Developer Pearl Abyss, the South Korean based company, recently issued a press release today to talk about the success of their massively multiplayer online game, Black Desert. The game has made $1 billion dollars in gross revenue, and reportedly has 18 million registered users across 150 countries in the current versions of the game (the game is available on Xbox One and PC, as well as mobile in some regions).

CEO Robin Jung also said that the mobile version, both Android and iOS, of the game will be coming to the west soon, and that the company feels the game will see continued growth as it expands globally. Jung also mentioned that over 30 per cent of gross sales of the MMO come from its mobile version- which means that the publisher should be even more willing to make the version more widely accessible across the world.

“We’re proud of what this achievement represents – the hard work and dedication from our teams over the past four years and the support from a community of fans around the world,” Jung said. “With over 30% of gross sales for Black Desert stemming from mobile platforms, which saw an initial release in Asia in the past year, we’re confident that sales are accelerating. Pearl Abyss is optimistic for the future of Black Desert and we look forward to launching Black Desert Mobile globally by the end of the year.”

You can read our review of the fantasy MMO here. The game is available now for Xbox One and PC.

Black Desert from Pearl Abyss is still going strong on the PC, but was also announced some time ago for the Xbox One. Those still hoping to experience the MMO’s admittedly awesome combat on the console needn’t wait anymore – it’s releasing on March 4th. Pre-orders are already live on the Microsoft Store.

There are three different editions to purchase – Standard ($29.99), Deluxe ($49.99), and Ultimate ($99.99). The Deluxe and Ultimate Editions contain a number of bonuses, like different outfits, currency to use in-game, and early access. The period of early access differs depending on the edition purchased – the Deluxe Edition provides access 48 hours early, while the Ultimate Edition offers access 72 hours early.

Black Desert Online has seen some significant updates since launch. It’s most recent was the Drieghan expansion for PC, which arrived on November 14th. Along with a new continent and a new story, it brought more than 300 new quests to the base game. Will this content be available from launch for Xbox One players? We’ll find out in March.

Fans of Black Desert Online, the free to play Korean MMORPG that has found popularity worldwide, will be happy to hear that the long awaited Drieghan expansion for the game will finally be launching on western servers this November— November 14 to be specific.

This expansion has been one that fans have been waiting a while for, primarily because of how much content it is supposed to be adding to the game. To be specific, it is supposed to add a whole new continent, 300 new quests, a new story, and a new dragon boss to the game. It’s a very rich expansion, and significantly enough, it is entirely free, as is the entire rest of the game.

You can check out a new trailer for the game for yourself below. Black Desert Online is due to launch in beta on Xbox One later this year, and is available already on PC. Avid fans of the MMO will undoubtedly be hoping that the gap between the Korean and western release of new content drops is shortened from here on out.

https://youtu.be/-zcygHYU0Eg

Pearl Abyss, better known as the developer of action MMO Black Desert Online, has acquired CCP Games. You might best know the latter for its insane MMO/spreadsheet manager EVE Online.

A press release stated, “The deal outlines that CCP Games will continue to operate independently as a developer with studios in Reykjavik, London and Shanghai while integrating the company’s extensive development and publishing expertise into Pearl Abyss’ operations for all current and future projects.”

Though CCP Games has had mixed success with off-shoots like EVE: Valkyrie, the developer’s main MMO continues to be as popular as ever. It’s been consistently receiving quality of life updates and expansions, the most recent being Into The Abyss, which launched in May 2018.

For its part, Pearl Abyss’ Black Desert Online has been a strong success for the company since launching in 2015 for Korea. It subsequently made its way to North America and Europe in 2016 for PC, and is currently in development for Xbox One.

Regarding the deal, CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson stated, “I have been seriously impressed with what Pearl Abyss has achieved ever since I first visited their website for Black Desert Online and subsequently became an avid player of the game.

“Pearl Abyss is a fast-growing company with lots to offer in terms of technology, capability and vision. I believe our two companies have a lot to learn from each other. We are very excited to join forces with them and achieve great new heights for our companies, our games and – above all – our players.”

Given the expertise that both companies have with MMOs (and despite their respective controversies), it should be interesting to see what they could achieve together. Furthermore, it remains to be seen if Black Desert Online could expand further into other territories as a result.

The Pearl Abyss developed fantasy MMORPG Black Desert Online launched on PC in the West back in 2016, and though it may not have permeated the zeitgeist the way other MMOs like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV might have (though who would really expect that?), it did receive plenty of praise from critics, and primarily from those who played it.

PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game were also announced last year, and it was announced at Microsoft’s E3 press briefing earlier today that a beta for the game’s console release will be launching on the Xbox One later this, some time in Fall. A more specific release date or window for the beta wasn’t given, nor is there any word if there will be a beta for the game on the PS4 as well.

A trailer for the game was showed off, which you can view below. Stick with GamingBolt for more E3 coverage.

Pearl Abyss’s Black Desert Online may not be as heavily publicized as it once was but it’s still doing fairly well. In its recent performance analysis on May 11th (via InvenGlobal), the developer revealed that profits increased to 33 billion WON ($30,612,245), a 30 percent increase over the game’s previous quarter.

Much of the success for Black Desert can be attributed to the global market, a whopping 80 percent of profit in fact. In the North American and EU regions specifically, Black Desert Online hit 1.2 million sales on Steam. A total of 9.4 million players have registered since the game first launched on December 2014 for South Korea with 4.7 million having registered from 2017 to May 29th 2018.

It’s especially impressive that not all sales have recently come from Steam, thus indicating some popularity with Pearl Abyss’s own launcher. Thus far, Pearl Abyss is looking to keep up the momentum with more Yearly Anniversary Sales through Steam and with new classes for players. The latest one, Lahn, is now available along with a level-up event for those starting fresh with her.

If you’re still playing Black Desert Online, then the MMO’s newest class Lahn is now available to play. Game passes have also been discounted on the game’s official website, Humble Bundle and Steam. The 50 percent discount will be available until May 28th, 5 PM UTC.

Pearl Abyss and Kakao Games have also announced a special level-up event starting today and ending on June 13th. This event will provide items like Gold Bars, Black Stones, Lauren Family Gift Boxes and more. Starting out and leveling Lahn from scratch will be made easier with this event.

As for Lahn, she’s essentially a former priestess who becomes a martial artist after the death of her lover. Lahn uses a new weapon type, an extendable weapon called the Crescent Pendulum which is essentially a crescent moon blade on an elongated piece of cloth. She also possess an off-hand weapon called Noble Sword for chaining together combos. Nimbus Stride works with Lahn’s agility, allowing her to glide through combat.

Guilty Gear Series

Arc System Works had more of a niche following with the Guilty Gear series. However, over the years, the combat’s complexity and outright insanity has attracted more players. For example, Guilty Gear Xrd utilizes a number of basic commands like punching, kicking, slashing and heavy slashing. It’s in the combination of these commands that special things happen like Psych Bursts to escape opponents or special Tension Gauge attacks. Along with a crazy story mode, Guilty Gear Xrd further incentivizes survival mode with M.O.M., offering an almost RPG-like progression system and leveling. Though tough to ultimately master, Guilty Gear’s combat shouldn’t be missed.

With a 2018 release, GamingBolt managed to speak to Pearl Abyss executive producer Jae-hee Kim and COO James Heo to learn more about the game’s direction, progress on the Xbox One version and much more.

"Our utmost effort is invested to stay in close communication with our users, keeping our eyes and ears open for valuable feedback supporting us in fixing bugs, improve any inconveniences, while simultaneously serving our players with new content with each weekly patch."

Black Desert has undergone a number of changes since releasing. What can you tell us about some of the new content that’s been added over time?

Jae-hee Kim: Black Desert is an online service based game with weekly added updates and improvements. We firmly believe in evolving our game alongside playing users.

Our utmost effort is invested to stay in close communication with our users, keeping our eyes and ears open for valuable feedback supporting us in fixing bugs, improve any inconveniences, while simultaneously serving our players with new content with each weekly patch. This allows new and returning users to adapt to the game more quickly and comfortably, as well as adding something new for all users to enjoy on a regular basis. We believe in active growth and improvement of game elements that need optimization.

The recently added region, Kamasylvia, delivers hunting grounds not only the top users, but also for both early and mid-level users to enjoy. Users experiencing a hard time or a sense of boredom, may please themselves with a brand new type of content, Savage Rift, a defense game where players have to defend against a multiple wave of monster attacks. Additionally, our large-scale war system can easily be interpreted as a type of content only suitable for top-level players to enjoy, however additional systems such as flame tower, hwacha, repairing, and elephant, enable new players or players lacking sufficient and strong equipment are to enjoy this high-end content with their guilds.

