Pearl Abyss Shares Plunge 29% as 'Crimson Desert' Reviews Disappoint

Pearl Abyss (263750) shares plunged in early trading on May 19 as investors dumped the stock following disappointing preview reviews of its new game "Crimson Desert."

As of 11:27 a.m., Pearl Abyss was trading at 46,600 won, down 19,000 won (28.96%) from the previous session.

According to global game review aggregator Metacritic, "Crimson Desert" received a score of 78 out of 100 as of 7 a.m. Monday. Some outlets including Forbes and MMORPG.com praised the game's technical polish and content scale.

However, Game Informer, GameSpot, and Eurogamer gave scores in the 60-70 range, citing weak narrative execution, clunky controls, and overly complex content structure.

Metacritic scores aggregate multiple critic reviews, with 75 or above generally considered positive. However, the market had expected a score in the mid-to-high 80s, and the lower-than-anticipated result appears to have weighed on the stock.

"Crimson Desert" is an open-world action-adventure game that Pearl Abyss spent approximately seven years developing, with development costs alone reaching 200 billion won. The game is scheduled for simultaneous global release on May 20 across major platforms including PC Steam, Apple Mac, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and GeForce Now.