Resetera user Neha shared a new translation of the Pearl Abyss financial meeting notes from Naver about their upcoming open world title, Crimson Desert. We reported on some of this yesterday, but we think it’s worth returning to, because this is a game you should be excited for.
Pearl Abyss has been making Crimson Desert for seven years now. Instead of being a bad sign, the studio is confident that they have a hit on their hands.
That’s because they have been receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback in the events they have been demoing the game, such as this year’s Gamescom. They expect the game to make somewhere between 4 to 5 million copies, and they have big plans to market the game worldwide. In fact, Pearl Abyss mentioned they might bring a trailer or other reveal at this year’s The Game Awarrds.
Pearl Abyss cites their proprietary game engine, Black Space, as a major advantage they have over other developers. That’s because they have full control of what the engine can do, and they were able to add so many things in Crimson Desert that other developers using Unreal can’t do.
For example, they can add minute details, such as reeds being cut down during combat. They also describe being able to depict a drop in temperature, with characters automatically slowing their movement.
Pearl Abyss also went beyond their NPCs having preset behaviors. NPCs have their own AI, enabling more dynamic interactions. For example, an NPC may choose to run away from a fight, based on how many enemies they have or their power level.
Pearl Abyss invested big in Black Space engine, and that accounted for why the game took so long to make, and also why they’re confident about it now. As it turns out, Pearl Abyss was in a better position to do this than their Korean peers like Shift Up and Round 8 Studios.
Pearl Abyss already has some success in the West with their MMO Black Desert Online. While it didn’t quite become the next Lineage II or World of Warcraft, it still made Pearl Abyss one of the first Korean game companies to go global.
So they already had a steady source of income while they were making this game, and decided to lock in. In that capacity, they also had a publisher established in the West.
Pearl Abyss’ claims certainly seem to contrast with most Western game developers. No less than Halo Studios themselves recently revealed they would switch to Unreal, after struggling to adapt Slipspace Engine to modern gaming.
But older gamers will remember when games didn’t cost so much and take so long to make, and why game companies made their own game engines. Before games were standardized by the likes of Unreal, they could come in different forms and have unique effects and features. Silent Hill 2, Devil May Cry, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, and Smackdown 2: Here Comes The Pain were all on the PlayStation 2, and they couldn’t look and feel any more different.
Pearl Abyss seems to want to bring back a way of making games that we hadn’t seen since the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. We are certainly hoping that Crimson Desert will live up to these claims but given that they were saying this to their own investors, they seem to be absolutely certain.
