Ragnarok Online Timeline

This page is used as a reference when researching Ragnarok Online preservation topics, as there is a great deal of conflicting information between private server sources and official sources.

1994

• Gravity Team is formed in Korea.

1999

• Arcturus, Ragnarok Online's predecessor in many ways, is produced in cooperation with Sonnori Corporation.

2000

• 1st April 2000 - Gravity Corp is formed with $420,000 ($775,938 in 2023 USD) in capital, later recorded as $670,000 ($1.23 million in 2023 USD)
• June 2000 - Gravity Corp begins outline of design concept for Ragnarok Online with a team of 20, a budget of $420,000 and an estimated completion date of June 2001 (1 year), and formal paid service scheduled for September 2001.
• 9 August 2000 - Gravity Corp wins Grand Prize and Graphic Award from LG-Donga DIFECA 2000 for Arcturus.
• September 2000 - Design concept is completed for Ragnarok Online

2001

• January 2001 - Character and background design begins for Ragnarok Online
• May 2001 - Gravity launches Beta 1 test for Ragnarok Online.
• July 2001 - Gravity launches Beta 2 test for Ragnarok Online.
• 15 July 2001 - Gravity Corp provides an investor presentation detailing the Ragnarok Online game.
• 1 November 2001 - Korean Ragnarok Online Beta begins

2002

• 28 January 2002 - Korean Ragnarok Online Service surpasses 1 million members, with around 30,000 concurrent users on the game.
• 27 July 2002 - Korean IPs are prevented from using iRO, and non-Korean IPs are prevented from using kRO.
• 29 July 2002 - Korean Ragnarok Online Service is commercialised, Gravity begins charging for Ragnarok Online.

2003

• March 20, 2003 - Ragnarok Online Japan (ragnarokonline.jp) is hacked and announcements are made in-game, with hackers referencing group Apez.