[Update: IP Block] Bless Russia Opens The Floodgates, Gets Flooded

Update: There is now an IP block in place and those outside of Russia, CIS, and the Baltics will now need a VPN to connect. Rumor has it that too many foreigners were connecting and 101xp wanted to ensure that more of the intended audience could play, but the people saying that aren't citing sources, so I'd take it with a grain of salt. Moderators on the official forums are currently stating the regions that 101xp has the license for in response to inquiries about the IP block while simultaneously encouraging the use of VPNs, which makes it look fairly permanent. Nevertheless, I've reached out to 101xp for more information about the IP block and whether it is temporary or not.

To those that still want to play despite the IP block, the launcher is the only part of the game that checks your IP. You can disconnect from your VPN once the Xigncode3 window appears and its loading process begins.

The original article is as follows.

It was delayed for several hours and users were unsure that it would go live anywhere near the time it was supposed to, but Bless Russia's Open Beta has officially gone live. The floodgates are open and you can now play the game even if you have not purchased a Founder's Pack.

If you're planning on playing online mmo games today, however, you may be waiting for quite some time. Queues of up to 4000 players have been reported and that number is not showing signs of decreasing. That being said, the servers have only been online for an hour, so it will undoubtedly die down. A third server has been opened to help accommodate the influx of players, but I imagine that all three servers will continue to be overloaded for at least the rest of the day.

Despite rumors, there is not yet an IP block in place. That being said, an IP block could be put in place at any point in time, especially if Aeria Games ends up formally announcing its Western Bless release.

If you've yet to download the Russian Bless client, head over to the official website and download the launcher. The client is an 18 GB download, but is approximately 54 GB installed. An English patch can be found here.