Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Nexon's First Descendant grabs global gamers' attention
Nexon's First Descendant / Courtesy of Nexon
By Nam Hyun-woo
Nexon's new looter shooter, The First Descendant, is drawing significant attention from global gamers and maintaining steady popularity on online platforms a month after its release.
As of Monday, The First Descendant ranked No. 13 on Steam’s most-played games chart, with a peak of 120,000 concurrent players in the past 24 hours. Above it were consistently popular titles, including Counter-Strike 2, PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, and ELDEN RING.
Following its official global launch on July 2, The First Descendant quickly climbed to the top of Steam’s PC chart, achieving leading sales and a peak concurrent player count exceeding 220,000. By July 8, the peak concurrent player count had surpassed 260,000, reflecting a positive and stable outlook for the game’s continued popularity.
A looter shooter is a hybrid genre combining elements of shooting and role-playing games. Its core gameplay involves shooting and action, along with character progression and cooperative play.
Although similar games like Ubisoft’s The Division 2 and Bungie’s Destiny series have thrived in the global market, looter shooters were previously considered an unfamiliar genre for Korean game studios.
Nexon said The First Descendant adheres closely to the looter shooter structure, offering exhilarating gunplay with 11 different types of firearms, including assault rifles and launchers. The game features 19 heroes, each with unique skills and abilities, fulfilling various roles within the game’s content.
The First Descendant's new hero Luna / Courtesy of Nexon
To keep the title’s momentum, Nexon said it is striving to make prompt responses to users’ feedback and release fast content updates.
From the early stage of the title’s development, the company has been providing revealing updates and key progresses through developer's notes, and recently held a developer chat session to interact with the user community.
On Wednesday, The First Descendant will introduce new heroes Luna and Ultimate Valby, alongside a major content expansion with the Season 1 update. The company also plans to release new dungeons, an expanded main story, and additional hero content in the near future.
“The developer team will continue to learn through users’ gameplay experiences,” First Descendant producer Lee Beom-joon said.
“We will listen carefully to valuable user feedback and do our best to provide a better gaming experience.”