Shares of Korean game publisher Pearl Abyss tumbled Wednesday after it put off the release of the much-awaited Crimson Desert and other new games, citing more time needed for their perfection.
“The company expects to complete developing Crimson Desert sometime during the second half of 2023 and will decide on a release date based on market conditions and discussion with partner developers,” said Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young, at the third-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday. The chief executive also added DokeV, another most-anticipated game, is under development and coming sometime beyond 2023, no release date announced yet, Pearl Abyss will, of course, communicate launch details when they become available.
Gamers have long been waiting for arrival of Crimson Desert and DokeV, new online games of Pearl Abyss, a Korean game company behind the world-popular online game “Black Desert.” Their release schedules have been pushed back, stirring up concerns in the market.
Pearl Abyss, however, remains confident in presenting high-quality games as it has received good feedback from its partner developers on Crimson Desert as well as on Black Space Engine, its own game development platform built in-house.
Robust earnings also bought more time for the company.
Pearl Abyss registered 12 billion won ($8.8 million) in operating income for the third quarter that ended September, turning around from 4.2 billion won loss posted in the second quarter. The result is up 17.0 percent in the year.
Revenue rose 3.4 percent on quarter and 0.9 percent on year to 97.3 billion won.
The sharp improvement in operating income owes to the absence of a one-off bonus payment given to employees in the previous quarter.
Earnings news report from a Twitter user saying it is rumored that DokeV’s core developers were leaving the company / laid down. The cause for this might be lots of intern developers leaving the company during Q3 2022, you can listen to the conference call related to this at the 20 minute 40 second timestamp on the recording. (link here)
[Conference Call timestamp 26:57]
Second, I would like to give you an update on the progress of DokeV
DokeV along with Crimson Desert is being developed meeting our internal development roadmap
However since this year our core development team is immersing itself on developing Crimson Desert we will do our best so that for DokeV we will be able to disclose information as they are done.⚠️From #PearlAbyss Q3 2022 Earnings Report:
— Anders (@AndersGallar) November 9, 2022
◾ #CrimsonDesert gameplay trailer delayed
◾ Crimson Desert release date now likely Late 2023 at the earliest due to console optimization
◾ #DokeV release date likely in 2024
◾ DokeV core developers rumored to have left the company pic.twitter.com/xxOhPsmvX0
It also benefited from favorable foreign exchange conditions for game sales abroad. The company generated 82 percent of its third-quarter revenue from overseas.
Commission cost also rose slower compared to sales growth, as it sold more PC games that are charged fewer commission fees compared to mobile games by marketplace operators.
Pearl Abyss shares fell 6.07 percent to 43,300 won, as of 2:30 p.m. in Seoul.
You can find the conference call and PDF for the earnings report down below in the sources.
Source(s): PA Earnings Call Nov9 , PulseNews.co.kr, Twitter, PA Q32022 Earnings Report PDF