Daum Games Black Desert – Guide To Its Features And History

Daum Games Black Desert is the name many players still use for the early years of Black Desert Online, the action MMORPG made by South Korean studio Pearl Abyss. Daum Games, a subsidiary of the Korean portal Daum, took on the initial publishing rights for the game. It opened the Korean open beta on December 17, 2014, and launched the game in North America and Europe on March 3, 2016. The Western branch officially changed its name to Kakao Games Europe in July 2016, and Pearl Abyss took over the Western publishing rights after February 24, 2021. In short, the Daum era is over. There is no Daum launcher, no Daum login and no Daum server left to connect to. The game that Daum launched is still live, still updated and still growing.

This guide covers that whole story. We checked the dates against press releases, company statements and news coverage from the time. It also looks at the features that made Black Desert stand out in the Daum days, what has changed since, what happened to old Daum and Kakao accounts, and a simple plan for anyone starting or coming back in 2026. Where we give our own numbers, such as how long each publisher era lasted, we show how we worked them out so you can check them yourself.

What People Really Mean When They Search For Daum Games Black Desert

The phrase works like a time stamp. Guides, YouTube thumbnails, forum signatures and Steam reviews written in 2016 all carry the Daum logo, and for a while even the cash shop currency carried the company name. When Black Desert Online came to Steam, the FAQ said players could buy Daum Cash, the game’s currency, with Steam wallet funds. That is why the name keeps turning up in searches long after the company itself moved on.

The same questions keep appearing on Steam discussion boards and MMO forums. Going by those questions, most people who type this phrase fall into one of five groups. Each group needs a different answer, so it helps to know which one you belong to.

Who Is Searching	What They Usually Want To Know	Where To Look Today
Players who bought the game in 2016	Whether their old characters and items still exist	The account section of this guide, then Pearl Abyss support
New players watching old videos	Why the menus, logos and launcher look different now	Current patch notes on the official Black Desert site
People who claimed a free Steam copy	Whether that copy still works and which account it needs	Their Steam library and a linked Pearl Abyss account
Writers and researchers	Exact dates for each publisher change	The timeline tables below and the reference list at the end
Console players	Whether Daum ever ran a console version	It did not. Consoles arrived in 2019, three years after the Daum name left the Western game

If you played during the Daum or Kakao years and are not sure whether you ever moved your account, check the inbox tied to that old account for messages from early 2021. Kakao Games sent an email titled “Black Desert Online Account Transfer Registrations Begin” to the address linked to each Kakao Games account. If you completed the transfer, a confirmation email should sit close to it.

Where It All Started With Daum And Pearl Abyss In Korea

Black Desert began with a small studio and a very large internet company. Its creator had worked on Continent of the Ninth Seal (C9) at NHN, and in 2010 he left to form Pearl Abyss and start work on Black Desert. Kim Dae-il is credited as one of the game’s directors, and he remains the name most closely tied to the studio. On the other side stood Daum. Daum gave South Koreans email, messaging, message boards and shopping, and it grew into the country’s largest web portal. In 2014, the Korean internet firms Kakao and Daum Communications merged, which is the reason the Kakao name later replaced Daum on the game.

The Korean public test came first. The open beta began on December 17, 2014, as a free-to-play game with a cash shop, and it launched with just four playable classes, each locked to one gender. Daum put real effort behind that start. It partnered with 9,000 South Korean internet cafes to ease the launch, and the game shipped with seven different graphics settings so players with weaker PCs could still enjoy it. The push paid off. By its 100th day of open beta, the game was doing well in Korea and had topped some local charts. The Windows version’s full Korean release is listed as July 2015.

One detail that often gets lost is that Korean Black Desert was free to play from the start, while the Western version was sold as a one-time purchase. Those two business models ran side by side for years. Many of the cash shop arguments in Western communities came from players comparing what Korea had with what they had.

• The studio: Pearl Abyss was a young team in 2014, founded only four years earlier. Black Desert was its first big release and carried the company for most of the next decade.
• The publisher: Daum brought reach that a new studio could not buy on its own. A portal with that much traffic could put a new game in front of millions of Koreans quickly.
• The business model: Korea got a free-to-play game with a cash shop. That choice later set the Korean version apart from the Western one.
• The starting roster: Only four classes were ready at open beta, each tied to one gender. That small roster makes today’s count of 32 classes look even bigger.
• The launch support: Internet cafe deals and seven graphics presets show how much Daum cared about low-spec PCs. Korean PC cafes were a major way people played online games at the time.

