PSA: If You Ever Played Black Desert Online
Then take note that there is a mandatory account migration underway at the moment. Failure to run through the transfer process prior to May 31st, 2021, will result in the permanent loss of your account and everything on it.
I’d heard about this migration a little while ago when looking at BDO again, but the details were fairly light on the ground at that point. The reason for it all is that the five-year publishing contract Kakao Games to bring BDO to the west has ended, with the rights reverting back to Pearl Abyss, the developers.
To soften the blow somewhat, there are some rewards. The Tier 4 pet is certainly a welcome bonus! The title, ‘Now or Nouver’ while quite witty does perhaps make light of the situation and I can imagine it further irking (to say the least) anyone who misses this news and later regrets the missed opportunity to migrate their existing account.
Anywho, that aside:
- Here’s the link for the transfer.
- FAQ Link
The cliff notes though, as noted — transfer request must be submitted prior to May 31st this year to retain your account data. The actual transfer itself is scheduled to happen February 24th. If you have any Kakao Cash, this will not be usable after transfers are complete. However if you have already used it to purchase Pearls (or purchase Pearls before the transfer) those will come across OK.
I can only imagine this would be very, very easy news to miss and the window is relatively short given the consequences of missing it.
I had imagined that it would be one of those, ‘Oh.. Whenever.. Just come by sometime in the next 10 years and we can probably sort it out.’
But nope. Seems that Kakao Games has no interest whatsoever in supporting any longer than they need to. Although a little more charitably, it might also be an impact of the GDPR stuff. Holding onto liability for user’s private information any longer than they need to with no further income for it is probably quite a difficult business proposition to swallow.
I’m just glad that I so happened to be looking at the game again as this all unfolded!
