Not everything surrounding Pearl Abyss’s game released a few days ago is rosy. Even anonymously, the developers are speaking out about the circumstances of Crimson Desert.

Despite massive anticipation, the game has already sold two million copies. However, feedback from critics and users is nowhere near as positive as Pearl Abyss investors had hoped. This resulted in a 30% drop in the stock price on Thursday and a 10% drop on Friday. Some developers have decided to speak out anonymously about issues that plagued the game’s lengthy development process. The game was postponed indefinitely in 2021 and resurfaced two years later.

Two detailed posts appeared on Blind, an anonymous professional social network primarily used by people in technology and finance, describing events behind the scenes at Crimson Desert. Employees must verify their identities using their work email addresses to post on Blind. The story differs significantly from the original plan and is undoubtedly one of the game’s weakest and most criticized aspects. The original plan seems much more interesting than the final plot. The posts also touch on a culture of subordination where personal opinions are not valued.

“The story wasn’t finalized until right before the release. Therefore, a story trailer could not be released. Since it is a story about a mercenary group, there is inevitably no mention of the group. The fact that it only follows the protagonist, Kliff, is also due to this. Additionally, Kliff was originally named ‘Macduff,’ but the name was changed because it had a serial killer vibe. The story originally started with a young king who had his throne usurped coming to the Greymanes. A middle-aged prime minister who was looking after the young king and princess came and asked to make them royalty. The story was about recapturing a type of currency manufactured from minerals that could only be collected in the Crimson Desert region. In the process of occupying the Crimson Desert to seize hegemony and make them royalty, the prime minister was supposed to betray them and try to become king himself. The story is about stopping that and winning.

During this time, a director was forced out in a power struggle and resigned. Once someone from an art background became General Manager, they started overturning everything. This person is a general manager in name only and is just a compliant subordinate. Every person in the team who holds a rank is just a compliant subordinate. Individual will? Personal opinion? They do not exist. That is why they can hold a rank. The current result is what happened when everything began to change for art. Ervin was originally that young king’s bodyguard, after all.

A high-ranking leader once told me, “Do you know why you can’t be one of us? It’s because a leader has to look in the same direction we do.” What he meant was that they only want people who unconditionally say “yes,” follow orders, and never talk back. In other words, everyone at the top of that inverted pyramid thinks exactly the same way. I believe most of my colleagues involved in development knew that Crimson Desert was going off the rails. However, I don’t think many were in a position to speak up about it. As I said before, they don’t acknowledge anyone who doesn’t share their mindset exactly.

They praise their own work as “amazing,” and whenever they see something that looks good, they shove it in. Because it became such a hodgepodge of features crammed together, the control layout must have been a mess, too. It was inevitable that Crimson Desert would become a disaster. I don’t think a proper direction can ever emerge from a company that suppresses people for pointing out mistakes,” the posts read.

Both posts agreed that senior management borrowed too many features from other games, such as the Sky Islands region, which was inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, without justification and at the expense of the gameplay, which became unnecessarily complicated.

Source: WCCFTech, Reddit