Summary

  • Black Desert Online celebrates 10 years with a dedicated player base and growing revenue from its mobile version.
  • But why aren't more western players enjoying the game?
  • Exciting new updates announced at Heidel Ball include a fresh class, hardcore PvP server, and new zone to address player concerns.
  • Time to jump back in?

Black Desert Online celebrates its tenth birthday this year. In the last decade, the long-running MMO has fostered a dedicated community, holding a consistent playerbase on Steam of around 20,000 players. That doesn’t include the game’s market share in the South Korean and mobile markets.

In May 2024, developer Pearl Abyss posted its first quarter earning call, which demonstrated an increase in revenue for the Black Desert IP of 11.1 percent, up to $50.2 million. Much of this is attributed to the growth of Black Desert Mobile, however, rather than the original PC version of the game.

It’s clear that Black Desert is still in a healthy place. But why aren’t more western players enjoying the game? In an era when everyone seems keen for shiny new MMOs, such as the upcoming Throne & Liberty, after jumping into BDO these past couple of weeks, it feels like people would be better off revisiting games like this that have already received years of love and attention.

I first played Black Desert way back in 2016, when the game launched to western audiences two years after its release in South Korea. The game was notorious for its ‘pay-to-win’ mechanics at the time and this reputation has never really gone away. I’ve always found it a little odd, as outside of PvP you don’t really ‘win’ Black Desert. Most of my recent time in the game has been spent raising horses, farming crops, and cooking delicious stews.

All the game’s life skills and grinding can be enjoyed solo, although you’ll also find robust communities of players - it’s this support of the community from the developers that has kept BDO alive for all these years, and why I believe Black Desert has found success where so many other MMOs have failed.

Close

This year I was able to attend the game’s tenth anniversary celebration, an event known as the Heidel Ball - so-named for the main city in Black Desert - where the roadmap for the next year of content is revealed. The real-life event was set in the beautiful Château de Beynac in southern France, the inspiration for the in-game city of Heidel. Perched on a towering cliffside overlooking rivers and fields, on a foggy and misty day, the castle was instantly recognisable to the 200 or so members of the press and game community that had been invited out.

When we asked about how the team at Pearl Abyss had recreated the Château de Beynac in-game over a decade ago, they told us they’d spent “hours trawling through Google Maps.”

The Heidel Ball was a celebration of the game’s ongoing success, but while a chance to reflect on the last decade, it was also a time to look forward to what’s next. There are a lot of big changes coming to the game, and it’s provided a fascinating insight into the unique design philosophy at Pearl Abyss.

Black Desert’s Design Philosophy

During a question and answer session with Jaehee Kim, the game’s executive producer, the topic of community came up many times. I’d spent the weeks in the lead-up to the Heidel Ball reimmersing myself in the game and the community, and it was clear that there were some standout issues and highly-requested features:

  • Better endgame content, particularly for groups (raids, boss fights, dungeons, etc.)
  • The grind is too long
  • RNG upgrade system isn’t fun
  • Better PvP for new and veteran players

When I ask Kim about whether Pearl Abyss listens to the community requests, he tells me, “We try not to develop anything to suit specific groups of players, but we do hear their feedback. Everything we try to do, we do it in a way that supports the community in finding the way they want to play. We provide a platform for players. We’ve always viewed the ‘MMORPG’ as a framework for development rather than something strictly genre-defining.”

Kim also explains that one of the reasons he believes Black Desert has been so successful over the years is Pearl Abyss tries “not to chase trends” and has “very focused design ideas”. It’s what has turned Black Desert into a ‘forever game’, one that has received countless updates over the years, and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Lybee Park, the CEO of Pearl Abyss EU, reinforces that, “[the developers] read everything; every comment, in Discord, in Reddit, everything. Our community is so important to us.” Park tells me that one of the reasons she believes the game has stayed relevant even 10 years after its release is because, “the team is so passionate, the developers are hardcore gamers as well, and they plan everything, sometimes years in advance. Things change, of course, but the team is really focused when it comes to providing the best experience for players.”

And it’s clear that the studio does listen, because 2024 has been a massive year for quality of life improvements in the game. The RNG upgrade system, one of the most maligned parts of the game by western audiences, has received a pity function. Eventually, you will get that upgrade you’re looking for. It’s also made massive improvements to fast travel, given new players a lot of free items to help speed up their progress, and has plans to introduce some new content to address other issues.

New Content Coming To Black Desert

Pearl Abyss announced a swathe of new content at the Heidel Ball. There’s a new class coming to the game, a new hardcore PvP server, and a new zone that adds on to the Land Of The Morning Light DLC that was released last year. It feels like all these additional content updates are directly targeting issues raised by the community.

The players have asked for more male characters, and the new class, Dosa, is male. The players wanted better PvP endgame content, and the new hardcore server should provide that as long as the rewards are good - gear will also be capped and scaled, which should make combat fairer for those who just want to focus on gameplay. It also removes some more of those ‘pay-to-win’ fears.

The new DLC, Land Of The Morning Light: Seoul, introduces an entire new zone to the Black Desert Continent, as well as a new palace management life skill. The architecture of the game’s buildings were modeled on real-life buildings in Seoul, including the Gyeonghoeru Pavilion. Both Kim and Park explain how important it is to capture Seoul and the South Korean myths that make up its new storylines in a way that shares South Korean culture with the world. “We’re just a small country,” says Park. “But we’re really excited and proud that we can share our culture with the world through our game. We’ve had K-Pop and K-Dramas. Now we’ve got games.”

The Future Of Black Desert Online

I’m pleasantly surprised when Kim says that this DLC, “marks the end of Chapter 1 of Black Desert.” Ending the first chapter after a decade seems fitting, but it also gives you an idea of the MMO’s planned scale. The continent of Black Desert is now packed with content. Every explorable area has been uncovered.

So, what do the developers plan for the future? To head 2,000 years into the past, to where the desert areas of the map were once lush jungles, and much of the slate has been wiped clean. You’ll be able to seamlessly travel between the past and present, and some actions you take in the past may impact the future. It sounds like a fascinating system, and while most of this is still in its concept design phase, I can’t help but think of this as a soft relaunch of the game. Park explains that they haven’t thought of it exactly as a soft relaunch, but, “we hope that new players will want to explore a new map, starting at the beginning, but with all the hard work we’ve put into the game already there.”

But there’s also the question of Crimson Desert, Pearl Abyss’ upcoming single-player open-world action adventure, first announced at Gamescom 2023.

Crimson Desert And Beyond

Since the first Crimson Desert trailer dropped, I’ve been obsessed with the game. While I didn’t get to talk to the team in an official capacity about their upcoming single-player game, it’s clear when rewatching the trailer that Black Desert has been an immense inspiration for it. It feels like many aspects of BDO will be present in Crimson Desert, but this is of course speculative before we get a hands-on demo at Gamescom 2024.

Black Desert Online is a massive game, at a scale that can be daunting for new players. And, despite all of these positive quality of life changes, it’s still a game that will eat hundreds of hours of your time. It’s very difficult for a game to recover its reputation, especially with such a fast-paced release schedule of new titles to constantly distract you, but after ten years of work, I think Black Desert is worth revisiting - or jumping into for the first time as a new player.

Related

Let’s Break Down The Crimson Desert Gamescom Trailer

Crimson Desert stole the show in Opening Night Live, here's everything you might have missed

Posts