Dualshockers has a new interview out with Black Desert’s Pearl Abyss, the Korean-based studio that develops the original game (Kakao is the western publisher, you’ll recall). Lead Producer Jae Hee Kim and Head of Game Design Suh Won Choi cover the female Dark Elf class, the Witch and Wizard class awakenings, visial pop-in, problems with the internal engine, and the continent of Magoria. Both western and eastern players should get to see upgraded snow effects in the game over the winter and cherry blossom trees in the spring. “Each season will get changes in the field,” the devs says.
Then, out of the blue, the interviewer asks about swimsuits in the summer. “[I]t’s pretty sensitive, because we think that it might conflict with the philosophy of our game,” Pearl Abyss replied. “While there are many suggestions about bikinis and bathing suits, on there other side there are enraged people that say that if we implement bikinis, we’d ruin the game. […] Even internally there’s a lot of discussion about it.”
As to a possible console port, PA says its “priority is to stabilize our content on the PC version first, and after that, yes, there’s always a possibility.” Either way, the studio is pleased with how well the game has done:
“Our initial intention was to launch the game globally, but we weren’t sure that it would be successful, because there are so many other Korean MMORPGs that aren’t successful overseas. The reception was totally beyond our expectations, but we’re trying really hard to satisfy our users from all over the world.”
