The Korean sandbox MMORPG Black Desert Online is more successful in Europe and the USA than in its home country of South Korea. This is extremely unusual.
Black Desert Online is a sandbox online role-playing game from South Korea that was released in 2014. The MMORPG launched in Europe and the USA in March 2016.
Interestingly, Black Desert Online is more successful in the West than the Korean version.
More than half of the revenue comes from the West
In November, a presentation for investors from the developer Pearl Abyss was released. Among other things, there was an interesting graph regarding revenues in the third quarter of 2017.
According to the graph, 56 percent of the quarter’s revenues came from America and Europe. Only 18 percent of the revenues were generated in South Korea. The remaining 26 percent of the sales came from the rest of Asia.
The ideal game for the western market
Such success of a Korean game outside the home country is extremely unusual. Normally, Korean games, like Dungeon Fighter Online, generate the majority of their revenues at home. Black Desert, however, was graphically much more sophisticated than most Korean games at the time. Therefore, many players had inadequate computers. The same applied to the extremely popular PC bangs in Korea. For Pearl Abyss and publisher Kakao Games, the great success in the West is a good thing.
Because the online role-playing game Black Desert was the first major hit for Kakao outside of Korea, where the core business had previously existed. Kakao is a well-known brand in South Korea due to its popular messenger app “KakaoTalk.” Therefore, the company likely has a well-filled war chest but saw no way to become an international company with its core business: Gaming is now supposed to be the ticket to the global market.
Black Desert Online sold more than 400,000 copies in Europe and North America alone in 2016. This was far more than sold in Korea.
When Black Desert developer Pearl Abyss announced its IPO in September 2017, the worldwide revenues for Black Desert were already over 300 million US dollars.
Publisher Kakao Games aims to establish itself further in the West with Black Desert & A:IR
Therefore, Kakao Games wants to establish itself further in the West. Black Desert is just the first step. Other Korean companies have, according to Min Kim, the head of Kakao Games Europe, been too cautious and hesitant in approaching the Western market.
Kakao intends to push into the market in Europe and the USA with the motto “You just have to want it enough” and establish a reputation as a publisher of high-quality games. In Korea, Kakao has partnered with Pearl Abyss as well as the TERA and PUBG developers from Bluehole.
If Bluehole’s upcoming game A:IR should also be a hit in the West, Kakao would, according to Kim, be ready to acquire studios in Europe or the USA and finally establish itself as a global publisher. A:IR is expected to be released by 2019 at the latest and is already designed for a global market.
Black Desert is expected to continue to grow and thrive and look fresh and sexy even in 30 years.
