Well, isn’t this nice? In an era of enshittification and layoffs, the devs at Crimson Desert maker Pearl Abyss have received huge bonuses for the game’s global success – and praise from Korea’s prime minister.
Writing on social media, Kim Min-seok championed the Seoul studio for unlocking a “new chapter in K-content”, and said it proves the country’s “domestic game industry can expand and leap forward across diverse platforms, including consoles”.
Two years ago, Korean studio Shift Up enjoyed huge success with Stellar Blade, and now Crimson Desert has followed up on that. The local games industry has largely focused on PC and mobile, but now it’s proving it can expand into consoles as well.
K-content has infiltrated all aspects of entertainment these past ten years, with K-pop and K-dramas now massive within the music and television industries respectively. Despite being a western developed movie, Sony’s excellent K-Pop Demon Hunters has become Netflix’s biggest ever film, with a sequel now in production.
In order to mark the success of the open world adventure, which has now sold over five million units worldwide, Pearl Abyss has rewarded all of its employees with a ₩5 million (~$3,400) bonus, which is a reflection of its hard work.
As we reported when we visited the studio last year, it has about 700 people working on-site at its Seoul campus, so this is a significant investment from the studio to reward its staff’s work.
Of course, there is still debate about whether Crimson Desert should have been delayed. The game has improved a lot since it launched a month ago, but in a poll 24% of you said you think the game was released unfinished.
Either way, the success is clear to see, and it’s nice to see a company actually reward its staff for once, rather than lay everyone off. We’re looking forward to seeing what the next chapter holds for Pearl Abyss.