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

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.

"I express deep respect and gratitude for the hard work of each and every one of you who created a result the world is enthusiastic about," Pearl Abyss CEO Jin-young Heo told staff, "and I will pay a 'congratulations bonus for reaching 5 million sales' to all employees who quietly fulfilled their roles in their respective positions."

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He went on to say, "Our journey does not end here. This possibility we confirmed today will be the most powerful driving force to overcome any challenge we face in the future."

Pearl Abyss could probably rest on its laurels, but soon after reaching the last sales milestone it went ahead and released its biggest update yet, introducing a bevy of quality of life improvements, new pets, new armour and difficulty options.

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.

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