South Korean website YNA (Yonhap News Agency) reports this morning that Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young talked at length about the studio's newly released game Crimson Desert during the latest general shareholders' meeting held at the company's headquarters in Gwacheon.
The executive partially admitted that the much-criticized storyline should have been handled with greater care:
I sympathize to some extent with the disappointment users feel regarding the story. I think it would have been nice if we could have done a better job with it. The production team tried to make up for the shortcomings in the remaining time, but ultimately, we focused on strengthening the gameplay, which is what we do best.
The Pearl Abyss CEO also said that the development team has internally begun research and development on a potential Nintendo Switch 2 version of Crimson Desert:
Since the Switch 2 still has lower specifications compared to other console devices, there are parts we have to give up on, but internally, we have taken an interest and started research and development (R&D).
That's not an announcement, mind you, but it shows that the team is looking into whether the port is feasible. During the Q&A, the executive was also asked about DLCs and multiplayer. On the former, he stated that the current focus is on ensuring the base game sells well through free updates. On the latter, the CEO seemed to contradict last month's statement, revealing that a Crimson Desert multiplayer mode is actually unlikely for the time being:
The development team actually attempted to implement multiplayer internally, but there are clearly graphics aspects that must be sacrificed in the current device environment.
Jin-young even answered a question about official mod support for Crimson Desert. That, too, is not coming any time soon:
Since the mod community is active and our game has a sandbox structure, we believe that supporting it would be a strength. On the other hand, supporting mods would require opening up a large part of the engine, so while the development team views it positively, there are no concrete plans.
Overall, Pearl Abyss appears satisfied with the game's commercial success. Despite a stock crash caused by lower-than-anticipated critical reviews, Crimson Desert sold three million units in its four days on the market, and the Pearl Abyss CEO promised to inform shareholders once it reaches five million units "soon". Furthermore, he teased that the studio's next project, the open world creature collection game DokeV, shouldn't be too far off.
Find out everything we know about Crimson Desert, including links to our guides and review, on this hub page.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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