The First Berserker: Khazan sold 500k copies and got glazed by Nexon's CEO. Days later, the studio got dissolved. What went wrong in this game dev tragedy?
Imagine shipping an absolute banger of a game. Reviews are glowing green on Steam, you've moved half a million units, and your publisher's CEO is literally online glazing your work. You'd think the year-end bonus is secured, right? Think again. A few days later, the entire studio gets nuked from orbit. Welcome to the brutal reality of corporate game dev.
This is exactly what just went down with the development team behind The First Berserker: Khazan. It’s a massive slap in the face that has the entire Reddit gaming community dropping their jaws and furiously typing away.
For those out of the loop: Khazan is a solid Action RPG with sick combat mechanics and fantastic art direction. It launched to great critical and community reception, easily pushing past the 500,000 copies sold milestone. Just last week, Nexon's CEO was publicly patting them on the back, praising the game's high quality.
Fast forward a few days: Nexon pulls the plug, dissolving the studio entirely due to "disappointing sales." Talk about giving someone whiplash. One day you're the golden child, the next day you're carrying a cardboard box out of the office.
The gaming subreddit is currently on fire, and the debate is splitting into three distinct camps:
The Shock and Copium Camp: Most players are just baffled. "Half a million copies sold and it's a failure?!" To the average gamer, 500k sounds like a massive W. The game was genuinely good, yet it got axed because it didn't hit some imaginary, sky-high corporate KPI.
The "Never Trust Nexon" Veterans: If you've played games for a while, you know Nexon's reputation. As one user bluntly put it: "Honestly, you'd be pretty wise to avoid anything with Nexon's name attached to it." Add to that the fact that their NA marketing push was practically non-existent, and you have a recipe for underperforming in western markets.
The Math Check (The Brutal Truth): The most eye-opening perspective came from a user named NerfAkira. This game actually started years ago as "Project BBQ" (a 3D version of Dungeon Fighter Online). You have a team of over 100 people working on this beast for at least half a decade.
Let's do the math: 500k copies sold equals roughly $15 million in actual revenue after platform cuts (like Steam's 30%) and other overhead. Divide $15M by 100 developers over 5 years. That means to just break even, devs would be living on absolute poverty wages—less than $15k a year. The reality? The game probably needed to sell 1.5M to 2M copies just to justify keeping the lights on. Honestly, they might've been better off taking the indie route and relying on crowdfunding to avoid this corporate mess.
What's the takeaway for us code monkeys and game devs?
Game dev is a passion-driven industry, but at the end of the day, the spreadsheets run the show. Big F in the chat for the Khazan dev team. You guys cooked, even if the suits couldn't handle the heat. GG.
Source: Reddit r/gaming
