DokeV looks a lot like Pokémon. Will Nintendo sue Pearl Abyss, too?
Pearl Abyss says its creature-collecting open-world game DokeV is aiming for the second half of 2028, with playable demos in late 2027. The game was revealed in 2019, meaning nearly a decade between announcement and release.
Pearl Abyss has finally put a window on DokeV, and it’s further out than fans hoped: the second half of 2028.
The studio confirmed the target in its Q2 2026 earnings letter, alongside word that both DokeV and its other long-quiet project Plan 8 are in active development. Playable demos are planned for the second half of 2027.
DokeV was revealed in 2019. If the current target holds, that’s roughly nine years from announcement to release.
Why it took this long
The short version is that another game ate the studio.
Pearl Abyss poured its resources into Crimson Desert, which itself ran long before launching in March 2026 and selling around seven million copies. With that game stabilized and its patch cycle winding down, the studio says it’s now shifting engineers and designers back onto DokeV.
Pearl Abyss describes progress as smooth, crediting the tools, assets, and multi-platform pipelines built during Crimson Desert‘s development. The team is currently producing content and validating the core gameplay loop.
The company also says it’s deliberately holding back marketing. It wants to avoid the gap between hype and delivery that comes from showing a game too early, which is a reasonable lesson to draw from DokeV‘s own history.
The trailer problem
That history is the awkward part, because DokeV already had its moment.
The 2021 Gamescom gameplay trailer was a genuine sensation. Bright, kinetic, full of collectible creatures called Dokebi in a colorful modern-day world, it drew immediate comparisons to Pokémon and became one of the most-discussed reveals of that year.
Then came years of near-silence. A game that generated enormous goodwill spent that goodwill waiting, and it now returns to a market that looks very different from 2021.
The field it’s walking into
Creature collectors are no longer an open lane.
Palworld arrived in 2024 and proved there’s a large audience for a non-Nintendo take on the genre, though it also drew legal attention from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, who took action over patents.
Pokémon itself has kept iterating. Fan speculation about whether DokeV could attract similar scrutiny is understandable, but it’s speculation, no action has been threatened against Pearl Abyss.
What DokeV has going for it is a distinct identity. Dokebi are drawn from Korean folklore and, in the game’s framing, powered by people’s dreams, which is a different pitch from catching monsters to battle them.
The 2021 trailer promised something genuinely striking. Two more years is a long time to keep asking people to remember it, and the demos in late 2027 will be the first real test of whether the game still looks the way everyone remembers.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Insider Gaming (August 2026), verified for the Pearl Abyss Q2 2026 earnings letter, the second-half-2028 target, DokeV and Plan 8 being in active development, and the statement crediting Crimson Desert experience
GamesRadar+ (August 2026), verified for the “targeting a launch in the second half of 2028” quote, the nearly-ten-years framing, and the smooth-progress characterization
WCCFTech (August 2026), verified for personnel shifting from Crimson Desert to DokeV, the second-half-2027 playable demos, and the Q2 2026 Q&A details
Playfront and GuruGamer (2026), verified for Crimson Desert’s March 2026 launch and roughly seven million units sold, the 2019 reveal and 2021 Gamescom gameplay trailer, the phased marketing approach, and the Dokebi creature concept