Korean MMORPG Asker is shutting down after barely 6 months. Asker, also known as Asker Online, Project Black Sheep, and Asker: The Light Swallowers, is a fantasy MMORPG from South Korean studio Neowiz. Asker had only entered Open Beta in August of 2015, and it is scheduled to shut down on March 22, 2016.
Asker was once considered to be the only game capable of offering any real competition to Nexon's Mabinogi Heroes, and it was also to be one of Neowiz's last large-scale PC games. It featured a medieval world and storyline, which largely centered around a group of secret agents named The Black Sheep, who were loyal to the pope and who investigated and battled the supernatural. Asker was also published in China by publisher ChangYou, who will also be sunsetting the game. Asker is one of the shortest lived MMORPGs in recent times, with the game only entering open beta in August of 2015 and limping along with lukewarm interest until now.
Our Thoughts:
The only silver lining here, if there is a silver lining to the sunset of an MMO, is the fact that the game was only around for six months, and the blow to the playerbase is much less severe overall than if it had been, say, several years on. Still, we've said it before, and we will doubtless say it again; every game is someone's favorite game, and it is always sad to see a game go dark, no matter how obscure or short-lived.
Source: MMOCulture.com News Article