How Daum Games Europe Carried Black Desert To The West

For months, Western players did not know who would publish the game. In July 2014, it emerged that Daum, one of South Korea’s largest internet conglomerates, would also publish Black Desert in North America and Europe. Pearl Abyss had started work on an English client more than seven months earlier. The job went to Daum Games Europe, a Netherlands-based subsidiary that joined the Kakao family through the 2014 merger.

The biggest business decision came in October 2015. Daum Games Europe announced that the Western release would use a buy-to-play model, with launch planned for the first quarter of 2016. At Paris Games Week that month, the project manager said the Western version would eventually run about three to six months behind Korea, and that the Media and Valencia regions would not be in the game at launch. He also confirmed there would be no open beta.

Early 2016 was about getting players invested before launch day. Daum made the character creator a free standalone download, let players import their characters into the second closed beta running February 18 to 22, and set the launch for March 3, 2016. Releasing the creator early was a clever move. It turned the game’s best-known feature into free advertising and gave players weeks to build their heroes before they could swing a sword.

Date	What Happened	Why It Mattered
July 2014	Daum confirmed as the NA and EU publisher	One company now handled the game in Korea and the West
October 2015	Buy-to-play model announced	Set the Western price structure that still shapes the game
October 2015	No open beta confirmed	Testing stayed limited to closed betas and pre-order access
February 2016	Standalone character creator released	Players could build characters before launch
February 18 to 22, 2016	Second closed beta	Last large test before release
March 3, 2016	Official NA and EU launch	Start of the live Daum Games Europe service

Launch Month, Head Start Problems And The First Big Numbers

The launch was not smooth. During the head start, some North American players ended up on the wrong servers by mistake, and Daum decided to compensate them rather than move their characters. The publisher then posted a public compensation plan. Most MMO launches have server trouble, and Daum’s quick response helped calm the first week.

The sales numbers were strong. Daum Games Europe sold game packages at $30, $50 and $100, and said more than 400,000 players had paid for the game, including 150,000 who bought before launch. In a Korea Times interview with Daum Games Europe’s chief executive, the company explained why it chose a different model for the West. Min Kim said buy-to-play had been adopted for overseas markets and was not used in Korea. Speaking about the Western results, he said: “What’s impressive is these figures far exceed those in the domestic market.

Buy-to-play was seen as a higher barrier to entry, and players under that model tended to spend less on paid items. In plain terms, Daum accepted lower cash shop spending per player in exchange for steady upfront income. That trade-off shaped the Western cash shop for years. Daum also planned near-monthly content updates so Western players could catch up with Korea.

• Demand was building before launch: 150,000 people paid before day one. For a Korean MMO with no Western history, that showed how much the character creator and trailers had done.
• The first month was a hit: 400,000 paying players in a month put Black Desert among the biggest MMO launches of 2016. It also proved there was a Western market for Korean action MMOs outside of free-to-play.
• The forecast was bold: Min Kim expected the game to pass one million sales that year. Whether or not that exact target was hit, the forecast showed how confident the publisher was.
• Catching up was the hardest part: The Western version started far behind Korea in content. Near-monthly updates meant players saw a steady stream of new regions and classes through 2016.

Why Daum Games Became Kakao Games In July 2016

Only four months after launch, the Daum name came off the game. Daum Games Europe B.V. announced it would become Kakao Games Europe B.V., saying the name change would unify its presence within Kakao Corporation, its parent company. The company planned to run titles on PC, consoles, mobile and VR, and it had finished setting up Kakao Games USA at the end of June.

For players, nothing broke. Black Desert carried on as normal after the rename. The large Valencia Part One expansion had arrived on June 29, just before the announcement. Not everyone trusted the timing. On the MMORPG.com forums, some players read the rebrand as a way to escape complaints about hackers, while others argued that the parent company simply wanted one global brand.

