We here at COGconnected reviewed Black Desert Online recently, and we liked it. And it seems we weren’t alone, as Daum Games today announced that the MMORPG title has sold 400,000 copies in its first month on the European and North American markets. As a result, Black Desert Online is expected to become one of Korea’s most successful games in the West as it is drawing pretty favorable early responses with its new player base.
“Considering the upward trend, I expect that the game will achieve over one million sales this year. What’s impressive is these figures far exceed those in the domestic market,” Daum Games Europe CEO Min Kim said in an interview in Seoul, last Wednesday.
Daum Games attributes much of the success to adopting a premium business model for Western audiences as opposed to the free-to-play model used in Korea. After purchasing the game once, players have access to all content updates for free as they become available. Daum Games is planning to catch up on the Korean service by delivering near-monthly content updates for European and North American players to enjoy.
Furthermore, Black Desert Online’s cash shop is apparently also performing extremely well. “A game with a buy-to-play business model normally has a much lower conversion rate for paid in-game items compared to free-to-play games,” explains Kim. “But Black Desert Online is recording a much higher pay ratio than the average 11 percent normally seen in free-to-play games.” Our review bemoaned the lack of interesting offerings and the steep price, but it hasn’t seemed to hurt sales.
According to Daum’s announcement, Black Desert Online now boasts an average of 100.000 concurrent users, which is pretty good for an IP that was virtually unknown in the West until recently. Stay tuned here for further news on Black Desert Online, and check out our man Lucas Raycevick’s tips to help you dominate the Desert!
SOURCE: Press Release