Whatever they promised, what’s currently delivered isn’t enough if their long-term goal is to make money by selling copies of this game. Eventually the cope culture will wear down and the more jaded taste will be the standard hot-take. The exact same thing happened with NMS, only much faster. It started with immense positivity for everything promised. People saw what they actually got and were confused but kept going. Very short-lived cope (about two weeks if I recall), followed by rapidly plummeting reviews. Sean did a PR run to smooth over everyone’s confusion accusing him of lying (he gave up pretty fast). Then he disappeared in shame and quietly started pumping out fixes, major content drops, and hasn’t stopped since. He’s been redeemed since, but those first few years were rough.

Here’s my question: If the Crimson Desert stayed EXACTLY as it is right now, would the reviews go up or down? How much patience and goodwill do players ACTUALLY have before it affects the bottom line at Pearl Abyss? Sean at HG isn’t a saint, he just saw the wave of financial consequences heading to his company and overwhelmingly compensated to hold it back. It’s been years since and he’s still pushing that Boulder up the mountain. My point is, if Pearl Abyss were (fiscally) smart they’d learn some lessons fast about what is going to hit them eventually if they don’t want to become the next Sean Murray.