As Black Desert Online continues its service, we are aiming to continuously create new content not only focusing on our long time players, but also creating a harmonious atmosphere where long term players and rookie players can connect as a community together.

When it comes to criticism and user feedback, how does the development team manage? How much of player feedback has an impact on future updates?

Jae-hee Kim: All player feedback is monitored in its raw and unfiltered state through our publishers. All data is collected in this process for analyzation. With questions such as ‘Why isn’t this perceived as fun’, ‘Why is this element experienced as difficult by players’, ‘What makes users respond with anger’ and “What are the elements users enjoy and why?’, we try to come up with the most optimized method balancing the requests and needs of our users and the technical possibilities within our patches. Simple issues can be solved within a week and complicated ones can take up to months. However, we are constantly analyzing all feedback with the willingness to resolve them sometime in the near future.

How have the Dark Knight and Striker classes panned out thus far? When it comes to balancing classes, what do you usually keep in mind?

Jae-hee Kim: Black Desert Online is a MMORPG that is played by various people with various tastes. In order to be of service to a wide range of users with various personalities, hobbies, favorite colors, and favorite food into one game, we need an extended range of experience. Currently there are 14 classes in Black Desert Online, each of which has an awakening. We are always contemplating on creating classes with different personalities and playing styles to allow users to choose a class suitable to their preferences.

Creating balance between the different classes while maintaining their unique qualities is a challenge we face on a daily basis and a difficult topic to discuss. We’re always interested in what type of balancing frustrates our users or what they experience a hard time adjusting to. Moving between maintaining the uniqueness of each class, optimal balance as well as keeping the gameplay dynamic is what we strive to create.

"As for our PVE contents, our basic updates consists of new hunting grounds, items, and new boss monsters, and we’re aware we’re still lacking in many aspects."

We’ve put in a lot of thought and effort in balancing out the Dark Knight, while maintaining its attractiveness, resulting in a balancing solution which allowed the character to stay entertaining simultaneously. It was a long and timely process causing the discussion and frustration regarding the class’s balance to continue for a long time. We sincerely apologize for any inconveniences caused for our users. From here on, when adjusting the balance between characters, we will do what is within our reach to maintain their characteristic and keep them enjoyable.

What are your thoughts on the PVE vs. PVP balance issues, which has been a constant problem for big MMOs like WoW and MMO-lite titles like Destiny and The Division?

Jae-hee Kim: We’re doing what we can to deliver a variety of enjoyable content since MMORPGs are played by different users with different tastes.

The basic playing style for Black Desert Online is hunting monsters to gain experience, with the goal of developing their character. Surely, you can develop your character through other methods such as fishing, gathering, trading etc., and still it remains true that these ways carry relatively less weight than hunting monsters. Black Desert Online’s PVP contents are consistently updated with reinforced rules or new added content. Currently, the PVP contents consists of Red Battlefield, Duels, Final Battle, Guild Wars, Node War, Territory War, Arena of Arsha, etc.

As for our PVE contents, our basic updates consists of new hunting grounds, items, and new boss monsters, and we’re aware we’re still lacking in many aspects. As a solution, we added new attack patterns for the bosses, Altar of Training, Finest Altar of Training, Guild Raid Bosses, specialized monsters for farming items, ocean monsters, etc. On some of the content we implemented ranking systems for competitive value. We also added new contents with a different approach, such as Savage Rift.

We will continue to put more weight on developing new and diverse PVE contents. In addition, we will strive to actively reflect on the feedbacks of our users and develop new contents.

Will Black Desert ever have servers in Asia (aside from Japan and Korea) or will it remain region locked for current territories?

Jae-hee Kim: The official website opened on October 31 in preparation for servicing in Thailand and Southeast Asia. With opening the website, users are able to apply for CBT and make pre-order purchases. The Thailand servers will be supporting Thai, while Indonesian and English will be supported for Southeast Asian servers. We’re planning to open the servers through OBT within the year after CBT on November 22.

How has the buy-to-play model panned out in Western territories compared to the free to play model in Korea, Japan and Russia?

Jae-hee Kim: Before opening Black Desert Online in another region, we’ll move through many analyzations and discussions, researching various methods unique to the characteristics of each region, universal methods or the ones that are well suited to Black Desert Online.

In addition, we’re working on increasing the user experience. We worked with publishers for a better understanding of the region and to find the best method for many users to come together and enjoy the game. Hence, as a result, the current service approach has been determined.

