Nexon CEO admits The First Descendant had 'no staying power,' and that can't be addressed with a quick fix: 'These are design issues that are not fixed with a patch'

The First Descendant's launch hype went over like a bag of candy smuggled into a movie theater—exciting at first, but regrettably short-lived. While last July it was celebrating a screaming high of 10 million players in its first week alone, SteamDB shows the game has simmered to around 5,000 concurrent players as I write this. Steam user reviews add up to a "mixed" user rating, and even Nexon's CEO has weighed in on the game's dubious trajectory.

The company discussed the game in a recent capital markets briefing to investors (thanks...