The First Descendant, a free-to-play ‘looter shooter’ from Nexon, was released on July 2 to mixed reviews. For many, it felt like it was a rehash of some other titles, namely Destiny and Warframe, and the most recent topic of debate is circulating around whether or not Nexon simply flipped assets or plagiarised Bungie’s sci-fi shooter in a few ways while creating The First Descendant.
Despite the meddling controversies, it seems The First Descendant has been a whopping success. Nexon recently revealed that 10 million players found their way into the game across all platforms in just one week.
Make It Free and That’ll Happen
Much of the success of The First Descendant can be attributed to the fact that the game doesn’t cost a penny to play. That alone will entice millions of players. The real test is keeping those players engaged – you can bet your last dollar that the player count will crash after just a couple of weeks on the market.
In a post on X, Nexon wrote:
We’ve reached 10 million Descendants in just 7 days! Thank you all for your tremendous support and love. It means everything to us. We will do our best to bring you great experiences. Can’t wait to continue this journey together!
This free-to-play, live-service title has had some teething issues, with players issuing mixed reviews across the board. It’s no big secret that The First Descendant operates a fairly expansive monetisation model that has packed the game to the brim with microtransactions, but by now, that’s part and parcel of the free-to-play life.
Plenty of comments have also been made regarding some of the character designs in The First Descendant. Instead of a solid story or satisfying quests, Nexon opted to include beautiful character models, some of which boast revealing outfits that rival Stellar Blade’s Eve. It takes more than an attractive group of playable characters to pull the wool over the eyes of the gaming community these days.
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