"Since Pearl Abyss is less experienced with the console system, we greatly value our partnership with the platform. We understand that Xbox, with their high understanding of our game and enthusiastic support for marketing, will be a great partner."

What are you currently working on in terms of future updates?

Jae-hee Kim: Currently, we are currently working on “Absolute (Jin, 진)”, the awakening of the main weapon. In the past, when a character was awakened, the awakening skills were so powerful that the main weapons were rarely used. This new system is developed to resolve this issue and players can interpret this new system as an upgrade of the main weapon skills. Even though the character will learn new awakening skills at level 56, users can upgrade the main weapon skills to the next level, which will be as efficient as the awakening skills. With this new system, users may choose whether to use the awakening weapon or the main weapon. Depending on the weapon of choice, users will be able to experience a variety of game play.

What motivated you to release Black Desert as an exclusive for Xbox One and why not for PS4?

Jae-hee Kim: Since Pearl Abyss is less experienced with the console system, we greatly value our partnership with the platform. We understand that Xbox, with their high understanding of our game and enthusiastic support for marketing, will be a great partner. Watching the Xbox representatives’ optimistic and active support, we know our decision is correct. We’ll be working together to make sure we deliver a high quality service for our players.

In terms of translating the game’s UI and control schemes to console, what challenges did you face?

Jae-hee Kim: Black Desert Online contains an enormous amount of information. We have invested a lot of time contemplating and creating the most optimal UI and control system for the console platform, while minimizing the amount of information.

Additionally, even though the control system for Black Desert Online’s unique character and skill actions is optimized for console, we are planning to provide a way for new users to be able to adapt and use the controls on console with ease.

Is there any chance the game may come to PS4 in the future?

Jae-hee Kim: As announced, Black Desert Online will be released first on Xbox through the exclusive partnership with Microsoft. We’re also in the process of preparing to launch on other console platforms after the Xbox release. We know many fans have been waiting a long time for the console version of Black Desert Online and we’ll do our best to make it available for the users as soon as possible.

The game will be receiving Xbox One X support. The game is in development but is native 4K and 60 frames per second on the cards?

Although it’s subject to change, our goal is Checkerboard 4K 30 FPS.

What is the target resolution and frame rate of the base Xbox One version?

Although it’s subject to change, our goal is 1080P 30 FPS.

"Through the dedication of a constantly growing and learning development team, we wish that Black Desert Online becomes a game where users are confident and believe that the game will continue to be enjoyable."

Black Desert features a beautiful open world game which makes it a perfect fit for the Xbox One X. The consoles features a 6TFLOPS GPU. What kind of benefits does it give to you while developing Black Desert?

We believe it’s helpful in making 4k resolution feasible.

How much time it took to port the PC build on the Xbox One X?

Porting the build doesn’t take much time, however, optimizing it to the console version and changing the UX needs more time.

The Xbox One X features plenty of RAM too. 9 out 12GB is available to developers…which is undoubtedly more than the average found in gaming PCs. How has this helped you?

It helps with extra memory for development or higher specifications. We need the game to run smoothly on XBOX One.

Is Microsoft helping you in anyway in understanding the Xbox One X SDK so that Black Desert is optimized for the console?

Microsoft is actively helping us with all technical support needed.

When can we expect the game to release?

We’re planning to release the console version during the first half of 2018.

Is there anything else you want to tell our readers before we let you go?

Jae-hee Kim: Black Desert Online is always in development. The BDO developers aren’t striving for a restrictive perfection, instead they work their hardest and push boundaries every day to make the game more enjoyable for more and more users. They are giving it all they got to make Black Desert Online enjoyable for any player who is a fan of MMORPGs.

Through the dedication of a constantly growing and learning development team, we wish that Black Desert Online becomes a game where users are confident and believe that the game will continue to be enjoyable. The feedback and interest of all users is of incredible value to keep Black Desert Online enjoyable and of high quality. We’ll continue to work hard to develop a better and more enjoyable Black Desert Online every day.

Will there be a closed beta for Xbox One players in 2018 and when can it be expected?

A closed beta hasn’t been confirmed yet. We will let the users know when we have a finalized decision.

Next Halo

The big question ever since the release of Halo 5 has been obvious – when is the next Halo coming (and no, Halo Wars 2 doesn’t count)? As per 343 Industries founder and head Bonnie Ross in June 2017, the development team is currently working on the “next big Halo”. Apparently it was “good” but not quite ready for announcement. Could E3 2018 be the right time? One can certainly hope.