So why does “Daum Games Black Desert” still get searched in 2026? Because the Daum name sat on top of everything that happened in the game’s most memorable months. It was on the pre-orders, the launch trailer, the head start compensation, the first 400,000 purchases and the early currency. First impressions stick, even when the logo changes.

• What changed: The company name on the website, launcher, emails and support pages. By the end of the Kakao era, the paid currency was called Kakao Cash. blackdesertfoundry
• What stayed the same: Servers, characters, items and purchases all carried over without any action from players. The rename was a branding change, not a new service.
• Who kept building the game: Pearl Abyss stayed the developer the whole time. Every region, class and system still came from the same studio in Korea.
• What it meant for the future: Kakao wanted to grow into console, mobile and VR publishing. Black Desert became the flagship title for that plan in the West.

The Kakao Years From Steam To Remastered Graphics

The Kakao era brought Black Desert to its widest audience yet. Kakao Games and Pearl Abyss brought the game to Steam on May 24, 2017, with 13 classes to pick from. Kakao added extra Olvia servers to help the wave of Steam newcomers level up quickly, and on the same day it announced permanent bans for players caught exploiting the node and worker system. Existing Black Desert accounts could not be moved to Steam, even though the game ran a single-world system.

In August 2018 the game got a visual overhaul. The Remastered update added physically based rendering, volumetric clouds, HDR and better ocean rendering, along with more than 220 soundtracks, and it came as a free upgrade for owners of the base game. The effect was clear. Across NA and EU, returning players rose by an average of 103.6% week over week, and new player acquisition grew by 24.2%. Jae Hee Kim, executive producer at Pearl Abyss, said at the time: “We are highly motivated to keep the game current and up-to-date”.

Black Desert then moved beyond PC. The Xbox One version launched worldwide on March 4, 2019, the PlayStation 4 version followed on August 22, 2019, and the mobile game went worldwide in December 2019. In February 2020, the game was free on Steam in North America and Europe for the first time in four years, and new owners received a free Starter’s Package.

Milestone	Date	What It Added
Steam release	May 24, 2017	A new storefront, fresh Olvia servers for new players
Remastered update	August 2018	New lighting, clouds, water and a recorded soundtrack
Xbox One version	March 4, 2019	First console release of Black Desert
PlayStation 4 version	August 22, 2019	Console play for PlayStation owners
Mobile worldwide	December 2019	A separate mobile game set in the same world
Free Steam promotion	February 2020	A permanent free copy for anyone who claimed it in time

Pearl Abyss Takes Back The Keys In Korea And The West

Pearl Abyss took over in two steps. In Korea, Kakao agreed to hand the publishing rights to Pearl Abyss effective May 30, 2019, and unusually, the original player data moved with them. In the West, the publishing contract between Kakao Games and Pearl Abyss ended, with February 24, 2021 as the final day. By then, Pearl Abyss had built up publishing experience in Russia, Korea and Japan. You can see where Black Desert sits among the company’s other titles in Kakao Games’ publishing record.

The Western handover was announced months ahead. Pearl Abyss revealed the move at the online Calpheon Ball in December 2020, and account transfers opened in January. Moving an account was optional, but players had to do it to keep their progress. Kakao said goodbye with a short video. It closed with the message “Cheers to the memories. Cheers to the fun we had.” During the switch, the game could not be bought on Steam. Steam players who pre-registered were moved automatically, but after the handover they had to create and link a Pearl Abyss account to keep playing.

The official schedule below explains why so many old accounts disappeared. It set a firm cut-off.

Date	Step In The Transfer
January 27, 2021	Account Transfer Registration page opens
February 3, 2021	Sale of Gift Packages ends
February 10, 2021	Sale of game packages, Kakao Cash and Pearl Boxes ends
February 24, 2021	Kakao Games service ends and moves to Pearl Abyss
February 25, 2021	Pearl Abyss service goes live and registration reopens
May 31, 2021	Registration page closes for good
June 1, 2021	All data that was not transferred is deleted

That schedule was published during the 2021 handover. blackdesertfoundry

Our Timeline Count Of How Long Each Publisher Era Lasted

Here is a small piece of original research. We counted the calendar days between the public dates above, up to September 28, 2026, to see how much of Black Desert’s Western life each publisher actually covered. The Western launch date, the rename date and the handover date all come from the sources cited earlier. The day counts are our own maths.

