Korean game company Pearl Abyss just made a startling revelation in their latest financial meeting.
As reported by AltChar, Sony allegedly approached the company about making their upcoming single player open world game, Crimson Desert, into a PlayStation 5 exclusive. Pearl Abyss did not hesitate in saying that they rejected the offer, as they believed that they would make more money with a multiplatform release.
It’s a stark contrast to Shift Up choosing to have Sony publish their game Stellar Blade. In fact, it’s clear that Sony approached Pearl Abyss with the kind of offer they gave to Shift Up and Cognosphere/Hoyoverse, the developers of Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero.
Perhaps Pearl Abyss ultimately chose to turn down the offer after thinking about their own game’s potential market audience and appeal. It’s likely that more gamers will buy the game on PC than anything else, and they don’t necessarily want Sony to block or delay a PC port.
Or perhaps they came to the same conclusion that Square Enix, and seemingly many other Asian game developers are making, about PlayStation. While the console brand and market position remains strong in the region, more and more game companies no longer see PlayStation exclusivity as a guarantee of success.
If anything, even if there aren’t that many more buyers who will play the game on Xbox, it will still be better than relying solely on PlayStation gamers. This simultaneously reflects the changing market conditions, and what seems to be a no longer reliable player base on PlayStation.
This information came from a financial blogger who attended Pearl Abyss’ financial meeting last September and shared a report on Naver. The information was then shared on ResetEra with a translation by user Neha. Neha has verified in other ResetEra posts that they are a native Korean speaker.
And Neha shared some other interesting details about Crimson Desert as well. Pearl Abyss has apparently succeeded in their ambitions, citing features like a day/night cycle, a morality system, a ‘true’ open world where you can travel everywhere, etc.
So it’s very easy to see why Pearl Abyss felt that multiplatform was the way to go. They could very much stake their position in the global gaming industry as an up-and-coming AA/AAA game developer, in the same way that Round 8 Studios did with Lies of P.
Crimson Desert is scheduled for Q2 2025 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows.
