Kakao is Making Huge Moves – Crimson Desert, ODIN: Valhalla Rising, Elyon, DokeV and More!

It was brought to my attention earlier today that Kakao Pearl Abyss, the company behind Black Desert and Black Desert Mobile, and more recently EVE and EVE Echoes released their 3rd Quarter Financials.
According to the info released, Pearl Abyss has seen a large increase in Net Income compared to 2019’s 3rd Quarter, which is mainly due to the mobile market – shocker, I know.
Guardian Tales was mostly responsible for this – a mobile game I can actually say was quite a bit better than I’d expected when I played it.
But this isn’t what’s most important. We’re all here for the MMO info, right? Specifically pertaining to Black Desert‘s prequel-sequel, Crimson Desert, the new upcoming ODIN: Valhalla Rising and even Elyon?

Before we jump into Crimson Desert, though, I do want to note that apparently Black Desert Online – interestingly enough – has seen its worst year in a long time, being down 13% this quarter alone, and over 19% year over year.
That’s a substantial decline in revenue – a direct effect of the continued decrease of active players logging in to play the game. So it is with this knowledge in mind that Pearl Abyss have announced their intentions to drop a very large “reveal” for Crimson Desert next month – in December 2020.
This reveal is both to reassure players that the game is continuing to be actively worked on, and to reassure investors that the game is inching ever closer to release.
Currently, they plan on unveiling actual in-game footage of the game in a full game-disclosure event. This will provide us all with a much closer, much deeper look at how the game will ultimately end up functioning. How it competes with Black Desert, and hopefully exactly what type of game it is.
Players are still speculating whether or not the game is going to be single-player or an MMO, how the combat will or won’t be an improvement over Black Desert, the exact, definitive setting.. there’s so much we don’t know and hopefully at least some of that is clarified next month.
We don’t have an exact date yet – only “December 2020,” but they’ll no doubt announce that ahead of the event.

Concerning Elyon, it was revealed recently that the upcoming MMO will be launching within South Korea next month – in December 2020.
Taking a look at the report, however, Pearl Abyss goes on to list “North America and Europe market launches: Successful experience with Black Desert 2021.”
That’s all but a 100% confirmation that any time in the 2nd quarter – April, May or June 2021 will see Elyon launch in both North America and Europe.
I know Elyon has changed quite drastically over the last couple years of development, but after what seems like an eternity, we’re going to finally be able to play the game.
A lot of interest – a lot of hype, excitement for the release has died down, and I can understand why that is. Even so, getting definitive release dates for a new MMO to spend some time in is always promising!

Then we have the upcoming ODIN: Valhalla Rising MMORPG. This is a game I’m really curious about. I’m not sure if I’m necessarily as hyped as I am for Tower of Fantasy, but ODIN is touted as being Black Desert.. but built cross-platform.
That sounds like it could be very promising – or an absolute train wreck, especially given how Black Desert Mobile ended up turning out. Regardless, the upcoming MMO is scheduled to launch within South Korea in the 2nd Quarter 2021, at a similar time to Elyon’s Global release.
They have yet to confirm any specifics pertaining to the Global release of ODIN but given how quickly they seem to want to push these games out to their Western audience, I wouldn’t expect it to take all that long.
Almost half of Pearl Abyss’s yearly revenue, interestingly enough, actually comes from their Western audience, which is probably why they’re always creating games with that particular audience in mind. And why they’ve actually had as much success as they’ve ultimately had.

If you weren’t already aware – I covered this actually last month I believe, but Pearl Abyss is working together with XLGames, the developer behind the notoriously pay-to-win MMORPG ArcheAge to create a sequel: ArcheAge 2.
The game is still in very, very early stages of development right now but they plan on making ArcheAge 2 “THE next generation MMORPG,” with the game being built on Unreal Engine 5 and taking what they learned with both ArcheAge and Black Desert and applying it to the sequel.
But with ArcheAge’s business model and Black Desert’s business model.. you can bet ArcheAge 2 is going to be one hell of a pay-to-win mess. It might be an amazing game – but it’s going to cost quite a bit to play competitively in any form.

And finally, we had a few more games revealed, announced or confirmed as well: World Flipper and Moonlight Sculptor – 2 Mobile games were confirmed to be receiving Global releases within the 3rd Quarter 2021, and Soul Artifact, a Mobile game is going to be releasing within South Korea some time during the 4th Quarter 2021.

Pearl Abyss has a lot on their plate for 2021. A lot to offer players – of both PC and Mobile genres.
There’s still no real news on DokeV, their upcoming monster-collector MMORPG or Plan8 – their FPS? TPS? But both were definitely listed in the report released.
And you can bet there are a surplus of other games currently in development at the studio – Pearl Abyss is continuing to show signs of growth and isn’t looking to slow down any time in the immediate future. They’re becoming an absolute giant in the industry, and I’m glad they’re continuing to stick to what got them to where they are: MMORPGs.
Will any of these ultimately end up worth playing? Will Crimson Desert replace Black Desert now that BDO is showing continued signs of decline? Will ArcheAge 2 be as bad as players are assuming it will be? Is ODIN: Valhalla Rising just another crappy cross-platform MMO or will it be worth playing like Genshin Impact?
Only time will tell. Either way, I’m curious to see where all of these MMOs end up going into 2021, and hope you all are as well.