Publisher Era In NA And EU	From	To	Days	Share Of Western Life So Far
Daum Games Europe	March 3, 2016	July 1, 2016	120	About 3%
Kakao Games Europe	July 1, 2016	February 24, 2021	1,699	About 44%
Pearl Abyss direct	February 25, 2021	September 28, 2026	2,041	About 53%

In Korea, the picture is different. The Daum and later Kakao era ran from the open beta on December 17, 2014 to the handover on May 30, 2019, which is about 1,625 days. Pearl Abyss has now published the game directly in Korea for about 2,678 days, well over seven years.

• The Daum name had a short live run: The Daum brand sat on the live Western game for only about four months, roughly 3% of its life so far. Its pull in search comes from the launch hype, not from how long it lasted.
• Kakao was the long middle chapter: Most of the big early milestones in the West, such as Steam, Remastered and the first console releases, happened while Kakao held the rights. If you remember “the good old days” of 2017 to 2020, you are remembering Kakao, not Daum.
• Pearl Abyss now owns the majority: As of late 2026, the developer has run the Western game for longer than both earlier publishers combined. Any guide that treats Daum or Kakao as the current publisher is badly out of date.
• The pre-launch period adds context: Daum also handled the Western closed betas and pre-orders in 2015 and early 2016. If you count that marketing period, the Daum footprint grows, but it still stays small next to the Kakao and Pearl Abyss years.

Old Daum Or Kakao Accounts And What You Can Still Recover

This is the question most returning players care about, and the answer is not always pleasant. Transfers were opt-in. Anyone who did not agree to move their account by May 31, 2021 lost their game data, which was deleted and cannot be recovered. Players on the Steam forums explain that the move needed each player’s consent under EU GDPR rules, and Kakao had to delete the data of anyone who did not agree.

Pearl Abyss staff have said the same when players asked. In 2023, a returning player asked about an old South American account from a previous publisher that was never moved. A Pearl Abyss community manager replied that the account could not be recovered because “all information has been deleted following GDPR laws.” The same logic applies to NA and EU accounts that missed the 2021 window.

That does not mean every old player has lost everything. If you did transfer, your characters should still be there. Here is a sensible order of checks before you give up.

• Search your old inbox first: Look for the 2021 transfer emails and any confirmation code. If you find a confirmation, your data was moved and you should be able to log in with a Pearl Abyss account.
• Check which account type you used: Players who bought through Steam were handled a little differently from those who bought on the website. Make sure you are logging in through the same route you used before.
• Check your region and server list: Some players who find an empty character screen have simply picked the wrong region in the launcher. Switch to the region you last played in before assuming the worst.
• Contact support anyway: Even when data is gone, support can confirm what happened and point out any account details you missed. Keep proof of purchase if you still have it, such as old receipts.
• Plan a fresh start if needed: If your data was deleted, starting over in 2026 is much faster than it was in 2016. The levelling and catch-up systems covered later in this guide make a new character far less painful.

Core Features That Have Lasted Since The Daum Era

The game Daum launched in 2016 and the game Pearl Abyss runs in 2026 share the same core. The 2017 Steam launch listed skill-based combat, detailed character customisation, open-world PvP such as arenas, guild battles, node wars and castle sieges, farming, horse taming and breeding, crafting, housing, fishing, hunting and alchemy, and full gamepad support. Almost all of that is still true today, with more layered on top.

What made Black Desert unusual in 2016 was how much of the game had nothing to do with fighting. You could spend weeks trading, fishing or breeding horses and still feel like you were making progress. That design choice is the main reason many Daum-era players still talk about the game fondly, even if they left years ago.

