The First Descendant had a high-profile launch. Nexon's new release attracted a great deal of attention. Much of this was due to the character design — the girls could try on very revealing outfits, and the body physics were also pleasing to the eye.
However, things were different with the gameplay: not all players liked the mechanics. Gradually, the online player count fell from 260+ thousand players to 10 thousand, and recently this figure has been in the range of 5 - 6 thousand.
Recently, CEO Junghun Lee, during an investor briefing, spoke about projects that "do not work" (slide No. 26 in the presentation).
Speaking about Dungeon & Fighter Mobile, he said that the game "had an excellent start in 2024, but then it lost momentum. The player retention mechanics proved insufficiently strong to keep them engaged in the long term".
Then Lee added: "The same problem applies to The First Descendant — a powerful launch, but without audience retention. These are design problems that cannot be fixed with an ordinary patch — they require structural changes to the gameplay mechanics".