With yet another big patch going live this week for Crimson Desert, which adds more special mounts, you have to wonder how Pearl Abyss can so quickly address player needs. Marketing and planning director Will Powers addressed this recently with The Washington Post, noting that everything has been “iterated in real time based on feedback.”
Considering the studio’s experience with Black Desert and Crimson Desert’s distinctly MMO roots, it’s not too surprising. But Powers also talked about how the team isn’t “onerous” about accepting ideas. In the same interview, he referred to the developer as “an indie publisher with a triple-A quality game. We can actually have fun, and we can do things.
“We’re more adaptable, we are more malleable. We can pivot faster, versus the [triple-As] of the world that are restricted by their brands.” Powers went on to describe his own team as having only six members, which would explain why the marketing ended up so tightly-knit.
Of course, Pearl Abyss’s independent status doesn’t necessarily make it a small company by any means. It previously acquired EVE Online developer CCP Games (which has since changed its name to Fenris Creations) and invested in other studios. It also has two other major releases, DokeV and Plan 8, in the works.
Regardless, its approach to post-launch support for Crimson Desert has drawn extensive praise (and perhaps contributed to sales numbers recently crossing five million). Stay tuned for more details when this week’s patch goes live, especially on the new Material Extraction feature. You can also check out our re-review of the PS5 version, which takes many of the updates into consideration.
