Crimson Desert's sales blitz has yet to meaningfully boost Pearl Abyss stock

Crimson Desert is one of the fastest-selling new IPs on the market with multi-million sales in its first day, but the game's strong initial launch performance hasn't entirely convinced investors.

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Shortly after Crimson Desert's release, the share value of South Korean developer Pearl Abyss took a major hit. The company saw their stock drop by 40%, and the publisher's shares have yet to meaningfully rebound despite the game's breakout success; Crimson Desert managed to sell over 2 million copies on all platforms in its first day, making it among the quickest-selling new titles and new intellectual properties on the modern games market.

Today was the first new day of trading on the Korean Exchange after Pearl Abyss made the sales announcement, and unfortunately, the shares have yet to really bounce back. The company's stock did technically see an increase of +250 KRW (about $0.17), representing a smaller +0.60% boost.

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It's believed that Crimson Desert's review scores are to blame for the share drop. The game currently sits at a 78 Metacritic score, which is quite respectable, however it's possible that investors who helped fund the project expected a higher score. Despite this friction, Crimson Desert is currently #2 on Steam's top revenue charts and is currently the #5 best-selling game on the PlayStation Store.

Community reception has been mostly positive, but some aspects of Crimson Desert are universally criticized, including the confusing and awkward control system. Pearl Abyss has promised to fix the controls, and says that it is actively looking at player feedback as it continually plans to update and shape the MMORPG-esque action RPG.