Feature	How It Works In Practice	Beginner Tip
Action combat	Skills come from key combinations and movement, with no tab targeting	Learn three or four core combos well before trying to learn every skill
Character creator	Very detailed sliders for face, body, hair and more	Save your appearance before experimenting so you can go back
Single world with channels	One shared world split into channels you can switch between	Change channels to find quieter grind spots
Succession and Awakening	Most classes pick between two weapon paths after a point	Try both paths on the same class before spending money on gear
Open-world PvP	Node wars, sieges and arena modes for guilds and solo players	Join an active guild early, even if PvP is not your main goal
Horses and sailing	Tame, breed and upgrade mounts, then build boats for the ocean	A good horse saves hours of travel time every week
Family system	Your account is a “family” and shares some resources across characters	Level a few alts for the family-wide stats they add

Life Skills, Workers And The Player-Driven Economy

Life skills are where Black Desert really separated itself from other MMOs. Two resources drive this side of the game. Energy is spent on gathering, some crafting and worker orders, and your maximum energy grows as you collect knowledge. Contribution points are earned mainly from quests and are spent on investing in nodes and renting houses. Both are shared across your family, which is why many players spend their first weeks piling up knowledge and contribution.

Nodes and workers turn the world map into a small business. You connect nodes between towns and resource spots, hire workers from Worker Stewards, and send them to gather or process materials while you do something else. Workers get tired and need beer to keep going. The system mattered enough that Kakao permanently banned players who exploited the node and worker system back in 2017. The Central Market is where most trading happens. Prices move within limits set by the game, so you cannot list an item at any price you want, and popular items often need pre-orders.

• Gathering: Uses energy to collect wood, ore, herbs and hides. It feeds almost every other life skill, so it is a good first step.
• Fishing: Can run with little input for long stretches. That makes it popular with players who can only check in now and then.
• Processing: Turns raw materials into refined ones such as planks, ingots and fabric. Much of the profit in the game comes from this step.
• Cooking and alchemy: Produce food, potions and elixirs that boost your character. Both need many ingredients, so connect them with your worker network.
• Trading: Carry trade goods between towns for a profit that grows with distance. It is slow but steady, and it rewards players who know the map.
• Training: Covers taming wild horses and breeding them into higher tiers. A strong horse pays off every time you travel.
• Farming: Lets you grow crops on fences in your houses or around town. It is a relaxing way to produce cooking ingredients.
• Sailing: Builds and upgrades boats for ocean content and island trade. The ocean is huge, so a good ship opens up a large part of the map.

What Pearl Abyss Has Added Between 2021 And 2026

Since taking over, Pearl Abyss has kept the game busy. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions launched worldwide on June 26, 2025. Crimson Desert, first planned as a prequel to Black Desert Online, grew into a standalone game during development and released on March 19, 2026. Pearl Abyss says the Black Desert IP has reached 55 million players across PC, mobile and console.

The summer of 2026 was one of the busiest in years. Pearl Abyss held the 2026 Heidel Ball in Southern California to mark ten years of Black Desert in North America and Europe, and revealed the 32nd class, Agent, a male gunslinger who is the brother of the Deadeye class. According to Pearl Abyss’s July 2026 announcement, Agent released globally on July 30, and his second weapon, the Hexround, gives supporting fire while boosting his physical abilities. The same announcement added Edania Part 2, with two new accessory types and support for DirectX 12, AMD FSR 3.1 and NVIDIA DLSS. Edania Part 2 was set to roll out in stages, with its new regions, items and bosses arriving on August 13.

Several changes are aimed at new and returning players. The Hyperboost growth program arrived alongside Agent, and a new Content Schedule feature was expected on September 9. Pearl Abyss also announced Character Swap, unified PvP rankings, level cap changes and a first Master Class World Finals, where one champion per class from ten regions will make up 320 players. For a fuller rundown, Inven Global’s recap of the 2026 Heidel Ball goes through each announcement. InvenGlobalBleeding Cool

Update	When	Why It Matters If You Last Played In The Daum Era
Pearl Abyss self-publishing in the West	February 25, 2021	New account system, new launcher, new support team
PS5 and Xbox Series versions	June 26, 2025	Better console performance than the 2019 versions
Crimson Desert release	March 19, 2026	A separate game from the same studio, not a Black Desert sequel
Agent, the 32nd class	July 30, 2026	The newest class, built around revolvers and the Hexround
Hyperboost	Late July 2026	Faster catch-up for new and returning players
Edania Part 2	From August 13, 2026	Closes the first major chapter of the main story
DirectX 12, FSR 3.1 and DLSS	Summer 2026	Better performance and image quality on modern PCs
Content Schedule	Planned for September 9, 2026	Clearer direction on what to do next
Master Class World Finals	Fall 2026	The game’s first global championship for players

Class Growth From Four To Thirty-Two In Numbers

Class count is one of the easiest ways to see how far the game has come. We lined up three points in time using the sources cited above and worked out the average pace of new classes. Class counts differed between regions at times, so treat this as a rough picture rather than an exact release log.

