South Korean game publisher Pearl Abyss said that its highly anticipated Black Desert Mobile is available for preorder on iOS and pre-registration on the Google Play Store.
The open-world action massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a free-to-play fantasy title launching in Southeast Asia, North America and Europe in December. What’s unique about this mobile game is that it has 3D graphics imagery that is close to PC quality.
Above: The Black Desert Mobile team at Gamescom 2019. JJ Jin is in the middle.
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi
Black Desert Mobile offers the same core combat and customization gameplay that over 20 million players have experienced across PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 platforms. I got a good look at it at the recent Gamescom 2019 event in Cologne, Germany. The game has generated more than $1 billion in revenue, and that enabled Pearl Abyss to acquire CCP Games.
“One of the reasons we developed Black Desert on mobile is that we really wanted to show players that the mobile experience can be as interesting as the PC online game,” said JJ Jin, CEO of Pearl Abyss U.S., in an interview. “We re-interpreted it to put the whole experience on mobile, starting from the ground up. The variety of gameplay is the most important part of Black Desert. We think we can make it the highest quality in the world.”
The game is already live in East Asia, and it has been extremely popular, with the number of downloads surpassing 10 million in that region. It is built on a proprietary mobile game engine.
Above: Black Desert Mobile’s character models are very good quality.
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi
Black Desert Mobile requires players to manage a camp, fight challenging world bosses, and engage in player-versus-player content such as Node/Siege Wars. Players can choose from five character classes to begin their adventures to discover their potential – the Warrior, Ranger, Giant, Witch, or Valkyrie.
Above: A boss in Black Desert Mobile.
Image Credit: Pearl Abyss
The world of Black Desert Mobile features updated maps and in-game content compared to Black Desert Online, thanks to improvements in graphical processing with Pearl Abyss’ proprietary engine. One thing you can do in mobile is set a destination for your character and send it off on autopilot. The character will move automatically until it gets to the place or is intercepted.
You can zoom in on the character’s faces and they look as good as they do on the PC, which is pretty spectacular.