A year on from the release of The First Berserker: Khazan, the action RPG set in the Dungeon Fighter Online universe, Nexon has reportedly reassigned a large portion of its production staff due to alleged poor performance.
That’s according to Yonhap News, which reports that a Nexon official has revealed that despite hitting a Steam concurrent peak of just shy of 33,000 players at launch, sales “declined and fell short of market expectations.” This, coupled with licensing delays in getting the game out in China, has resulted in around 100 members of Khazan’s team being told yesterday, April 8, that they have now been moved to the “R Team,” a reassignment division at Neople (thanks, GamesRadar).
It’s true that player numbers have fallen — SteamDB suggests the highest concurrent peak of the last 24 hours is just 1013 players — but it sits on a ‘Very Positive’ Steam score, with 85% of all Steam reviewers leaving a positive review. It also secured a respectable 78 on Metacritic, and publisher Nexon said back in May that the game had “achieved our objective as a strategic first step in a multi-year plan to introduce Dungeon&Fighter IP to a global audience,” albeit admitting Q1 revenue was “below our outlook.”
“As the roadmap for the large-scale Kazan Project enters its completion phase, we have decided to separate the organization responsible for completing the remaining missions from the personnel assigned to other projects that require a concentration of human resources,” a Nexon spokesperson told the outlet (as translated by machine).
“We plan to actively support the personnel with the expertise who led the completion of a global AAA title through the Kazan Project so that they can be assigned to projects where they can utilize their respective experience and capabilities.”
The company insists the team has not been disbanded entirely, but it leaves plans for DLC plans or future ports beyond its current availability on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S in limbo.
The First Berserker: Khazan is described as a “hardcore action role-playing game” with a 3D cel animation graphical style and a dark fantasy setting. It returned a ‘Great’ 8/10 in IGN’s review, where we described it as a “brutal but impressive soulslike that makes pushing through its devastating bosses worth the effort.” Earlier this week, the action RPG celebrated its one-year anniversary, awarding players with an anniversary armor and weapon set called Immortal Fury that includes the Greatsword of Chronicles, Dual Wield of Immortal Adamantine, and Sanguine Vanguard Spear.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