Point In Time	Playable Classes	Source Of The Count
Korean open beta, December 2014	4	Open beta coverage
Steam launch in NA and EU, May 2017	13	Kakao Games and Pearl Abyss Steam announcement
Agent release, July 2026	32	Pearl Abyss announcement

From December 2014 to May 2017, the roster grew by nine classes in about 2.4 years, close to four new classes a year. From May 2017 to July 2026, it grew by nineteen classes in about 9.2 years, a little over two a year. Across the whole period, Black Desert has added roughly 2.4 classes a year. The early years were about filling out a thin roster. The later years were slower but each class now carries more depth, with separate weapon paths and more complex skill kits. For a new player, the takeaway is simple. Newer does not always mean stronger, so pick the class whose playstyle you enjoy watching.

A Practical Starting Plan For New And Returning Players In 2026

Black Desert in 2026 is easier to get into than the game Daum launched, but it is also much bigger. A plan helps. The Western PC version has mostly been sold as a low-cost one-time purchase, with free-to-keep promotions from time to time. One of those promotions ran from December 19, 2024 to January 6, 2025, and outside such windows the Steam version has been a paid purchase. Check the Black Desert page on Steam or the official site for the current price before you buy. steamcommunity

Here is an example to make the plan concrete. Picture a player who bought the game in March 2016 during the Daum launch, played until 2017, and never touched the 2021 transfer. Their data is gone, so they start a new family. Instead of repeating the old grind, they use the catch-up programs, pick one life skill and follow the main story. Within a short time they are doing content that took months in 2016. Community members on the Steam forums have reported that reaching level 60 now takes only a few hours on the seasonal servers, which gives an idea of how much faster the early game has become.

• Pick your platform first: PC players can use the Pearl Abyss launcher or Steam. Console players should start on PS5 or Xbox Series X|S if they have one, since those versions run better than the older console builds.
• Check your old account before creating a new one: If you think you transferred in 2021, log in with that email first. Creating a new family by mistake can make support requests more confusing later.
• Start on a seasonal server if offered: Seasonal servers give faster levelling and temporary gear that you can later carry forward. They are the usual starting point for new characters.
• Use the catch-up tools: Hyperboost and the new Content Schedule feature were built for players in exactly this position. Follow their guidance before spending money on gear.
• Follow the main story early: The main quest gives useful rewards and teaches systems in order. Skipping it often leaves new players lost in the menus.
• Set up workers in your first week: Even a few workers on basic resources add up while you play other content. Keep beer in storage so they do not stop.
• Choose one life skill and stick with it: Trying every life skill at once spreads your energy thin. Fishing or gathering are gentle starting points.
• Be careful with enhancement: Upgrading gear has failure chances, and it is easy to lose silver chasing one lucky result. Learn how failstacks and Cron Stones work before you push high-tier gear.
• Never buy silver from third-party sellers: Outside gold and silver sellers break the rules and put your account at risk. The game’s own market is slower but safe.
• Join a guild: A guild pays out a daily wage, helps with group bosses and answers questions fast. Many returning players say a good guild matters more than any single piece of gear.

Common Mistakes In Older Daum Games Black Desert Articles

A lot of the content ranking for this topic was written quickly, and some of it repeats errors that are easy to check. Here are the ones we see most often, with the correct version and the source it comes from.

