Nexon CEO admits The First Descendant had 'no staying power,' and that can't be addressed with a quick fix: 'These are design issues that are not fixed with a patch'

The First Descendant screen — (Image credit: Nexon)

The First Descendant's launch hype went over like a bag of candy smuggled into a movie theater—exciting at first, but regrettably short-lived. While last July it was celebrating a screaming high of 10 million players in its first week alone, SteamDB shows the game has simmered to around 5,000 concurrent players as I write this. Steam user reviews add up to a "mixed" user rating, and even Nexon's CEO has weighed in on the game's dubious trajectory.

The company discussed the game in a recent capital markets briefing to investors (thanks, GamesRadar), with CEO Junghun Lee giving clear examples of games that did well for Nexon and games that fell off. Where Arc Raiders and MapleStory got kudos, The First Descendant showed up alongside Dungeon & Fighter Mobile on a slide bluntly labeled "What Did Not Work."

Article continues below

The stinger is that while the presentation names a range of plans to keep the Dungeon & Fighter train moving through various upcoming games and updates, Lee doesn't mention The First Descendant again. It's not clear what the company's long-term plans for the looter shooter are, but it sounds like it'll need a more robust resuscitation than jiggle physics or the bizarre AI ads that showed up on TikTok can offer it.

Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now...

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.