The Neople development staff behind action RPG The First Berserker: Khazan have reportedly been reassigned under parent company Nexon following disappointing sales for the game, effectively splitting up the team.
An April 8 report from Korean outlet Yonhap News, citing a statement from a Nexon official, says personnel have been moved to other projects that will benefit from their experience. Neople apparently claimed this doesn’t represent the dissolution of the Khazan team, but the future of the game – which was updated as recently as March 31 – is murky.
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Complications with the delayed China release of Khazan are actually mentioned by Yonhap News as one factor in its sales struggles.
Elsewhere in the briefing, Khazan is mentioned as part of “publishing agreements with Tencent to bring high-potential Nexon games like THE FINALS, ARC Raiders, and The First Berzerker: Khazan to millions of new players in China.”
High-potential or not, it seems The First Berserker: Khazan wasn’t cutting it at Nexon. The company said last year that, despite good reviews, it had missed sales targets, yet even then it stressed the value of getting folks into Dungeon & Fighter indirectly.
“The game made its global debut on March 28 with strong ratings from both players and critics,” Nexon said in an earnings call at the time. “While Q1 revenue was below our outlook, the game achieved our objective as a strategic first step in a multi-year plan to introduce Dungeon & Fighter IP to a global audience.”
If this Neople breakup is as complete as it sounds, you’ll find me joining the Soulslike and action RPG fans pouring one out for the Khazan follow-up that might have been. The game had great combat and terrible level design – exactly the kind of game that would benefit from a sequel reinforcing what it does well and correcting what it does poorly.
I have some hopes for Neople’s Project Overkill, but it’s described by Nexon as “an online action RPG for PC and console which fully modernizes combat physics, visuals, and overall presentation while reinterpreting Dungeon & Fighter’s icon raids, dungeons and cooperative play,” so it sounds like it may not scratch the same itch. Nexon’s Vindictus: Defying Fate might be a bit closer, promising perfectly timed dodges and counters in a fast-paced action combat system.
Blighted, the cannibal Soulslike Metroidvania action RPG with “psychedelic Western nightmare” art, is a lot to swallow.
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