Common Claim	What The Record Shows
Kakao is a Japanese company	Kakao and Daum Communications are South Korean internet firms that merged in 2014
Daum Games became Kakao Games in 2017	Daum Games Europe was renamed Kakao Games Europe on July 1, 2016
Pearl Abyss took over all publishing in 2019	Pearl Abyss took Korea in May 2019 and NA and EU on February 24, 2021
Old Daum or Kakao accounts can be restored by support	Accounts not moved by May 31, 2021 were deleted on June 1, 2021
Black Desert was free-to-play everywhere from day one	Korea launched free-to-play; the West launched as buy-to-play
Daum ran the console versions	Consoles arrived in 2019, long after the Daum name left the Western game
Crimson Desert is Black Desert 2	It began as a prequel idea but became a separate game, released in March 2026

Quick Answers To Frequent Questions

These are the short answers to the questions that come up most. Each one links back to a section above if you want the full story.

Question	Short Answer
Who was Daum Games?	The games arm of Korean portal Daum. Its Dutch subsidiary launched Black Desert in NA and EU in 2016
Is Daum Games still the publisher?	No. Pearl Abyss publishes the game itself in Korea and the West
Can I log in with a Daum account?	No. You need a Pearl Abyss account, or a linked Steam or console account
I missed the 2021 transfer. Can I get my data back?	Based on the official schedule and staff replies, no. That data was deleted
Is Black Desert free in 2026?	In NA and EU it is mostly a one-time purchase with occasional free promotions. Check the store before buying
How many classes are there?	32, with Agent added on July 30, 2026
Can I play on PS5 or Xbox Series X	S?
Is Crimson Desert connected to Black Desert?	Same studio and a shared origin, but it is a separate single-player game
Is it worth starting now?	For players who like sandbox MMOs, the 2026 catch-up tools make this one of the easier times to start

What The Daum Chapter Means For Your Next Login

The Daum era was short, but it set the tone for everything that followed. It brought a Korean sandbox MMO to Western players with a one-time price, a famous character creator and a launch big enough to prove the idea worked. Kakao then grew the game through Steam, a major visual upgrade and the move to consoles. Pearl Abyss has now run it for longer than both combined, and 2026 has brought a new class, a story finale and tools built for players coming back after years away.

If you searched for Daum Games Black Desert because of old memories, the most useful thing you can do today is check your 2021 transfer status and then decide whether to start fresh. If you are brand new, the history is a nice bonus, but the game in front of you is the Pearl Abyss version.

• Treat Daum as history, not a service: No Daum login, launcher or support channel exists for Black Desert anymore.
• Check before you rebuy: Your old Steam copy or free promotional copy may still be valid with a linked Pearl Abyss account.
• Expect a much faster early game: Catch-up systems in 2026 are built to get you to current content quickly.
• Use official sources for dates and prices: Patch notes and store pages change often, so trust them over older guides.

Disclaimer: This article is an independent guide and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Pearl Abyss, Kakao Games or Daum. Dates and figures come from public announcements and news coverage published at the time. Prices, class counts, event dates and account policies can change, so confirm current details on the official Black Desert website or your platform store before buying or making decisions about your account.

References

• Yoon Sung-won, “‘Black Desert Online’ to draw 1 mil. paid users globally,” The Korea Times, April 3, 2016.
• Massively Overpowered, “Black Desert publisher Daum EU rebrands as Kakao,” July 1, 2016.
• PocketGamer.biz, “Kakao rebrands Daum Games as Kakao Games Europe, opens US publishing office,” July 1, 2016.
• Inven Global, “Black Desert Online Launches on Steam May 24,” 2017 (full text of the Kakao Games and Pearl Abyss press release).
• Aybonline, “Black Desert Online Sees Massive Surge in Player Base After Remastered Launch,” August 31, 2018 (Pearl Abyss and Kakao Games press release).
• Massively Overpowered, “Pearl Abyss makes a deal with Kakao Games to acquire Black Desert’s South Korean publishing rights,” May 1, 2019.
• MMO Culture, “Black Desert Online: Pearl Abyss to publish North America and Europe servers next year,” December 11, 2020.
• Massively Overpowered, “Kakao Games bids a fond farewell to fans as Black Desert publishing officially changes hands to Pearl Abyss,” February 24, 2021.
• Pearl Abyss via Games Press, “Pearl Abyss Launches New Class ‘Agent’, Unveils HYPERBOOST and Black Desert Roadmap,” July 30, 2026.
• Inven Global, “From New Classes to Level Overhauls: A Recap of the ‘2026 Black Desert Heidel Ball’,” July 27, 2026.