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Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss is officially in pre-production for another boundless adventure DokeV, its Pokemon-esque monster catcher first announced in 2019. But, uh, forget about that last part – Pearl Abyss is hoping to redefine itself as a developer with lean release cycles after Crimson Desert took seven bloated years.
Pearl Abyss confirms reports from March and explains in its new Q1 earnings letter that DokeV is officially "in development," as is its self-described "exosuit MMO shooter" Plan 8. Both games were originally announced in 2019, as was Crimson Desert, but Pearl Abyss is suddenly fired up about "maintaining a new title release cycle of every 2-3 years."
DokeV will be the first of the two games to benefit from that lightning zap of motivation, as Pearl Abyss says, "We will prioritize resources on DokeV to accelerate development. In addition, DokeV is currently in the pre-production stage, and we will share updates as development progresses." Plan 8, in comparison, is only in "the conceptualization stage" according to Pearl Abyss.
But it sounds like the developer might start chipping away at the shooter, too, saying not not vaguely that, "While focusing resources on the development of DokeV, we will strive to maintain the consistent release cycle." So, at the moment, it seems like Pearl Abyss is targeting a 2029 release at the latest for DokeV and a 2031 launch for Plan 8, if it manages to keep its promise to itself about working faster.
That means DokeV could come out a full decade after having been announced in 2019. Plan 8 – which is harder to pinpoint, since it's only in "conceptualization" now – could take around 12 years from its announcement to deliver. These are GTA 6 wait times for MMOs with no franchises to lean on for support, and no built-in hype, so I do wonder why Pearl Abyss decided to show off three apparently massive games – Crimson Desert, DokeV, and Plan 8 – all at the same time.
To be fair, even Pearl Abyss itself is confused about this. Marketing director Will Powers reflected earlier this year and said about Crimson Desert, "We're kind of victims of ourselves – we announced the game too early, and, honestly, that's just inarguable."
He continues to say, "The game changed, and we built an engine, and not just for this game, but an additional engine altogether. So it's not just strictly development time for a singular title. But if we had to do it again, I don't think anyone would say we should announce the game six-and-a-half years in advance."
As another example of Pearl Abyss' ill-informed approach to game reveals, in a 2019 press release, the developer told people interested in DokeV and its "dokebi" dream monsters to wait for a beta test in 2020, and that never happened. But it seems Pearl Abyss has finally learned its lesson.
