ArcheAge Chronicles Steam Next Fest Demo Goes Worldwide on October 19

Posted on by

ArcheAge Chronicles will be playable worldwide during Steam Next Fest, with its demo opening October 19 at 10 AM PDT and running for one week. XLGAMES says this build is broader than the earlier network test, which was limited to North America and drew complaints for being too short.

The demo includes around two to three hours of quest content, plus a couple of extras meant to give players more to poke at beyond the normal early-game path.

  • Servers will be available in North America East and West, Central Europe, and East and South Asia.
  • Supported languages are English, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.
  • Throne of Hinnon, a high-level dungeon, will be included outside the demo’s normal progression. Players will need to find a hidden key to enter.
  • A PvP channel will be accessible earlier than usual, after players leave the first town and reach the Nui Statue at the next destination.

One of the bigger long-term changes is about gender-locked classes. Producer Ham said development is now underway on additional gender options, though they won’t be ready for the Steam Next Fest demo. The rollout will happen gradually, starting with select classes rather than all of them at once.

XLGAMES also says the demo has a more complete presentation than the network test. Voice-over and facial animation are now implemented, audio has been polished, party play has been improved with quest sharing and better channel-joining logic, and navigation in points of interest and dungeons should be clearer. The team also lists fixes for ladder collision, attack hit detection, missing translations, and shimmering visual effects.

The studio recently outlined how progression works, too. Most experience will come from questing, discoveries, and points of interest rather than grinding monsters, while weapon trait points are tied to bosses guarding Raeven’s Coilstones. Dungeons can be played solo or in parties of up to four, with more tuning expected as the game moves toward Early Access.

Further reading: Official ArcheAge Chronicles Steam announcement