Amazon's Free-To-Play MMO Throne and Liberty Launches to Massive Audience Despite $40 Early Access Fee

[Cpt.Jank]

Amazon Games recently launched the long-awaited free-to-play MMORPG, Throne and Liberty, in early access, and the game appears to have gone down quite well with the community. On Thursday, mere moments after the launch, Throne and Liberty already had a peak player count of 53,884—a figure it likely earned during its advanced access period in South East Asia and Korea, where it has been available since as early as December 2023.

Since then, Throne and Liberty has continued its success, rising to as many as 54,720 concurrent players on Saturday, September 28. While this only places it in third place for current top sellers on Steam, this player count is in spite of the free-to-play game's early access pass costing a minimum of $40 on Steam. Throne and Liberty has also garnered its significant following despite only 60% of its Steam user reviews being positive, making its success even more anomalous.



While 60% positive certainly isn't a terrible steam player rating, games that achieved similar player counts, like DayZ, Cyberpunk 2077, and Helldivers 2, typically have significantly higher ratings on Steam. Most of the negative reviews for Throne and Liberty criticize the gameplay mechanics for feeling outdated and sluggish, with others complaining about pay-to-win bundles and microtransactions.

Throne and Liberty has been in development since 2011, and has seen a number of changes throughout its development cycle, starting life as party of the Lineage series, then being renamed as Project TL, and ultimately settling on Throne and Liberty, which appears to mostly be an isolated IP. During its short early access period, Throne and Liberty starts at $39.99 for the Standard Early Access Pack, which includes several Morphs—essentially character disguises with added perks—and skins. Meanwhile, the $69.98 Deluxe Early Access Pack nets you additional Morphs and cosmetics alongside 500 Lucent—the game's in-game currency—and the $99.97 Ultimate Early Access Pack grants you all the benefits of the other packs with an additional 1,000 Lucent on top.

Throne and Liberty is slated to launch fully as a free-to-play game on October 1, and the player count for the game will likely spike even more after that, since, according to SteamDB's store data, the game has over 109,000 followers and a peak Twitch audience of 152,251 viewers. The game's Steam description bills it as a guild-based MMORPG with grand battles against mythical creatures and other guilds as well as massive castle sieges and diverse weapon, character class, and gameplay options:

"Join the battle and immerse yourself in the exhilarating world of THRONE AND LIBERTY, a free-to-play game that revolves around guild-focused combat. Engage in thrilling battles against dozens to thousands of other players and fantastic creatures in group battles and massive Castle Sieges. Quick thinking and active decision-making are critical because every choice you make in the ever-changing world of Solisium carries weight and directly shapes your gameplay experience.

THRONE AND LIBERTY captures the essence of classic MMORPGs while introducing new gameplay elements, adding depth and excitement at every turn. Choose your dual-weapon loadout to customize your approach on the battlefield, or morph into creatures of the land, water and sky to traverse the vast and seamless world, or even take temporary control of a defeated boss to turn the tide of battle in your favor. Prepare for an unforgettable adventure where you'll need to gather your guild, prepare for battle and claim the throne."

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[Space Lynx]

hmm, I am iffy about this, i watched some gameplay and was not impressed honestly. plus, New World seems to be have kicked by the wayside (in a general sense)... by same company, so eh... doesn't inspire confidence for longevity.

Ashes of Creation is the only mmo I am really looking forward to, but that is also going to be iffy.

 

[AsRock]

hmm, I am iffy about this, i watched some gameplay and was not impressed honestly. plus, New World seems to be have kicked by the wayside (in a general sense)... by same company, so eh... doesn't inspire confidence for longevity.

Ashes of Creation is the only mmo I am really looking forward to, but that is also going to be iffy.

Iffy, even more so when some suck could pay up to $100, and then is reviews like this.

most of these negative reviews are based on bugs and performance issues.

This one is not.

i hate the drip feeder system. You want to run a dungeon, try to get some loot? to bad you cant, you can only get a chance at loot 3 times a day. maybe do some contracts or a open world dungeon, limited amount per day.

