XL Games sells off most of the ArcheAge property to Kakao Games-owned entity

Earlier we had wondered aloud how ArcheAge Chronicles and ArcheAge S: Strait of Freedom could happen at the same time. Well, as it turns out, there appears to be a business-related reason for that: XL Games has sold most of the IP to Kakao Games in a deal totaling 39.2B KRW, or nearly $30M.

According to translations on Reddit, the sale was made to an entity owned by Kakao known as Align Studio, which hands over the whole ArcheAge IP, including all of its rights and sequels, as well as ArcheAge S development and all associated assets. XL Games, meanwhile, will retain ownership of ArcheAge Chronicles and its development team, ongoing publishing of AA Chronicles and ArcheAge War, and the right to develop up to three new games for five years from the closing date according to a revision update.

The Reddit post points out that the sale is specifically meant to “secure liquidity and improve financial structure” for XL Games, which reads a lot like its core IP is being sold off so the company can survive. The post also supposes that XL Games is effectively banking on AA Chronicles to succeed, which could be a rather worrying strategy if that is the case. Either way, with all of these AA games fluttering around, some pieces were obviously moving behind the scenes.

source: Reddit, thanks to Alessio for the tip!