ArcheAge Chronicles and ArcheAge share a world and a studio, but they are different games. If you are looking for the sandbox MMORPG you remember, with three skillsets, trade runs, ships and land, Chronicles is not that game with new graphics. This page explains the difference. Details about Chronicles are correct as of November 2026, during its Early Access, and may change.
The short answer
- ArcheAge Chronicles is a new buy-to-play online action RPG from XLGAMES. It entered Early Access on Steam on 3 November 2026. PlayStation 5 and Xbox versions are planned, with no date announced.
- ArcheAge is the sandbox MMORPG first released in 2013. Its official service in North America and Europe ended on 27 June 2024.
- Crownfall is an independent project rebuilding the original ArcheAge in its own engine. It is in early alpha and cannot be played yet. Crownfall is not affiliated with XLGAMES or Kakao Games.
What is different in Chronicles
Combat
The original uses tab-target combat: you select an enemy and manage a bar of abilities. Chronicles replaces it with real-time action combat, where you aim, dodge and block directly.
Classes
In the original you combine any three skillsets into one class, which gives 364 possible combinations. Chronicles has its own classes and does not use that system. You can try the original system in our class calculator.
Scale and focus
The original is built around a shared world: large PvP battles, sieges, contested seas and trade routes that other players can raid. XLGAMES has said Chronicles is not a traditional MMORPG, and its endgame is centred on PvE content rather than large-scale PvP.
Housing and land
Chronicles keeps housing, crafting and trading between players. It does not bring back the original’s open-world land system, where players claimed plots across whole regions.
Setting
Chronicles returns to Auroria about fifty years after the events of the original.
What happened to the original ArcheAge
Kakao Games closed the North American and European servers on 27 June 2024. Services in other regions are run by different publishers on their own schedules, so check the publisher for your region before assuming a server is still open.
Where Crownfall fits
Crownfall is rebuilding the original game: the three-skillset classes, the sea, housing and group conflict. It is an early-alpha project, so there is no download or public test yet, and systems may change as development continues.
- Watch the early-alpha trailer for footage from the current build.
- Read where development stands.
- Explore the 14 skillsets and plan a build.
Which one are you looking for?
If you want a new action RPG set in the ArcheAge world, that is Chronicles, and it is available on Steam now. If you miss the original sandbox, that is what Crownfall is working to bring back; the best way to follow it is the community Discord.