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.
• Pearl Abyss Q2 2024: Equinox bolstered EVE Online revenues as Crimson Desert waits in the wings
• Pearl Abyss Q1 2024: Revenues hold steady as Crimson Desert gears up for reveals
• Black Desert celebrates 55M registered players and €2B revenue since 2014
• Pearl Abyss Q4 2023: Well at least EVE Online had a good financial year
• Pearl Abyss Q3 2023: Black Desert’s Land of the Morning Light pulled PA out of its slump
• Pearl Abyss Q2 2023: EVE surges, Black Desert stumbles, Crimson Desert hedges
• Pearl Abyss Q1 2023: Black Desert and EVE Online revenues continue to decline
• CCP Games’ CEO defends Project Awakening’s existence as the studio seeks a blockchain ecosystem dev
• MMO Week in Review: Carn Dûm, Diablo IV, and CCP’s blockchain gamble
• CCP Games laid off more than dozen staffers from its EVE Online and FPS studios
• Pearl Abyss Q4 2022: Revenues decline as Black Desert and EVE hold steady and Crimson Desert malingers
• Pearl Abyss Q3 2022: DokeV and Crimson Desert delays, CCP’s new blockchain game, and EVE Online’s uptick
• CCP Games’ VR multiplayer game aspirations expire as EVE Valkyrie, Sparc, and EVE Gunjack go dark
• Pearl Abyss Q1 2022: Black Desert revenues take a hit, EVE Online hangs in there
• EVE Online boss: NFT stands for ‘Not for Tranquility’
• EVE Online and Black Desert studio Pearl Abyss believes it can ‘create a stable blockchain ecosystem’
• Desert Oasis: Unearthing the origin story of Black Desert studio Pearl Abyss
• Pearl Abyss downgraded DokeV from an MMORPG to ‘open-world action adventure’
• Pearl Abyss has delayed Crimson Desert indefinitely
• Pearl Abyss Q4 2020: An overall drop in profits and revenue but a revenue rise on PC
• Pearl Abyss Q3 2020: EVE Online’s revenues are up 45% YOY, Crimson Desert reveal coming in December
• Pearl Abyss Q2 2020: EVE Online is doing great, NA/EU drives 48% of company revenues
• Pearl Abyss Q1 2020 financials: Black Desert, EVE Online revenues hold steady
• Pearl Abyss had a strong Q4 2019, but CCP’s EVE-spinoff Project Nova is officially canceled
• G-Star 2019: Pearl Abyss fully reveals Crimson Desert, Plan 8, Shadow Arena, and DokeV
• Pearl Abyss announces three new MMOs: Crimson Desert, Plan 8, and DokeV
• Q2 2019 financials: Black Desert’s Pearl Abyss rakes in huge profits, builds six new games
• Black Desert has 18M registered players as Pearl Abyss counts $1B gross sales
• EVE Online developer CCP Games bought by Black Desert Online studio Pearl Abyss
• Q1 2018: Black Desert studio Pearl Abyss had a record first quarter thanks to mobile