A “good” game allegedly wiped billions off a company’s value.

Shares of the studio Pearl Abyss fell after early reviews for Crimson Desert were not as strong as expected.

The stock reportedly dropped roughly 33% in a single trading session, as investors reacted to those early reviews coming out.

After years of development and marketing, Crimson Desert was expected to be one of Pearl Abyss’ biggest releases this year going in.

On March 17, Crimson Desert became the top-selling paid game on Steam, generating $20 million in pre-order revenue, though that early momentum did not fully carry through.

The title was expected to achieve top-tier reviews from critics and commercial success comparable to leading open-world RPGs.

According to Seoul Economic Daily, Pearl Abyss was trading 28.96% lower on March 19 compared to its March 18 closing.

Disappointing preview reviews are cited as the reason for the drop, even though the game’s feedback has been generally positive.

Some critics gave it near-perfect scores. Metacritic placed it at around 77, while OpenCritic gave it 80 out of 100 based on 48 reviews. The scores are favorable but fall short of the benchmark set before release.

Despite early positive reviews, not everyone rated it as highly. That mixed response made it feel like the game is good, but not anything standout, and investors pulled back.

Critical reception of Crimson Desert

Critics have pointed to the game’s visuals, world design, and overall scale as strengths. At the same time, there have been concerns around gameplay and the UI.

The overall reception points to a game that delivers on scale and presentation, but not consistently across all areas. Some of the praise has focused on how it looks and the size of its world, while criticism has come from how it plays moment to moment.

That gap is what seems to be shaping the early response around the game.

Crimson Desert’s performance won’t depend only on early impressions. Player feedback, updates after launch, and how sales hold up over time will all play a part.

Pearl Abyss expects the response to improve once more players spend time with the game. The map is said to be about twice the size of Skyrim’s, so there’s a lot of content to go through.

The company is now counting on players sticking with it to build some momentum and bring back investor confidence.

Read more at Gaming Community by Max Level!

Written by

Ruwa Javed

Edited by

Pulkit Prabhav