Commenting on reports of The First Berserker: Khazan developer Neople being broken up and reassigned over weak sales, parent company Nexon says the move was "not related to workforce reduction or team dissolution" but rather a "planned reallocation" of staff.
On April 8, Korean outlet Yonhap News reported that the Neople team behind The First Berserker: Khazan had been reassigned as a consequence of the game's poor sales, just days after Nexon CEO Junghun Lee praised the game in a company financial presentation. Khazan reviewed well and only improved with significant post-launch support, which included the surprising but welcome addition of a female main character, but the game was seemingly viewed as a commercial flop.
In response to questions from GamesRadar+, Nexon reiterates that, "The First Berserker: Khazan is the first of three games designed to introduce our Dungeon&Fighter to a global audience. The game got off to a solid launch with good critical scores in Western markets on both PC and console."
Dungeon&Fighter, if you've missed it, is an old and staggeringly big action and MMO-lite IP that's most popular in Asia. The First Berserker: Khazan takes place in the DNF universe, but in a distantly connected way that doesn't punish you for being unfamiliar with the franchise. It also plays very differently, which is what earned it such love from Soulslike fans.
Khazan's post-launch support was a factor in this reassignment plan, it seems. "As the development roadmap for The First Berserker: Khazan enters its final stage, Neople has reorganized its teams to more effectively allocate resources across current and future projects, including the pipeline of games designed to attract players in every major market globally," Nexon says.
Yonhap News reported Neople staff were informed of these changes at a meeting this week. Nexon stresses, "This adjustment is not related to workforce reduction or team dissolution. It reflects a planned reallocation of talent to support live service operations and new initiatives across Neople and Nexon affiliates."
Asked about the sales performance and internal targets of The First Berserker: Khazan, a representative adds: "We don't disclose individual game sales, but we're proud of the game's creative direction and the positive response from fans."
Nexon did not comment on the future of the Khazan IP, but regardless of the company's intentions, the confirmed reassignment of the people behind it pretty comfortably puts it on ice. Fans hoping for more DLC or a direct follow-up had best reassign those hopes to future experiments for DNF, or other Neople and Nexon action RPGs like Vindictus: Defying Fate. If we're lucky, the best parts of Khazan – really, the best singular part: the combat – will inform future Nexon releases in the same action space.
