Pearl Abyss Q2 2023: EVE surges, Black Desert stumbles, Crimson Desert hedges

August is a month of quarterly financials, and the season hasn’t been kind to the type of MMO company that publishes its numbers. So it goes too with Pearl Abyss, the South Korean conglom that operates Black Desert as well as CCP’s EVE Online.

According to its Q2 investor report, the company saw another drop in revenues and profits – a 16.6% drop in revenue compared to this quarter last year.

EVE Online players have reason to breathe a little easier as the EVE franchise pulled in its biggest revenues in over a year, its second-biggest under Pearl Abyss’ tenure ever – and Fanfest has yet to begin.

But as Nosy Gamer notes, Pearl Abyss told investors on the conference call that the overall dip in finances was generated both by annual cycles and by Black Desert in particular. Black Desert saw its weakest quarter in a year, falling nearly 24% since Q2 2022 owing to – as PA puts it – heavy competition on console and mobile. However, this was also the quarter that BDO PC released its massive annual expansion, Land of the Morning Light, which apparently wasn’t enough to bolster the flagging title.

Of course, Pearl Abyss has multiple games malingering in development, including DokeV, Plan 8, and Crimson Desert, the last of which will apparently finally see a new trailer drop at Gamescom. It remains unclear whether Crimson Desert will actually make its current planned 2023 launch.