In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Pearl Abyss North America CEO JJ Jin spoke about the Korean company's approach to creating the games it has on the horizon, namely that it aims to pursue a community, regardless of the type of game.
In the interview, JJ talked to GamesIndustry.biz Managing Editor Brendan Sinclair about the games the company has on the horizon, and why a developer that is synonymous with MMORPGs would branch into single-player titles like Crimson Desert.
When asked why the Black Desert developer would reach beyond the games-as-a-service model that MMOs and other multiplayer titles afford easily, JJ responded that the company really looks for community and pursues that.
"I don't think we as a company have an in-depth philosophy about whether the [games-as-a-service] direction is better or not, but I would say we really pursue games as a community, whether it's single-player, multiplayer or a big MMO. Games have the function to bring players together to form community around the content."
She notes that while MMOs, by design, have an easier time growing a community, single-player titles in Pearl Abyss' pipeline, such as the upcoming Crimson Desert and DokeV games have the opportunity to build a community around the content created there.
The interview touches also on the origins of the name for its upcoming adventure DokeV. Jin admits that she actually wasn't a fan of the name initially, thinking it would be too hard to pronounce and that it would need to be explained. As we mentioned back in February, DokeV is derived from the Korean dokkaebi, a mythical trickster that appears in Korean folklore In fact, you'll actually encounter some of these in Black Desert's upcoming Land of the Morning Light which itself is steeped in Korean folklore, Jin told me at DICE earlier this year. Jin elaborated a bit for GamesIndustry in the interview, including that she was initially against the name.
"When it came to the name of the project, to be honest, I was against the name DokeV," Jin says. "I thought it's hard to pronounce, and I will have to explain it a lot. As a person on the business side, it's a lot of work just to have people remember this title. But our devs were like, 'Hey let's try that! How cool is it that we'll be the first Korean open-world action adventure that has a very Korean name for its English title?'
"On the opposite side, I thought, 'Yeah, that could be cool. And maybe this could sound exotic to a Western audience instead of going with Legendary Something, Glory Something, or Throne Something.'"
The interview itself is fabulous insight into how one of the largest gaming companies approaches building its games for its audience, and how the studio sees itself diversifying into the future. It's definitely worth the read.