Everything in the game is on this time-gated type system.

 

[Onasi]

@AsRock
I love mobile gacha mechanics in my desktop oriented MMO games, this sounds delightful. /s

 

[Solaris17]

Iffy, even more so when some suck could pay up to $100, and then is reviews like this.

If it means anything (and it probably doesn’t) I was a systems engineer for AWS and while I didn’t work for this team (the gaming division is Amazon side not AWS side) I got to play this for free before even the over seas launches.

and for free it was still garbage and I never touched it again.

 

[AusWolf]

Someone prove me wrong, but based on the screenshots, it looks generic and bland AF (like most of the stuff Amazon produces these days).

 

[Sithaer]

@AsRock
I love mobile gacha mechanics in my desktop oriented MMO games, this sounds delightful. /s

Not really a mobile gacha mechanic, Raid/loot limitations existed way before especially in Asian MMOs.
The one 'Vindictus' I was playing for ~7 years is from 2010 and that game had a limitation of 1 run of each Raid/day 2 if you had a VIP. 'paid item or from events'
In such games what you usually do is play more than 1 char.

 

[Onasi]

@Sithaer
That sounds unbelievably obnoxious. I don’t know about other, especially Asian players, but the moment a game starts trying to limit me or decide how I get to play is a “quit moment” for me personally.

 

[Sithaer]

@Sithaer
That sounds unbelievably obnoxious. I don’t know about other, especially Asian players, but the moment a game starts trying to limit me or decide how I get to play is a “quit moment” for me personally.

Limiting gameplay is actually pretty normal in online Asian games, they have a law for it or what and that sometimes ends up transfering to the global version in a watered down form.
Personally I've never cared about it since I always play more than 1 char in MMOs or I simply play it casually and that way its a moot point since I wont even reach the limitations most of the time. 'this was never an issue for me in that said game over the 7 years'
I'm also playing 2 Mobile/PC gachas currently and its also a non issue in those games since I play those for the long term so eventually I will reach the same end game as anyone else. ' in one of them I've reached the end game already and the other one I'm close to while being a Free2play player'

Sadly I don't really have the time to play full scale MMOs anymore nor have the patience for them 'hence why I play gachas instead' so I doubt that I will be playing Throne of Liberty 'might give it a quick look tho'.

 

[JIWIL]

Raid lockouts have been around since the early 2000's; even classic Everquest dragons (years before instanced content) had spawn timers of like 5 days +/-12hours. We've been drip fed since the beginning.

I log into EVE every once in a while just to check markets and peruse patch notes, but I haven't played an MMO seriously in about a decade. It would have to take something very, very different from the current offerings to lure me back.

 

[Ripcord]

How is 55k players a success?

 

[neatfeatguy]

Last few MMOs that I liked playing were: Wildstar, SWTOR and Aion. Before those I'd say my next favorite was Asheron's Call 2 and I was never a fan of WoW.

Aion was my all time favorite. I started off playing as a Spirit Master - which was the most under powered class when the game launched. Even when under powered I could still survive any 1v1 encounter and win or escape. Once they revamped skills/powers for this class I could 1v3 any group that didn't have a SM with them. For a while there were very few SM players because of how crappy they were. The revamp got people playing them and you were highly sought after for everything and after a month or two there were SMs everywhere.

Anyway, I tried Amazon's New World - had a few buddies that started playing it and said I should join them. So I did and it was boring as hell. I gave it about a week's worth of playing (couple of hours a day) and it just wasn't interesting.

How is 55k players a success?

It's early access and if you have people willing to pay $40-100 just to play the game early, I wouldn't scoff at 55K player base as being weak. Most people are waiting it out for being free to play.

 

[c2DDragon]

How is 55k players a success?

Those players paid $40 to $100 just to enter the servers of a free game.
I mean, they paid for skins and to be able to play early. The game is free.
I guess a lot of players bought things in the in-game shop too.

