Pearl Abyss CEO Hoe Jin-young confirmed at the company's 17th annual shareholder meeting that the studio's core development team is transitioning to DokeV, the open-world creature-collecting game first revealed back in 2019, now that Crimson Desert is out the door.
Seven years of waiting, and the clock is still ticking
First shown to the world in 2019, DokeV has had one of the more unusual development arcs in recent memory. It started life as an MMO, then transformed into a solo open-world action adventure packed with K-pop aesthetics, jet-powered skateboards, llama mounts, and creature designs pulled from South Korean mythology. Then came years of near-total silence that had a lot of fans quietly writing it off as vaporware.
Here's the thing: it wasn't dead. According to Jin-young's comments, translated from South Korean publication Inven's coverage of the shareholder meeting, the team can now "pick up the pace" on DokeV and estimates it will take "about two to three years from the current timeline to completion and polishing." That lines up with earlier reporting that Pearl Abyss expected to release DokeV no earlier than 2027, roughly 18 months after Crimson Desert's launch.
What the creature-catcher actually looks like now
The last major public-facing material for DokeV remains its 2021 "world premiere" trailer, which still holds up visually. Confetti cannons, dancing NPCs, jet ski sequences, and monster designs unlike anything else in the genre. The game runs on Pearl Abyss's proprietary BlackSpace Engine, the same tech powering Crimson Desert, so the technical foundation is already proven at scale.
What most players miss when comparing DokeV to Pokemon is just how different the tone appears to be. Where Pokemon leans into structured gym progression, DokeV's trailers suggest something far more freeform, with creature collection woven into an open world that looks built for exploration and spectacle in equal measure.
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The two to three year estimate comes from machine-translated comments made at a shareholder meeting. Pearl Abyss has not issued a formal release window or official English-language statement.
The Crimson Desert handoff
Crimson Desert launched in March 2026 after years of its own delays and a famously early announcement. Its reception was mixed enough that Pearl Abyss share prices dropped 30% following its Metacritic score landing, though the game has found a genuine audience who appreciate its open-world sandbox over its story. The CEO also confirmed at the same shareholder meeting that the studio is exploring a potential Crimson Desert port for Nintendo Switch 2.
With that project now shipped and the team reallocating, DokeV moves from background project to active priority. The key here is that the BlackSpace Engine work done for Crimson Desert should reduce the ramp-up time for DokeV's development, even if the games are tonally worlds apart.
Creatures inspired by Korean folklore
What players who've been waiting should expect
A two to three year window puts DokeV somewhere between late 2027 and early 2029 at the earliest, assuming development stays on track. Given that both DokeV and Crimson Desert were announced before they were ready, patience is probably the right posture here.
The CEO's comments at the shareholder meeting were notably forward-looking. According to the Seoul Economic Daily, Jin-young stated the team would "work to deliver the best results," framing DokeV as a priority title for the studio's next phase. You'll want to keep an eye on any official announcements from Pearl Abyss directly, since the last substantive gameplay reveal is now several years old and the final product could look quite different. Make sure to check out more:
