Pearl Abyss has revealed why it continues to patch Crimson Desert without relying on a rigid, pre-set roadmap: the company prefers not to make assumptions about what players want.
| 📒 | - Marketing Director Will Powers discusses the approach of not pre-determining user needs - Over a decade of live service experience informs the strategy for Crimson Desert - 'An indie publisher with AAA quality' and a flexible response structure |
In an interview with The Washington Post, Pearl Abyss Marketing Director Will Powers outlined the company's post-launch operational strategy for Crimson Desert. While the game received mixed reviews upon release, analysts have noted that its weekly large-scale updates have shifted the game's reception. Recently, the company announced that sales have surpassed 5 million units.
Powers attributed this success to the fact that there is effectively no fixed roadmap. This differs from the typical approach for console-focused games, which often release seasonal roadmaps early on and roll out content in stages. He explained that there is 'no officially dated roadmap shared externally,' noting that both patches and content are developed in real-time based on player feedback. He added that 'if you set a roadmap in stone, it eventually becomes just a guess,' explaining that their philosophy is to avoid pre-determining what users might want.
Powers cited Pearl Abyss' live service expertise as the reason this operational model is possible. He noted that the operational intuition gained from managing an MMORPG that has received consistent content updates since its 2015 launch has been successfully applied to the single-player RPG Crimson Desert.
Despite being a game without microtransactions, Crimson Desert has maintained a patch cycle similar to that of a live service game. This approach differs from typical AAA single-player titles and is being cited as a case that has sparked new discussions regarding post-launch support for AAA games. Powers described the company as 'an indie publisher with AAA quality,' highlighting their structural advantage of being able to respond flexibly to user reactions without being hindered by external decision-making processes.
Meanwhile, Powers shared an open perspective on incorporating user feedback, stating, 'We don't insist that an idea can't be in the game just because it didn't come from us.' He confirmed that the company will continue to add new content through free updates and expansions, adding that this is simply business as usual rather than anything extraordinary.
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