Unless you skip international news on the weekends, you likely read about the devastating tragedy in the Itaewon neighborhood in Seoul, South Korea, as a crowd crush in a packed nightlife district full of Halloween revelers resulted in the deaths of more than 150 people and injured scores more, many of them young. As the world mourns the dead and South Koreans grapple with the investigation and aftermath, local MMORPG companies are making moves of their own: Seoul-suburb-based games studio Pearl Abyss announced that it will be shutting down Halloween festivities in the global version of Black Desert early.
“As you may have already seen on the news, a catastrophic incident occurred in South Korea during the Halloween festivities on Saturday, resulting in the tragic loss of many lives,” the studio wrote yesterday. “In light of this terrible news, we will be ending the currently ongoing Halloween-related events and promotions during the scheduled maintenance on Wednesday, November 2. We ask for your understanding, and we will provide more information in our maintenance notice. Our sincere condolences to all affected by this tragedy.”
A similar missive went out to BDO’s console players, while BDO’s mobile version will end its events as well as its sales today and tomorrow.