 

[tpuuser256]

The audience probably being hype-buyers and twitch watchers

 

[80-watt Hamster]

How is 55k players a success?

It's early access and if you have people willing to pay $40-100 just to play the game early, I wouldn't scoff at 55K player base as being weak. Most people are waiting it out for being free to play.

It's also 55k concurrent players, as in online at the same time. The total number of players is probably 10-100 times that number.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Looks like is made for Asian audience only.
I prefer games less flashy and overly fantastic. WOW is the best example of a MMO done right. SWTOR also is good story wise, not for the 20 years old graphics.

 

[HOkay]

I played the beta a few months ago, only for a couple of hours but I quite liked it. Since it's free to play I'll definitely give it a go. This is coming from an old EQ2 addict who sunk into ESO for 18 months or so & washed it off with a bit of FFXIV Online. I have two young children now though, so I ain't going to be playing very much!

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Just done a slight bit of the tutorial of T&L (its pretty late here) and as an old Guildwars player its no surprise that its almost a reskin of GW2 with bits of GW1 but in a better engine.

Maybe Im rather simple minded but the nostalgia of GW1 kicked in and I actually found myself enjoying the tutorial. I really need to tweak the movement system as i cant WASD and activate skills (numbers 1-8) at the same time.

I feel that T&L honestly should have been the real successor to GW1, But even if it wasnt and NCsoft called it Guildwars 3. It would still fit in with the GW universe. Although you'd probably need to re-write the T&L story to fit with the lore of early GW games.

Very early days so far but the game does look very very good. NCsoft have used (and reused) a lot of the same textures and art assets from GW2 and that was instantly apparent. Character creation system was almost identical.

I'll have to sink some more time in before I can say if Im going to stick with it or not.

 

[AusWolf]

I'll have to sink some more time in before I can say if Im going to stick with it or not.

That's strange. I usually know almost right away if a game is made for me or not. For example, I only played WoW for maybe an hour or two before I decided to uninstall it and never return to it again. My friends kept telling me that it'd get better later, but I didn't care. If a game doesn't grab my attention in its prologue, then it's not worth my time. Life is too short to waste it on bad games. I don't know how T&L compares, albeit screenshots look generic as heck.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

That's strange. I usually know almost right away if a game is made for me or not. For example, I only played WoW for maybe an hour or two before I decided to uninstall it and never return to it again. My friends kept telling me that it'd get better later, but I didn't care. If a game doesn't grab my attention in its prologue, then it's not worth my time. Life is too short to waste it on bad games. I don't know how T&L compares, albeit screenshots look generic as heck.

Ive been searching for a proper sequel to guild wars 1 for close to 15-20 years. Ive only done the tutorial so I can't say for sure if this is a true spiritual successor but it feels like it could be as it shares a lot of the same designs and traits. I need more time to really dig into the meat and potatoes of the game before saying if it's not for me.

 

[c2DDragon]

Ive been searching for a proper sequel to guild wars 1 for close to 15-20 years. Ive only done the tutorial so I can't say for sure if this is a true spiritual successor but it feels like it could be as it shares a lot of the same designs and traits. I need more time to really dig into the meat and potatoes of the game before saying it's not for me.

I'm sorry to tell you that no game is like Guild Wars. Neither Guild Wars 2 (but it's a lot of fun). Throne and fuckery (cash shop+battlepass) needs your guild master to be the master of the whole server for you to "enjoy" the game (you better be the guild master). So. Yeah...no, very far from Guild Wars.

 

[deadhead]

Me, my son, and daughter all started playing together, and are having an absolute blast, and wow, this game is stunningly beautiful. Haven't spent a penny yet either, I'm sure I will though as I can afford it, and have zero problems supporting games I enjoy.

Really looking forward to the castle sieges also!

Looks like is made for Asian audience only.

Wow, what an ignorant thing to say.

@AsRock
I love mobile gacha mechanics in my desktop oriented MMO games, this sounds delightful. /s

Weird thing to say, as this has absolutely no 'gacha mechanics' at all.
But don't let that stop ya from complaining.