engadget wrote that Ignited Games, "creator of the side-scrolling MMORPG WindSlayer 2", would soon open a closed beta, and the sign-ups started then.

MMOBomb reported on 7 December 2011 that the game was "now live". That is the launch date this site uses. If you have seen 7 December 2012 on a database entry, it does not match any press item.

Four months after launch, Rosh Online became the destination for another game's audience. Engadget's Justin Olivetti reported on 6 April 2012 that Karos Online would turn off its lights on 13 April, and that the Karos team urged its community to move to Rosh Online. Engadget described a welcome package that included items, a conversion of cash shop currency, and the option to start on higher-level characters depending on how far a Karos character had levelled.

Ignited Games followed with a release on 12 April 2012, reposted by N4G. It says Karos players on the global servers, meaning Europe and North America, would move to Rosh Online, and that Karos Points would be converted to iCash, the currency of Ignited's shop. The release also lists welcome packages and veteran benefits for the newcomers.

What it means for the two games

The two games share a name element and a player base for a short window. The full account of the closure sits on its own page: Karos Online shutdown and the move to Rosh Online.

By 2012 Ignited Games published five titles, Rosh Online among them, and in early 2014 the lineup still ran alongside DarkEden, WonderKing, WindSlayer 2 and Atlantica Online. A catalogue entry can be stale, so it shows the game was on the shelf, not that servers were running.

In February 2014 the game still promoted Extreme Instance Dungeons content.

No end-of-service announcement turned up, and the date Ignited stopped operating the game is unknown. One forum thread claims a closure, but it could not be loaded and is not used here.

Beau Hindman covered the game for Massively on 7 December 2011. Combat is targeted: you pick an enemy, press a series of hotbar buttons and hope to come out on top. PvP can be switched on or off with a tag, though in much of the game you can be attacked anyway. Energy is spent to raise or change stats that tune combat abilities, and the game has standard classes plus fishing and mining.

MJ Guthrie reported on 23 May 2012, also on Massively, that a content update raised the level cap to 75 and added craftable bear mounts and auto-walk. MMOBomb's first-look page lists castle sieges as a core feature.