A rumor circulated on Reddit that Pearl Abyss, the company behind Black Desert and new MMOs like Crimson Desert and Plan 8, is said to be having problems. There are talks of mass layoffs. We spoke directly with the studio.
What are these rumors? On the MMORPG Reddit, User opty2001 started a thread where he published excerpts from the platform BLIND. This is an app where game developers communicate anonymously.
According to the screenshot, some employees who worked on Pearl Abyss’s new MMOs have been laid off. One user even claims that the work on new projects has been temporarily halted.
Therefore, we reached out directly to Pearl Abyss.
What do the developers say? In a response from Rick van Beem, the PR Director of Pearl Abyss, we were assured that work on all MMOs is proceeding as planned.
While there have been individual layoffs, they cannot be referred to as mass layoffs. However, he revealed to us that the exact opposite is supposed to be the case.
More employees to get the MMOs out faster
What did Pearl Abyss tell us? Regarding the layoffs, we were informed that these were isolated cases that are not connected:
There were no mass layoffs. A few people were recently laid off, others left voluntarily. But they were all individual cases that are not connected.
Rick van Beem
The work on the new games is also not supposed to be interrupted. We were told that currently, despite the Corona crisis, all projects are progressing well and as planned:
All projects, new content for Black Desert, Shadow Arena, DokeV, Crimson Desert, and Plan 8, are currently proceeding exactly as planned.
We are making good progress and hope to be able to release new details about the new games soon.
Rick van Beem
What is happening instead at Pearl Abyss? According to Beem, the opposite of mass layoffs is currently the case at Pearl Abyss.
They are currently in a “hiring spree” and are looking for many developers to improve and finish the new and old projects faster.
2 MMOs and 2 MMORPGs
What is Pearl Abyss working on? Besides Black Desert, which is currently achieving very good player numbers, Pearl Abyss is working on four new and exciting titles.
Two of these games are completely new MMORPGs:
- Crimson Desert is said to be the unofficial successor to Black Desert. It is a PvE MMORPG focused on a dark story and economy.
- DokeV, on the other hand, will be a colorful family MMORPG. In it, players fight with monsters, and it somewhat resembles Pokémon in the big city.
In addition, two more new games are planned, a shooter and a battle royale in the style of Black Desert:
- Plan 8 is supposed to be the company’s first MMO shooter. It is being developed together with one of the Counter-Strike creators and focuses on exo-skeletons with different abilities like flying or running along walls.
- Shadow Arena was originally a battle royale in Black Desert. Now it is being released as its own game. We have already tried the MMO and are pleasantly surprised.
When will the new games be released? Currently, only one of the titles is already in a playable state: Shadow Arena. A first beta ran on Steam. A release is scheduled for the first half of 2020.
For Plan 8, DokeV, and Crimson Desert, there is expected to be a beta in the course of 2020. A release this year seems unlikely, as all titles were only introduced at G-Star 2019.
