Nexon CEO admits The First Descendant had 'no staying power,' and that can't be addressed with a quick fix: 'These are design issues that are not fixed with a patch'

The First Descendant's launch hype went over like a bag of candy smuggled into a movie theater—exciting at first, but regrettably short-lived. While last July it was celebrating a screaming high of 10 million players in its first week alone, SteamDB shows the game has simmered to around 5,000 concurrent players as I write this. Steam user reviews add up to a "mixed" user rating, and even Nexon's CEO has weighed in on the game's dubious trajectory.

The company discussed the game in a recent capital markets briefing to investors (thanks, GamesRadar), with CEO Junghun Lee giving clear examples of games that did well for Nexon and games that fell off. Where Arc Raiders and MapleStory got kudos, The First Descendant showed up alongside Dungeon & Fighter Mobile on a slide bluntly labeled "What Did Not Work."

Lee said Dungeon & Fighter Mobile "lost its way" after an impressive launch: "The retention mechanics weren't strong enough to hold players long-term." He noted this was the "same issue with The First Descendant: Strong launch, no staying power."

"These are design issues that are not fixed with a patch," he said. "They require structural changes to game mechanics."

The stinger is that while the presentation names a range of plans to keep the Dungeon & Fighter train moving through various upcoming games and updates, Lee doesn't mention The First Descendant again. It's not clear what the company's long-term plans for the looter shooter are, but it sounds like it'll need a more robust resuscitation than jiggle physics or the bizarre AI ads that showed up on TikTok can offer it.

Despite the big numbers it enjoyed when it first landed, The First Descendant was never universally beloved. That "Mixed" user rating goes all the way back to launch week, and PC Gamer staff writer Morgan Park called it a "dollar store Destiny" in his impressions back in 2024.