When a game misses the mark, publishers often look for a silver lining – good feedback or design strengths, for instance – or gloss over the dud with soft language meant to reassure shareholders the same way a weighted blanket might reassure an anxious dog. Rarely do they literally put that game in a presentation under the category of "What Did Not Work," as Nexon recently did with The First Descendant, a third-person looter shooter that has been treading some amount of water since its June 2024 release.
Nexon's March 31 capital markets briefing yielded a treasure trove of comments on AI and Arc Raiders, as well as stark reflection on the company's recent releases. "Let me start with an assessment of what didn't work," read remarks from president and CEO Junghun Lee.
Dungeon & Fighter Mobile, a new entry in the long-running DNF franchise that's quietly huge in Asia, is evaluated first. Lee says it "launched with terrific momentum in 2024, then lost its way. The retention mechanics weren't strong enough to hold players long-term."
Lee adds: "Same issue with The First Descendant: Strong launch, no staying power. These are design issues that are not fixed with a patch – they require structural changes to game mechanics."
Somewhere in this talk of retention mechanics, you might wonder the value assigned to how fun the game was, but perhaps that gets into the design issues Lee mentions.
As ever, Steam figures provide the clearest look into The First Descendant's trajectory. The game is also on PS5 and Xbox Series X, but data for these consoles is scarce apart from user reviews (3.97 and 3 stars, respectively).
The First Descendant has amassed an impressive 110,112 reviews on Steam at the time of writing, but with a less impressive 57% average score (perfectly matching its MetaCritic score, as it happens). SteamDB shows an average of well under 10,000 concurrent players for the past few months, with a 24-hour peak of 4,981, compared against a July 1 launch peak of 264,860. Population decline is expected and normal, of course, but it's clear The First Descendant hasn't met Nexon's expectations in the long run.
The First Descendant is ticking along in some capacity. A small new patch is coming April 2, and Nexon is still rolling out character and seasonal updates that seem to lean more and more into sex appeal with each passing thumbnail. This has always been a loudly sexy game, but it does feel like this quality has been amped up over time. It did give Nier: Automata's 2B what must be her 87th collab, so at least Yoko Taro is thankful for it.
