Pearl Abyss America CEO Jeonghee (JJ) Jin has announced she is leaving the company after six years. JJ has served as the CEO of Pearl Abyss America for six years, helping to found the North American branch of the Korean publisher back in 2018.
Jin has had a long career in games, working through the ranks at various companies such as Trion Worlds, mobile developer nWay, and also serving as CEO of Kakao Games before joining Pearl Abyss in 2018.
Then, in August of the same year, Jin helped establish the Pearl Abyss America office, starting in a “tiny co-sharing office” as the “first US employee for Pearl Abyss.” Since then, the studio has grown, moving into an office in Manhattan Beach, California, and building out a team of developers to support Black Desert and the rest of the publisher’s operations in the Americas.
However, Jin announced yesterday that she is stepping away from the role that she founded, moving on to a “new career challenge.”
“It was such a difficult decision to leave my beloved team that I built myself and have grown for the last 6+ years,” JJ says in the LinkedIn announcement. The news comes just after she was celebrating the 6th anniversary as CEO of Pearl Abyss America. Last week was her last in the office as she moves into the next phase of her career.
Under Jin’s leadership, Black Desert Online has grown, especially in the West. Pearl Abyss has also been more open with its community during her time at Pearl Abyss America, hosting regular fan events, called Adventurer’s Oasis events, that celebrate the community around the long-running MMO. Jin also had the monumental task of navigating her team through the rigors of maintaining an MMO during the pandemic.
As to where she will land next, JJ states that she will keep us “posted” in the coming weeks, after a much earned vacation. It’ll be interesting to see if the new role will still be within the games industry, but we’ll have to wait and see.
