The First Berserker: Khazan Dev Team Dissolved Due to Poor Sales

Neople, a subsidiary of Nexon, has reassigned a significant portion of the development team behind the action RPG The First Berserker: Khazan. The move comes as the company addresses commercial performance that fell short of market expectations, leaving the future of the game’s planned downloadable content in doubt.

According to reports from Yonhap News and IGN, approximately 100 members of the production staff were notified on April 8, 2026, that they were being moved to the R Team, which serves as a reassignment division at Neople. While Nexon maintains that the team has not been entirely disbanded, the shift effectively splits the primary development group.

Commercial Performance and Market Factors

The restructuring follows data indicating a sharp decline in player engagement. Although the game reached a concurrent player peak of nearly 33,000 on Steam at launch, SteamDB data reported around April 9, 2026, showed the highest concurrent peak over the preceding 24 hours had dropped to 1,013 players.

A Nexon official revealed that sales declined and fell short of market expectations. Beyond immediate sales figures, the company cited licensing delays regarding the game’s release in China as a contributing factor to the decision to reorganize the staff.

Critical Success vs. Financial Results

The reassignment occurs despite strong critical and player reception. The game holds a Very Positive score on Steam, with 85% of reviewers leaving a positive rating, and it secured a Metacritic score of 78.

The financial struggles contrast with recent public optimism from Nexon leadership. During a capital markets briefing on March 31, 2026, Nexon CEO Junghun Lee described the game as a touchstone for bringing the Dungeon & Fighter intellectual property to a global audience in new forms.

The first game in this series, The First Berserker: Khazan, was released in 2025 and delivered a hardcore action experience tailored specifically to Western audiences. Khazan demonstrated that Dungeon & Fighter can travel.

Junghun Lee, CEO of Nexon

Future of the Project

The timing of the restructuring is notable, as the game received an update as recently as March 31, 2026. However, the reassignment of a large portion of the staff has created uncertainty regarding the roadmap for the title, specifically concerning the delivery of large-scale DLC.

Nexon has framed the move as a strategic reallocation of human resources rather than a total dissolution. A spokesperson for the company explained the logic behind the organizational change:

As the roadmap for the large-scale Kazan Project enters its completion phase, we have decided to separate the organization responsible for completing the remaining missions from the personnel assigned to other projects that require a concentration of human resources.

Nexon Spokesperson

Despite these assurances, the reassignment of 100 staff members to other projects suggests a diminished focus on the ongoing support and expansion of The First Berserker: Khazan as Nexon pivots its resources toward other initiatives.