PearlAbyss shares down 30% after Crimson Desert's launch

Crimson Desert is out, launching to a 78 Metacritic score...which apparently is not persuasive enough for investors.

3

South Korean games-maker PearlAbyss has been met with a significant drop in share value following the release of its new AAA game, Crimson Desert. The open-world RPG has garnered a respectable 78 Metacritic rating; however, the reviews are all across the spectrum, ranging from the low 60s to perfect 100 score ratings.

Unfortunately, PearlAbyss' shares have dropped by nearly 30% so far today, which coincides with the official launch of the game. PearlAbyss is currently trading at 46,000 KRW per share, which is about $30. The market was quick to react to this one, and AAA games are now under a higher level of scrutiny.

3

Games analyst Dr. Serkan Toto commented on the trend on Twitter, saying:

While sales figures are still unknown, it's believed that Crimson Desert has a budget of about 200 billion KRW, or about $133 million.

The game is currently the #1 best-seller on Steam's global charts, indicating potentially strong launch sales on the platform, and is #4 on the PlayStation Store's charts.

PearlAbyss has yet to comment on the game's launch, but more details should follow, including sales estimates and maybe even various metrics from the first few days of play. The publisher is mostly known for its popular MMORPG Black Desert Online, and Crimson Desert is an experimental AAA release that aims to pull from Black Desert's MMO sentiments and morph them into a more cohesive, long-tailed singleplayer game.

These types of titles fit well with subscriptions, as gamers can play long rounds of engaging sessions for a monthly fee, arming developers with critical info about the business of continued play--and even player telemetry data.