Hiring for key roles has begun for Tera 2 at Krafton, a sequel to the action-oriented MMORPG which shuttered its servers in 2022.
Through its subsidiary studio Bluehole Studio, roles including senior client programmer and client programmer lead have appeared on the Krafton website, indicating development moving past initial design phases.
The game will be created in Unreal Engine 5, and will retain the open action focus of the original MMO. There does not appear to be a mention in job postings of generative AI, despite Krafton’s CEO’s prior statements on the developer and publisher being an “AI-first company”.
Krafton, while known more widely globally as a publisher of games like PUBG, The Callisto Protocol, and Subnautica 2 (though not without legal shenanigans), started out as the developer of Tera. The game was a big hit at the time, popularising the action game style combat as opposed to traditional tab-targeting action. While servers sadly closed down in 2022, senior staff like chairman Chang Byung-gyu have continued to express interest in Krafton having a big MMO under its belt.
It’s certainly ramping up development of Tera 2 at an interesting time. Many other MMORPGs have been cancelled outright, be it Amazon Game Studio’s Lord of the Rings MMO or the Horizon MMO. What games are doing well are legacy titles, like Old School RuneScape or Eve Online. On top of all this, wider live services struggles remain challenging to studios big and small.
