Pearl Abyss has revealed that the English version of its action-strategy MMORPG Black Desert will be playable this year. This news comes out of an interview with Black Desert’s western community manager, Oli, that Pearl Abyss conducted itself.
After opening the first EU office last week, Oli reveals that the future EU server has just been received. Now the current focus is on making the teaser site and localizing the rough playable internal build that’s currently available. On the topic of localization, Oli said the community will be asked to look out for any localization mistakes once the early test build is out. “We want to avoid at all cost the bad impression left by other Korean game companies that bring their games to the west with quality standards that don’t match the expectations of US/EU players,” he added.
Regarding exactly when the alpha and beta tests of the English version of Black Desert will arrive, Oli could only say the following: “Note that prior to the Alpha, there will be an early test version of the game but I need to ask players to be a bit more patient about the specifics of when the Alpha or Beta will start this year.”
Oli also said that the aim is to get the European and North American versions of the game launched at the same time but notes that there might be a slight delay. He also confirms that there will be no differences between the European and North American versions other than the languages required for the European version.
As to the difference between the English version and the Korean version of Black Desert, all that Olid could say was that “we are giving a particular attention to the feedback from the US/EU players who played the Korean version so we constantly keep their expectations in mind regarding every BDO US/EU topics.”
Finally, DirectX12 and virtual reality support for Black Desert are being seriously considered but nothing is concrete right now.
