▲ Black Desert Mobile in-game footage

The details of Black Desert Mobile were revealed at the media showcase held on November 23rd (KST). Some features of the original Black Desert Online on PC were reinterpreted, along with the changes in the perspective to quarter-view and auto mode.

The Warrior, Ranger, Berserker, Valkyrie, and Witch will be introduced at launch, followed by Sorcerer in a later patch. The first locations to be revealed in the game will be the same as on PC - Balenos, Serendia, and Calpheon.

There are 7 categories of content - Open Field PvE, Conquest War, Guild Boss, Labyrinth of Ancients, World Boss, Defeat Missions, and PvP. Along with the life skills that players were able to experience on PC, a feature named domain will be added in the game. The game is expected to provide mobile-specialized features such as hiring workers in the domain and ordering them to decorate the area, or giving a gift to friends.

Enhancement is quite different than how it is on PC. You can set the probability of success by yourself, and you can even redeem the probability after failing an enhancement. You can also carry forward the enhancement points used for the previous item to another one.

There are 8 skill slots in total. As the number of skills is greater than the available slots, you need to select your preferred skills and place them in the slots. You can customize them by assigning a particular effect to each skill.

Although movement is same as on the PC; players can run or ride on a horse, and teleportation can be done by using the Memory of the Altar. In the demonstration, the character used the Memory of the Altar located nearby the Kzarka Shrine and rode on a horse.

Black Desert Mobile is Pearl Abyss’ second title, with around 100 people in all sectors - engine, product management, operation, and 50 developers. The game will be self-published and will launch in January 2018. A simultaneous global launch is planned to be done during the year of 2018.

▲ The official trailer of Black Desert Mobile

Q&A

Could you please tell us why you decided to service the game yourselves?

This is what we decided to do in the end after considering the best way to ‘prepare and provide the service for our own game by ourselves’. We are in the process of preparing intent that we will be able to gain experience from our servicing, and thus be able to clearly reflect the needs of our players in the game development.

As for the server, we have recruited workers who are experienced with mobiles and are in the process of preparing a cloud server, and we also have business, marketing, management, QA, and the platforms all built. We gained some experience from the previous launch in Taiwan, so we decided to service the mobile version by ourselves as well.

You are servicing your game for the PC version as well; we are curious as to how you will continue to service your online content.

It is almost the same in terms of ‘recreation on mobile’; it is difficult to connect both versions together since the same content from the PC version cannot be applied exactly as the same on the mobile version. As for the cross-promotion, we’ve been holding pre-registration for it, but we are not taking the cross-platforming into consideration as part of the gaming contents.

We’d also like to know if the auction system will be applied exactly the same as it is in the PC version.

We will be having convenient features like the auto-bid system added to the mobile version to fit the platform. We will be blocking trade between individuals, which is the basic structure in the original BDO, while having the market economy built in the same manner; you will be able to see the auction mobile-specialized in the UI and convenience aspects.

We’d like to also hear about the BM aspect.

There basically won’t be much randomization for the main gear, and we plan to stick to the basics; we’ll keep the influence of the stats for the costumes to a minimum. As for convenience items, we’ve been taking care in adding them and we are still considering whether or not we will sell these items in a package for the mobile version.

We are preparing the billing system for BDO Mobile in hopes that it won’t become another game where ‘free-to-play users feel frustrated while pay-to-play users get nothing in return for their money’, which is common for other recent mobile games.

It seems like it might be exhausting for the players if they played for a long time since the in-game action is very bright and colourful; is there anything you have prepared for this?

Adding special effects to the game is unavoidable since it is an action game, but we agree that it will certainly be stressful for players to be exposed to it for a long time. We planned it so that players can be more focused on playing even if they are playing for a long time by using the auto-attack system and running the game in the background via sleep mode.

As for the system requirements for mobile, we will be supporting games down to the Galaxy S5. We will keep trying our best to provide optimization for phones even older than this.

Are there any concerns regarding cannibalization for the original game?

We couldn’t just cram the entire vast map and massive content from the PC version into the mobile game. If the PC version offered the players fun from venturing out into the great world with their own characters from the shoulder-view POV, the mobile version offers them a reinterpretation of the game on mobile, which will surely give them a totally different yet fun experience.

We will also be providing new technologies and sound remastering; we applied these on the mobile version, and they will come to the PC version later as well, and will be even better. We promise that we will provide the best service for both games in the future.

Do you have a detailed strategy for overseas expansion since BDO is also popular in other countries?

The only detail we can give out for now is that when we launched Black Desert Online overseas for the first time, we had it localized for each country, but now we have most of them changed by the ‘Global One-Build’. We think that much of the local features of the game are gone for the global players, compared to how it was before.

Thus, we plan to have a similar strategy for Black Desert Online Mobile. However, we plan to fix any parts we must for certain countries.

We’d like to know if the ‘Enhancement’ system from the original version will be applied exactly the same on the mobile version.

As for the Enhancement system, we didn’t take the stack system from the original version. We have built an entirely new system for the mobile version, and came up with other cushioning mechanisms that will reduce the penalty for enhancement failures. The ‘PRI/DUO/TRI/TET/PEN’ system was also built differently from the PC version.

The trading system is also another big feature of the game, but there was no explanation about it in the demonstration. Could you please tell us how it will be applied on the mobile version?

The trading system was one content piece we especially wanted very much, but we have put it aside as a part of a future update for now. It won’t be having players go around the whole map like the original version, and we are thinking of building a system in the form of a merchant league, like escorting trading wagons.

How can we tame horses and will we be able to breed them? Could you tell us about the horse content?

As for the horses, you can tame the ones in the field using the Capturing Rope just in like the original game. Rodeo will be added to the mobile game, in which you’ll need to win to be able to tame the horse, and as for the breeding, it is the same as the original game; you will need to breed horses with higher levels to get better ones at the stable.

However, we made the horse content much easier to enjoy on the mobile game so that players will have a better chance to get higher tier horses than they did on the original version.

We are also curious whether the Awakening for the characters will be the same as the original game.

In the case of the Awakening skills, they will be the same as the PC version in the mobile version, but players won’t be Awakened after hitting a certain level like in the PC version. They could be released on new characters or even changed to better suit the mobile form.

What is the maximum number of players on the same field?

We didn’t have much problem when we tested with 30~40 people ourselves; we haven’t finished testing the server limit yet. We could say about 30 players can play on the same field at minimum.

How will the RvR content be made?

I think it will become a fight where players compete for a certain representative for each server on the mobile version, and something similar to several guilds fighting over a certain area will be added. We are coming up with unique features for the mobile version so that players will be able to experience the Node War and Siege War in a slightly different way.

Your game has been well-known for its huge content ever since before. During what period do you plan to update? We’d also like to know what future content you have.

As for the content, we’ve even prepared a variety of specs for the patch. We will be opening the map for the Calpheon area during the launch, and we already have Mediah and 3 characters ready for the game. We will be providing more one by one in the future, and we will continue to add more classes as we go.

As for the contents such as territory, trade, and militia, we could be adding specialized versions for the mobile game, and we are trying to continue creating content based on the original game.

Could you please tell us what goals you have regarding expansion in the NA market?

Lineage 2 Revolution has recently been placed 14th in the NA Apple App Store. We take this as the beginning of Korean MMORPGs expanding even on the mobile platform, and we will also prepare our’s well so that we will expand in the global market.