Black Desert English version playable this year

With DAUM opening an office in Amsterdam recently, things are clearly on track for Black Desert Online to be playable by the end of 2015, and that much was just confirmed by Western Community Manager Oli to fansite Black-Desert.com. Here is the most important quote of an interview that has some interesting info about the progress of the Black Desert localization:

“You will be able to play the English version of Black Desert Online for the first time from this year. Note that prior to the Alpha, there will be an early test version of the game but I need to ask players to be a bit more patient about the specifics of when the Alpha or Beta will start this year.”

So what this means is that Black Desert will be playable in English later this year, possibly an alpha or beta, preceded by an early test version that is probably going to be extremely exclusive. The official Black Desert Online launch should happen sometime during 2016.

The interview also mentions that DAUM's immediate plan is to work on game localization and the official BDO teaser website. The studio is planning to launch the US and EU versions at the same time or close, as they don't want players waiting any more for the game.

A rough Black Desert English build is already available internally as the studio began work on it prior to opening the European office (the US office location is still being studied), and they want to avoid “the bad impression left by other Korean game companies that bring their games to the west with quality standards that don’t match the expectations of US/EU players.”

As far as any changes to the western versions go, DAUM is paying close attention to feedback from western players who tried the Korean version, but the early test and alpha feedback will be the most valuable.