This page collects every public appearance of DokeV since the project was first announced. The marketing path has been unusually quiet for an open-world game in active development. Each entry below is something Pearl Abyss itself released, attended, or said on the record; press coverage and speculation are not included. See Release Window for the schedule outlook and ROCKSTAR for the song that has anchored most of these moments.
Timeline
Date | Event |
|---|---|
November 7, 2019 | Pearl Abyss publicly teases a project under the codename Project V ahead of the studio's annual showcase. |
November 14, 2019 | DokeV is formally announced at Pearl Abyss Connect 2019, held at G-STAR in Busan, with the first announcement trailer and confirmation of console and PC platforms. |
December 5, 2019 | The original song ROCKSTAR debuts as a lyric video alongside a fresh batch of in-engine screenshots, establishing the K-pop branding the project keeps from this point forward. |
August 25, 2021 | The world-premiere gameplay trailer is shown at Gamescom Opening Night Live. Pearl Abyss simultaneously repositions DokeV from a massively multiplayer online game to a single-player and multiplayer open-world action-adventure. |
December 9, 2021 | The full ROCKSTAR music video is presented at The Game Awards 2021, with characters performing inside the BlackSpace Engine. Sangyoung Kim, lead producer on DokeV, frames the video as a thank-you to the community for the response to the Gamescom reveal. |
December 11, 2021 | The ROCKSTAR music video airs at the MAMA awards ceremony, the first time a video game music video has been presented at the show. |
Through 2022 and 2023 | No major public events. The original internal target of 2023 lapses without a release announcement, and DokeV enters an extended quiet period. |
October 2024 | Pearl Abyss leadership states publicly that DokeV will not launch before 2027, roughly eighteen months after Crimson Desert. |
December 2024 | A short On the Road interlude featuring DokeV characters and the ROCKSTAR theme appears during The Game Awards 2024 broadcast, the first new DokeV footage in over three years. |
March 19, 2026 | Crimson Desert launches. The studio's core open-world team becomes available to move onto DokeV at full intensity. |
March 28, 2026 | At Pearl Abyss's 17th annual shareholder meeting, CEO Heo Jin-young confirms the team transition and estimates roughly two to three years of remaining work, framing the late 2027 to early 2029 release window. |
May 2026 | Pearl Abyss reaffirms in a development status update that DokeV remains in pre-production, with the polish phase still ahead and no firm date or storefront listing. |
Themes Across Appearances
Three patterns recur across DokeV's public moments. First, the company prefers to surface DokeV at large industry showcases (G-STAR, Gamescom Opening Night Live, The Game Awards) rather than through frequent dev diaries or social posts. Second, the marketing identity has been remarkably stable since 2019: every major appearance features ROCKSTAR or one of its remixes, dance choreography captured at the Pearl Abyss motion capture studio, and the same bright K-pop visual palette. Third, the studio has consistently treated DokeV as a long-horizon project, repeatedly warning that the build is not close to a release window when asked about a date.
What Has Not Been Shown
Despite the long timeline, several routine pre-release marketing beats have not yet happened for DokeV. None of the following have been confirmed by Pearl Abyss as of May 2026:
A storefront listing on Steam, the PlayStation Store, the Xbox Store, or any other PC or console platform.
A public hands-on demo of any kind, including private press demos that have been reported back to the public.
A betas or playtests, whether closed, open, technical, or stress.
A character roster reveal, a story trailer, or a named protagonist disclosure.
A confirmed Dokebi roster or any official type chart or stat system.
A shipping platform order or a confirmed launch lineup beyond the broad PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S targets the studio has discussed.
Where Updates Surface
Schedule and content updates land on a small set of official channels. The Pearl Abyss press board hosts written announcements; the official DokeV YouTube channel hosts trailers and dev clips; the studio's quarterly earnings disclosures contain the most reliable timing signals. The most likely venues for the next major reveal are the same large industry showcases that have hosted prior DokeV moments. Anything claiming a release date, pre-order page, or playable build outside those channels should be treated as unconfirmed.