Back in September, we covered the surprise announcement from GameNet that it was handing back its Russian Black Desert publishing rights back to Pearl Abyss across the CIS region, with the promise that the two companies would work together to transfer account data without “unnecessary inconvenience” and maintain a Russian-centric server for players affected.
October 12th was the transfer date, and if you peek at your calendar, you’ll note that day fast approaches. This week’s posting suggests the GameNet server will still go dark at the end of the week. Interestingly, GameNet’s Vebanaul Holdings also admits specifically that Pearl Abyss did not renew its license and puts all responsibility for the future of the game on PA, a bit different in tone from the original post about cooperation.
“This is due to the decision of the copyright owner of the game, Pearl Abyss Corporation […], do not renew our license,” says the company (via Google Translate). “The decision to launch the game on a new platform, as well as further support for the game will be made by the copyright holder. The license agreement with users of the multiplayer online computer game Black Desert is no longer subject to prolongation and is terminated. We thank you for the three years spent together and we hope that you enjoyed the game process.”
Last month, Pearl Abyss itself announced it will indeed be publishing the game in the CIS region, promising a Russian server and the preservation of account info. Pearl Abyss’ new Russian website, however, is a placeholder/splash page, and its VK page (Russian Facebook, basically) this week was updated with a note implying it can’t legally discuss what’s happening to the Russian server until the rights transfer, which is concerning to say the least, since the update before that said the delay was a product of ongoing negotiations. Here’s the latest:
“As announced earlier, on October 12, 2018, due to the expiration of the contract, cooperation between Pearl Abyss and GameNet is coming to an end. Since prior to the expiration of the contract, all rights to the Black Desert Russia game service belong to GameNet, details of Black Desert Russia’s future plans will be announced no earlier than October 13, 2018 (00:00). Pearl Abyss makes every possible effort to solve the problems and provide our users with quality services in a legitimate and reliable manner.”
“Solve the problems”? Yikes. Needless to say, that has Russian players speculating on the likelihood of needing to start over from scratch. Let’s hope that’s not happening.
