Black Desert Online is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2024, and developer Pearl Abyss has just revealed its upcoming content plans for the game - including the 28th class arriving in the coming weeks.

The Korean MMO first launched back in 2014, with it later launching in western territories in 2016. As a fan of RPGs that’s been tentative about MMOs, it’s been on my radar for a while. Boasting an extreme amount of content across its expansions, and with a community that literally upholds the working systems of the game, the latest updates announced at the Heidel Ball might just be what gets me to take the plunge.

I’ve listed out the biggest additions coming to the game later in 2024 below, so you can decide on whether you’d also like to experience the billion-dollar MMO that’s striving to topple the likes of World of Warcraft and FFXIV.

Pearl Abyss reveals all on Black Desert’s 2024 roadmap

2023 saw the launch of The Land of the Morning Light expansion, and it’s now getting a further addition in the form of Seoul. Inspired by the real-world location, it will feature iconic architecture such as the Gyeongbokgung Palace, Hanyang Yukjo Street, and Gyeonghoeru Pavilion, dressed up to fit with the medieval theme. The team worked with the Cultural Heritage Administration in Korea to make this happen, with a combination of drone footage and LIDAR used to keep the game feeling as authentic as ever.

This latest expansion will continue the NPC storylines that began in the first expansion and will feature 10 new bosses for players to tackle. An exciting prospect here is that adventurers will be able to team up with a group of four other players to tackle these bosses. Pearl Abyss considered developing these bosses as 10-20 player guild raids, but decided against this approach to boost the sense of satisfaction gained from overcoming the boss with a smaller group.

Just like the original expansion, the bosses and storylines are all rooted in Korean folklore, which is an exciting prospect for those looking to learn more about the developer's culture. However, the development team explains that much of the expansion storyline is wrapped up in a more traditional political intrigue plotline, which should be approachable for a global audience.

The Land of the Morning Light: Seoul is coming on August 7 in Korea, but global players will need to wait until Fall to get in on the action. This is to allow a little more time for Pearl Abyss to finalise localisation.

Perhaps the most exciting addition coming to Black Desert Online is the new swordsman class, Dosa, which is the 28th to be added to the MMO. He wields both a sword and a ‘Gombangdae’, a traditional Korean smoking pipe. In a CG trailer shown to press, this appears to have magical properties, with the character summoning magical copies of himself to distract and attack his opponents.

In a short gameplay showcase, he’s also shown to unleash flurries of aggressive sword strikes on his opponents, summoning apparitions to assist in combat. As he dashes in and out of danger, it looks as though Dosa will be one of the more nimble, aggressive classes in the game. If there was ever a trailer to sell the action-based combat of Black Desert Online, it’s this one.

The class will be available as part of a global update on July 3rd, a little ways ahead of the Seoul expansion.

Why play Black Desert Online in 2024?

For new players (like myself) who might find this massive MMO overwhelming, the game has recently seen a few quality-of-life features. For example, new adventurers are awarded a Dream horse right from the off, making traversal of the game’s massive map far easier. There’s also a bunch of inventory decluttering and loading screen streamlining on the way, which both new and existing players will no doubt appreciate.

Black Desert Online is getting more accessible, too. While the game has been available on consoles since 2019, it’s now getting a native PS5 build that heavily improves upon the graphical fidelity - particularly in the draw distance department. The frame rate is also boosted in the updated build, with loading times considerably shortened. However, there's no ETA on when this is coming just yet.

Looking further ahead, Pearl Abyss also announced further updates that promise to bring even more content to the already jam-packed game. There's the Dawnbreak mountain region, which will feature a 100-floor dungeon, each more challenging than the last.

And even further beyond that, Pearl Abyss teased that future expansions will take adventurers back in time to explore the world map thousands of years in the past. Many of the biomes have been completely changed up, with the current desert region being revamped into a verdant sprawl of grasslands.

All of this is much further away, but with Black Desert celebrating its tenth anniversary, the team at Pearl Abyss wanted to give its community a glimpse of what the next decade will bring. If you're thinking about jumping into this huge MMO, there's plenty of content for you to sink your teeth into, with the convey belt seemingly never-ending as the title goes from strength to strength.

Announced in style

These announcements were made as part of the Heidel Ball event, which is being hosted at Chateux-de-Beynac. The French castle heavily inspired the in-game town of Heidel, which Jaehee Kim, Executive Producer of Black Desert Online, fondly told attending press was initially recreated by pouring over Google Maps from their home studio in South Korea.

For the game’s 10th anniversary, the real-life castle has been dressed up to replicate the digital recreation, with plenty of quests to complete and a medieval banquet for invited super-fans of the game to enjoy. In a roundtable interview, Kim expressed his gratitude for the community that made the game what it is today, amassing over 40 million players since it first launched in South Korea back in 2014.

“I couldn’t even imagine [visiting Beynac Castle] from the beginning, and I’d like to thank our players for making it possible,” Kim said. “Being here is such an emotionally charged experience, and it’s only possible because of our players who supported us worldwide, and we thank them for that.”

Preview access provided by the publisher.