Pearl Abyss paid its employees a 5 million won bonus after Crimson Desert reached 5 million sales: 'Our journey does not end here'

Kliff has a bird perched on his forearm. — (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

Crimson Desert's been having a moment. On April 15, it hit five million sales, and last week the prime minister of South Korea celebrated the achievement, calling it a "new chapter in K-content". To top it all off, Pearl Abyss has paid its employees a 5 million won bonus, or around $3,392/£2,513.

This was reported yesterday by Digital Today (via machine-translation), and Pearl Abyss has confirmed the payout. I've also asked the company to confirm its current staff headcount. According to an earnings presentation from November, it had 1,323 employees, which would make the total bonus paid 6.6 million won, or $4.5 million/£3.3 million.

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The post-launch support has been wild, with Pearl Abyss diligently tackling a lot of the biggest complaints about the game—which originally lacked any storage for all the junk Kliff loots, along with some questionable fast travel choices—while chucking in new features just because it can, as if the game wasn't already massive enough. The devs have more than earned their bonus.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.