Astellia, the upcoming South Korean Unreal Engine 3 powered MMORPG, will be buy to play in the West according to the game's developer, Barunson Entertainment. At a panel at PAX South earlier this last weekend, representatives for Barunson promised that the Western version of Astellia won't be pay 2 win and that the micro-transactions in the South Korean version of the game that many consider p2w, won't be in the cash shop in the English version. Astellia seems to following in the footsteps of Bless and Black Desert Online, as both games were free to play in their home markets but launched as buy to play in the West.

Another difference in the Western version is that classes won't be gender locked, but these changes may not make it into the game by the time its set to launch later this summer, but when the changes go live, players will be able to change their gender for free if they choose to. While the game is set to launch sometime this Summer, 2 rounds of closed beta testing should happen sometime before that.

While the game looks pretty, I'm skeptical about its performance, as its powered by Unreal Engine 3, an outdated game engine.