The MMORPG Black Desert seems pretty dead in the West in 2018. Not much has happened in the last year. The company behind it, Pearl Abyss, is reporting record revenues. Our author Schuhmann thinks: As an MMORPG fan in the West, we will have to get used to this.
Black Desert and the West: Black Desert was released in Europe and North America in 2016. The Western release was seen as successful by Pearl Abyss at the time and gave the South Korean company a growth boost.
Even if one can have problems with the game, it is certainly the most relevant new MMORPG in the West since 2014 (The Elder Scrolls Online).
Black Desert – strong start, strong decline?
In 2017, a lot of content came and the release on Steam. However, problems arose: Black Desert drifted more towards cash shop, and many Western players would probably have preferred a more diverse PvE.
However, Black Desert feels strangely cooled for us in 2018. There is relatively little happening with the game, and revenues in the West have declined. Complaints about the game’s weaknesses are piling up: Players are complaining about lags and bugs.
Black Desert currently at the lowest point of interest in Germany
What does Google Trends say for Germany? The impression that Black Desert is struggling in Germany is also confirmed by Google Trends. Since the end of August 2017, interest in Black Desert has noticeably cooled. In 2018, interest continued to decline. Currently, Black Desert is of little interest in Germany like never before.
Pearl Abyss has also confirmed this weakness phase. However, they anticipated a rise after the release of the new heroine “Lahn.” They now believe in a boost with the upcoming graphic remaster.
That interest collapses after the release is normal. But the further development is interesting here. The trend hasn’t looked good since 2017. The “upsurge” in 2017 was likely due to the announcement of an Xbox One port at E3 2017.
The wishes in the West: The market here in the West is primarily waiting for three things regarding Black Desert:
- For a port to Xbox One – this was initially planned for summer 2018, now the beta is to start in fall 2018
- A port for PlayStation 4 – there is no mention of this anymore; it will probably come only after the Xbox One release
- And for more diverse gameplay content – there is nothing to see of this in South Korea
Black Desert is doing great
But Black Desert is booming: Given the current state of Black Desert, one would expect a crisis. Missing console port, relatively little content added in 2018, many problems and complaints. Yet the opposite is true.
The second quarter of 2018 and also the first quarter of 2018 were much more successful than the last three quarters of 2017. Pearl Abyss earned 99.8 million US dollars in the second quarter. Of that, 4.2 million US dollars was pure profit.
Why is Black Desert doing so well?
Black Desert is opening new markets: After the PC MMORPG market in South Korea is struggling and there isn’t much more to gain in Europe and North America, Pearl Abyss has brought its game to other countries in Asia.
Pearl Abyss had 513 employees at the end of June. Now they want to open offices in Japan and the USA and increase the number of employees to 700.
The actual driver, however, is “Black Desert Mobile,” which already appeared in South Korea and has been incredibly successful there. The mobile version of Black Desert is to be released in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, followed by Southeast Asia and worldwide in 2019.
The West is no longer at the center of MMORPGs
What is behind this? Black Desert shows that the market is already changing its thinking. The new thought processes and plans are passing by our Western MMORPG market. Many fans here in the West do not want mobile MMORPGs, but the Asian market is crazy about them.
Our wishes are currently not aligned with those of the Asia publishers. They have other markets and mainly mobile in mind.
This might still be dismissed and ignored by Westerners now.
Mobile boom as a problem?
The problem could get bigger: But this mobile boom is likely to become a bigger problem in the coming years. Because companies like Blizzard, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, and Bethesda are also clearly focusing on the mobile market. They want to establish mobile core gaming here in the West.
This leads to strange situations when Electronic Arts, for example, dedicates a large segment of a mobile version of Command and Conquer at the E3 fair.
One can be curious whether the players here will accept this and go along with the change.
In just a few weeks, Black Desert is to receive a graphics update:
