ArcheAge Chronicles Will Self-Publish, Gender-Locked Classes Staying for Early Access

XLGames says it will self-publish ArcheAge Chronicles in the West as the online action RPG heads toward Early Access later this year. The studio framed the move as a way to talk more directly with Western players, with Global Product Manager Don set to post regular updates and system breakdowns before launch.

The other notable bit: gender-locked classes aren’t going away for Early Access. XLGames said it has heard the feedback and wants players to have more freedom over character gender eventually, but its current priority is polishing combat and class design before expanding that system.

The update follows the first ArcheAge Chronicles network test, which ran on September 12 for about six hours and was limited to North America. XLGames said the test was mainly focused on infrastructure, and that its servers stayed stable even with more simultaneous players than planned. Average playtime landed around an hour and a half, despite the short window and limited content.

The studio also listed a few problem areas it’s working on for future builds, including a black screen issue, Party UI problems, griefing methods, combat tuning, balance, and performance. XLGames also said some temporary development and testing elements accidentally made it into the external build, but won’t be present in the official release version.

Early Access is still only dated for later this year. In a follow-up Steam post, Don said the team will announce the Early Access date and box price when it’s ready. Applications for the Partner Creator Program also opened on September 16.

Further reading: Official Steam news