The MMORPG Black Desert received its latest expansion Land of the Morning Light on June 14. This focuses on PvE and story, which is quite uncharacteristic for the game. However, the change in direction seems to be working.
What does the expansion include? Black Desert is actually an MMORPG known for its open-world PvP and sandbox approach. This is what made the game popular years ago. However, the developers at Pearl Abyss have been pursuing a new approach for some time now.
Thus, more and more theme park elements have gradually been integrated into the original sandbox. This means content that guides you more or less along a path to where you are supposed to go, instead of just throwing you into the world. Even open-world PvP can now be escaped for a few hours a day.
The new expansion Land of the Morning Light was released on June 14 and consistently continued this new path. The addon focuses on an exciting and even voiced story, placing it at the forefront.
The main feature of Land of the Morning Light are the boss fights. They take place in various difficulty levels and, above all, are instanced. For the battles, you leave the open world and fight solely against overpowered opponents.
Both elements are completely contrary to what Black Desert was originally about.
You can watch the trailer for the expansion here:
Land of the Morning Light is so successful that even the CEO is overwhelmed
How is the expansion received? Better than anyone expected. Regarding exact numbers, we can only mention those from Steam. Black Desert also has its own launcher aside from Steam and is also available on consoles.
However, on Steam, the first 28 days after the release of the addon were incredibly strong. The average daily players increased by 31.99% compared to May. As for the player peak, the moment when the most people were online at the same time, Black Desert is also more successful than it has been since June 2021 (via steamcharts).
What do the developers say about it? Even they are astonished. The CEO of Pearl Abyss, Jaehee Kim, wrote an open letter to the community on Twitter. There he expresses his heartfelt thanks for the support of the players for Land of the Morning Light.
He further elaborated that there was uncertainty at Pearl Abyss about whether the expansion would be well received. After all, it is different and tells a completely unfamiliar story, says J. Nevertheless, Land of the Morning Light is a complete success and “more than we ever dreamed of hoping for.”
He also promises to address player feedback and continue as strongly in future updates as they have so far.
You can read the entire letter on Twitter:
However, it is still unclear how things will proceed after the addon. In the latest announcement, Black Desert announced that the summer season will be extended until August 30. This is particularly appealing for new players who have likely been attracted by the expansion.
Through the season and the associated servers, you can level up very quickly and easily obtain relatively strong equipment. At the end of such a season, you can transfer your character, along with everything you have easily acquired, to one of the “real” servers and then start right away.
What do you personally think of Land of the Morning Light? Have you played the expansion, or has it perhaps even brought you into the MMORPG? Or do you have a completely different opinion and believe that the path Black Desert is taking is not the right one? Feel free to let us know in the comments here at MeinMMO.
Our author Mark Sellner played Land of the Morning Light for 3 hours with the developers and says: Finally, skill matters and it’s not just pure grind.
