[AnimeGamer]

Eternal Return on the Rise as the Developers plan months in advance.

Figure 1. Eternal Return

The meteoric rise of Eternal Return and its developer Nimble Neuron while being localized to Asia is not something to sneeze at. For the first time since the early 2000s, a game has managed to even come close to the legendary StarCraft and League of Legends. Two games have dominated the online gaming market for two straight decades and while others have risen none have ever come close to targeting the core player base of those games. But that is why Eternal Return is such a threat and with the current metrics of Korea and other Asian countries it seems that in a few years, it might be able to compete with the Titans on equal footing.

Figure 2. Eternal Return Season 2

This claim is not a hollow one, as with the recent Dev Stream that Nimble Neuron did, we now know that they have major plans for the game moving forward. With changes ranging from all new islands to even character-based missions that can be completed in the game. In their latest stream, the developers talked about the future of the game and how the game will not be changed in any major way for the recent season 2 release. This is because of the player's feedback as the main game loop right now is quite strong, so the developers are taking this time to plan and design future updates which will start to trickle into the game from season 4 onwards. Yes, you heard me right, this one early access sleeper hit is not seeing itself progress further than 3 years of live service. A feat not many can accomplish in the current landscape. But that isn’t to say the game will have no changes as the game will get some major new additions to the supporting systems. Such as a reworking of the Tier system to ensure that not more than 5 percent of the players fall in the Diamond Tier. It will also introduce a new feature that will make matching more balanced so that lower-level players don’t enter a higher-tier match.

Figure 3. Eternal Return Upcoming Changes

Major changes to the monetization and items are also underwork, as the developers want there to be more hype around the skin chests and they also have intentions of re-balancing certain overused items that can be used in certain ways to break the game's progression. This rebalance will also apply to the characters as well, but in smaller cases, as many are perfect just the way they are, while others need heavy reworking to even be made playable.  This re-balancing endeavor will also focus on making the esports matches in the Masters league even more fun to watch and play.

All in all the updates and the planning content drop help paint a picture of confidence by the developers, as the players are not only loving the game they are also supporting it. This support is the reason the number of players is rising with each month and slowing the game is also penetrating the Western market. But alas as the future all we can do is hope and with all the recent information it seems that tiny shimmer of hope Eternal Return players had is shining ever brighter.

Figure 4. Eternal Return Upcoming Characters

@"everyone"