The game was originally part of the Lineage series and a sequel to the first Lineage, but was repurposed and restructured well into development. The game was first announced as Lineage Eternal in November 2011 but suffered numerous delays in its release schedule. The first South Korea closed beta took place in 2016. NCSoft renamed the game Project TL in 2017 and Throne and Liberty in 2022.
The game has suffered from numerous delays during development.[3] NCSoft officially announced Lineage Eternal as the sequel to the first Lineage, released in 1998, in November 2011.[4] The first gameplay videos debuted at the G-Star 2011 gaming convention in South Korea on November 9.[5] In August 2013, NCSoft was preparing to roll out the beta schedule of Lineage Eternal by the end of that year.[6] The developers planned to initiate beta testing in Korea towards the end of year of 2015,[3] but during a conference call in November they confirmed that closed beta testing would be delayed until 2016.[7] A closed beta in Korea was scheduled for November 2016.[8]
By March 2017, the development team's leadership for Lineage Eternal was changed, due the results of the closed beta according to NCSoft.[9][10] The game was delayed by August when NCSoft moved the from a proprietary game engine that was used in Guild Wars to Unreal Engine 4.[11] By November, the game was called Project TL.[12]
By February 2022, Project TL was expected to launch in the second half of the year.[13] The game was officially rebranded as Throne and Liberty the following month.[14]
Amazon acquired the publishing rights in 2023 and plans to release Throne and Liberty in Americas, Europe, and Japan, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S with full cross-platform support. An open beta started in July 2024,[15] and is scheduled to be released on September 17.[16] The beta attracted nearly 60,000 players at launch and leveled off to around 38,000 by the next day.[17]
