Black Desert Online To Allow Pearl Items On In-Game Marketplace, Yesterday's Bans Explained

Kakao Games Europe announced today that players of Black Desert Online NA/EU will be able to list items that are bought in the cash shop with Pearls on the in-game Marketplace as soon as next week. As Kakao is aware of how this could lead to pay-to-win situations where players effectively buy absurd amounts of in-game currency by flipping cash shop items, players will only be able to list five cash shop items per week. However, the explanation that Kakao gave states that it doesn't think that players are getting the full experience without Pearl items and that in and of itself relays to me that there may very well be an issue with the cash shop.

Moreover, the inability to sell cash shop items on the in-game Marketplace was one of the major changes that Kakao made to Black Desert Online when looking to adapt the game to the buy-to-play model it had chosen for the Western version. With that change reversed, we are very close to getting a similar, but very far behind content-wise, version of the game to that of other regions. The difference? Here, we pay at least $29.99 to ever step foot in the game.

Kakao also explained that there was another wave of bans that occurred yesterday. The company explains that it is working to remove all cheaters from the game "in an effort to maintain the integrity of the game."

The company then explains that the bans are—and always will be—permanent in the following quote.

With previous ban waves, there have been questions asking us if these actions are temporary, and we want to reiterate that they are in fact permanent.  Such action is not taken lightly; we go through an exhaustive investigation process and once we have confirmed the use of cheating software, players found in violation of the rules are removed.

As we have worked through our logs and refined the process, we have been able to not only catch those who were actively cheating at the time, but review older logs to find those who did so to get ahead and then stopped in order to remain hidden, with their ill gotten gains.  These individuals will not be exempt from our policies either, and can expect to be removed from the game.

The game may very well trend towards a pay-to-win future, but at least you can be sure that Kakao is working tirelessly to ensure that, should you be mercilessly slaughtered by another player repeatedly, it will be through means that they approve of.