The new patch is here

[Brother Laz]

And so far I have not really seen any solid or good argument for this kind of lock in.

The American release is half a year before the European release. So there would be a lot of smart Europeans who'd import an American copy, thereby circumventing whoever distributes the game in Europe and costing them €€€. Thusly...



Also, that way they can increase the monthly fee in Korea to Lineage-2 levels without upsetting the Lineage-less European and American playerbase.



Somehow the majority of the South Korean population has a computer and bought Starcraft and Diablo 2, and they can afford the monthly fee for Lineage-2, so Blizzard would be stupid if they didn't shake the largest possible amount of money out of the Koreans' pockets knowing they'll play it anyway, en masse.