The first batch of reviews have been rolling in for Crimson Desert, and while they’re pretty good, they aren’t quite as hot as many expected.
The open world action game is much anticipated, and is seemingly on track to be a big hit this year. That’s likely to still come true, but it seems that there’s been a very mixed reception from critics — and this has had quite a dramatic impact for the studio.
As reported by Seoul Economic Daily (thanks, VGC), the share price for Pearl Abyss — developer and publisher of the game — was ₩65,600 ($43.79) on Wednesday, before reviews arrived.
The initial reviews came out later in the day, and have so far amounted to a 78 on Metacritic. This is of course far from a bad average, but it seems the market was expecting much higher scores across the board.
The share price fell to ₩46,000 ($30.70) as a result — a decrease of 29.8 per cent.
There has obviously been a lot of excitement online for Crimson Desert, with many clips of the game going viral on social media thanks to its sprawling world map and varied gameplay mechanics.
It seems all the buzz around the game set up expectations that it would deliver a much higher Metascore than the one it currently has, and that’s ultimately the cause of the developer’s market value going down.
Again, we expect the game will still sell very well and will likely continue to be a talking point as players finally get their hands on it and are able to judge for themselves.
This will be quite crucial for PS5 players especially, as console footage of the game has been sparse prior to release.
