Pearl Abyss releases mobile game Black Desert in China in April

South Korean game developer and publisher Pearl Abyss set a China release date of April 27 for its cross-platform MMORPG Black Desert on the App Store. An MMORPG refers to an online role-playing video game where a large number of people can simultaneously play. 

The release dates for apps as stated on the Apple platform serve as estimates.

An employee of Pearl Abyss told The Korea Economic Daily the local publisher in China will announce the exact release date on their homepage at a later date.

Given that most games have been released some 10 days after the projected release date written on the App Store, the Black Desert is forecast to become available in China between late April and early May. 

Pearl Abyss began its initial technical test for the mobile game last November. On Tuesday, Chinese mobile gaming platform TapTap.io began recruiting participants to its closed beta test, which will run through March 17th.

Pearl Abyss is hoping for a rebound with the mobile version of the Black Desert Online. 

The game developer’s performance has been on a downward trend since the original release of Black Desert Online in February 2018.

The company recorded 538.9 billion won ($438 million) in revenue in 2019, which slid to 488.8 billion won a year later. Last year, the figure shrunk further to 403.8 billion won. 

“Entering the world’s biggest gaming industry will have a bigger impact than releasing a new product,” an industry insider said. 

Pearl Abyss shares have been buoyed by expectations of the China entry. The share price hovered around 90,000 won last month but kept climbing in the last few days to close Tuesday’s trade at 103,600 won. Wednesday was a bank holiday in South Korea due to the presidential election. 

REOPENING OF CHINA 

The South Korean gaming industry is keen to find out whether Black Desert will be successful in China. That is because the neighboring market is their most challenging to enter and equally profitable.

Beijing has not issued any permits to Korean game developers since last July. A month later, it announced a measure to strictly limit the number of hours a minor can play online games. 

Hit by such restrictions, Korean companies have redirected their efforts to North America and Europe. 

Smilegate published Lost Ark in North America and NCSoft Corp. published the TL console with the European market in mind. 

China’s gaming market is the biggest in the world at 55.5 trillion won. As such, South Korean game developers have relied heavily on the neighboring market before Beijing stopped issuing new permits to overseas game developers.

In 2022, Krafton Inc. saw 68% of its sales in China while Nexon Co. saw 27% of its sales there. 

Back in 2016, China imposed sweeping restrictions on the imports and use of South Korea’s entertainment products, including online games.

The ban came after an agreement between Seoul and Washington to build and install a missile shield system known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in the South to protect it against possible North Korean attacks. 

Write to Min-Ki Koo at kook@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.