Pearl Abyss held its Q1 2024 earnings call, and in addition to announcing all its financials from the first quarter of the year, the Korean developer also gave an update on two of its most hotly anticipated titles to come.
Pearl Abyss recounted the quarter that saw its tentpole franchise, Black Desert Online for PC, see an 11.1% increase in revenue quarter over quarter, though it's down 1% year over year from Q1 2023. EVE Online came off an incredible quarter bolstered by its excellent Havoc expansion in Q4 2023, and its numbers were understandably down in Q1 2024 by 9.5%.
Company-wide, the Black Desert developer saw a 36% increase in net profit year-over-year, while its quarter-over-quarter operating revenue only grew by 1.2%.
The presentation also looked ahead at what the company has in store, including touching on the upcoming playtest for CCP Games' EVE IP-based blockchain title, Project Awakening, this month. It also noted that its 4X strategy game, EVE Galaxy Conquest, will have a second soft launch this May into new regions.
The presentation also touched on this summer's upcoming Black Desert in-person gathering in France, the Heidel Ball. Here players should expect to see more information about the upcoming addition to the MMO's successful Land of the Morning Light expansion, dubbed Land of the Morning Light Part 2 - Seoul, while console fans were assured that the developers are hard at work on an upcoming next-generation build of the MMO on console.
However, Pearl Abyss also discussed its plans for its next major title, Crimson Desert. Revealed in 2020, and then delayed in 2021, it was originally billed as a prequel to Black Desert; the latest title from Pearl Abyss is a single-player RPG. Gameplay shown last year at Gamescom 2023 highlights the sheer plethora of things to do in this upcoming RPG, including combat, arm wrestling, picking up animals, hot air balloon rides and so much more.
Based on the earnings call today, it also seems like players won't be waiting much longer, as the title will have a demo at Gamescom 2024, while Pearl Abyss announced Crimson Desert is in the "last stages" of development. The company plans to ramp up its marketing of the title this year, and during the Q&A portion of the earnings call, highlighted the desire to release more details on the launch timeline, drum up more excitement to drive presales and pre-registrations, and appear at shows in addition to Gamescom such as Korea's GStar 2024 event this year.
As a result of Crimson Desert's development entering this final optimization and polish stage, Pearl Abyss also talked about its other long-in-development game it announced a few years back, DokeV. This creature collecting game powered by the Black Space engine is benefiting from this winding down of development on Crimson Desert, as it means development work on DokeV is now "accelerating." No time table was given as to when it would release, but the company did confirm in the Q&A that we likely won't be seeing any footage of the game until after Crimson Desert's eventual launch.
Pearl Abyss is also exploring bringing Black Desert Online to China and is in the process of getting it licensed in the region. The company has already submitted the necessary paperwork to the proper authorities in the region and now seems to be playing the waiting game, though that doesn't mean its sitting idly by, twiddling its thumbs. Pearl Abyss noted on the call that it's working to ensure that once the license has been issued, they can hit the ground running with service to the country, and the team is planning on getting it up to speed with the global version, meaning that there is going to be a lot of content dropping for Chinese players, fast.
