Against all odds, Civilization Online – a completely non-turn-based, non-strategy MMO in which you play as a glorified grunt in a grand game of global conquest – sounds super fascinating. Its creators are calling the civ-on-civ sandbox “a big social experiment,” with leaders kicking and fighting their way up the ranks by any means necessary. Meanwhile, players can collectively choose whether to pursue war, peace, technology, or any other number of paths to server-wide victory – at which point everything resets. What a concept, right? Oh, but there’s a catch: for now, XL Games’ bonkers ambitious reimagining of Sid Meier’s legendary brainchild is sticking with an isolationist foreign policy. Yep: it’s a Korea-only release.

PCG skipped up to 2K full of bubbly excitement and giggly, innocent mirth, but the publisher shoved their hopes onto the floor like so much spoiled ice cream:

“Civilization Online is developed by South Korea-based XL Games in partnership with 2K, and will be available first in Korea. No release date has been set. There are no plans for a North American release at this time.”

Admittedly, the UK was not specifically mentioned, so I’ve mailed 2K to see if it has different plans for non-North-American territories. I wouldn’t bet on it, though. It sounds like 2K’s taking it slow with this one, which makes sense given that a) it’s wildly different/risky and b) it’s an MMO being released in or around the year 2013.

I’m very excited to see how Civ Online turns out, so this all makes me a bit sad. That said, maybe this just means non-Korean territories will get a more finely tuned version when the time finally comes. I can live with that. Can you? Or did this news about a videogame just end your life?