If you’ve sunk even a few dozen hours into The First Descendant grinding void battles, unlocking new character kits, and hunting for rare legendary gear, you’ve probably wondered how Nexon’s team pulled off such a polished free-to-play looter shooter. I’ve put over 80 hours into the game myself, and I was curious enough to dig into official developer interviews and behind-the-scenes posts to get the full story. If you’ve asked how long did it take to make The First Descendant, you’re not alone—thousands of players have searched for the timeline behind the game’s smooth crossplay, vibrant open world, and surprisingly fair monetization model. This guide breaks down the full development timeline, core challenges the team faced, and how player feedback shaped the final game you can play today.
How Long Did It Take to Make The First Descendant: Full Development Timeline
From initial concept to global launch, the total development time for The First Descendant clocks in at roughly 4 years. Pre-production first kicked off in late 2019, when Nexon’s internal development team started researching gaps in the looter shooter market. They noticed most popular options were either paid, first-person only, or lacked cross-platform support, so they set out to build a third-person, free-to-play alternative that worked seamlessly across all major devices.
Full production started in early 2020, with the team choosing Unreal Engine 5 as the core engine for the game long before most other studios had adopted the new tool. Over the next 3 years, the team ran 4 closed betas and 2 open betas, testing everything from core gameplay loops to server stability for crossplay sessions. The final 6 months of development were dedicated entirely to bug fixes and balance adjustments based on player feedback, with no new major content added during that window. The game launched globally for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in September 2023, with 2 million players logging in during the first 24 hours.
Core Challenges That Extended Development Time
The 4-year timeline is a bit longer than the average for live service looter shooters, and the team has spoken openly about several unexpected hurdles that slowed down progress. Many of these delays were intentional choices to prioritize player experience over hitting an arbitrary launch date, and most fans agree the final product was worth the wait. The biggest challenges the team faced included:
- Building crossplay functionality for 5 platforms at launch: The team refused to launch with platform-locked servers, so they spent extra months testing to eliminate input lag, platform-specific bugs, and sync issues between different device types.
- Optimizing Unreal Engine 5 for lower-end hardware: Most early UE5 games only ran well on current-gen consoles and high-end PCs, but the team wanted to make the game accessible to players with older devices without cutting visual quality, which took 8 extra months of tuning.
- Balancing descendant kits for both casual and hardcore players: Early beta tests found some characters were way too overpowered for group PvE content, while others felt useless even for dedicated players, so the team ran 3 rounds of full kit reworks before launch.
For example, the ice-based descendant Viessa went through 7 different iterations of her ability kit before the team landed on a version that felt powerful but not game-breaking for both solo and group play. They also had to adjust drop rates for rare upgrade materials multiple times to avoid making the grind feel too tedious for players who only log in a few hours a week.
Key Design Choices That Made The Wait Worth It
Every extra month of development went into refining features that set The First Descendant apart from other looter shooters on the market. The team had a clear vision for a fair, accessible game that didn’t force players to spend money to stay competitive, and they stuck to that vision even when it meant pushing back the launch date.
Free-to-play with no pay-to-win mechanics was a non-negotiable rule from day one. All descendants, gameplay content, and highest-tier gear are unlockable entirely through gameplay, with paid items limited to cosmetic skins and optional quality of life upgrades that don’t affect player power. That choice required extra work to build a monetization system that felt fair but still generated enough revenue to support years of post-launch content updates.
Persistent shared open world with dynamic events was another big departure from standard looter shooter design. Most similar games rely entirely on instanced missions, but the team wanted a world where players could run into each other while exploring and join random public events without needing to queue for a group. Building a stable server system that supported hundreds of players per map without lag took almost a full year of extra testing, but it’s one of the most beloved features for casual players who don’t want to organize groups to enjoy endgame content.
The team also spent months tuning equal input support for controller and mouse/keyboard users so that controller players wouldn’t be at a disadvantage in any content, including optional PvP modes. That attention to detail is why the game has maintained a 4.5/5 average rating on Steam six months after launch, with over 10 million registered players globally.
How Early Player Feedback Shaped The Final Game
The team didn’t just run betas for marketing purposes—they actively read every feedback submission, watched hundreds of hours of streamer playthroughs, and adjusted the game based on what they learned. Many of the most popular features in the launch version of the game didn’t exist in early beta builds, and were added directly because players asked for them.
For example, early beta players complained that the weapon upgrade system was far too complicated, with 12 different rare upgrade materials that were almost impossible to track for new players. The team completely reworked the system to use only 3 core upgrade materials, with higher rarity versions of the same materials used for endgame upgrades. That change made the game far more accessible for casual players, and only added 2 months to the development timeline.
Another highly requested change was scaled solo difficulty for all endgame content. Early builds required players to team up for void battles and boss raids, but many players said they preferred to play alone sometimes, or couldn’t find consistent groups to run high-level content with. The team added scaled solo difficulty that rewards the same loot as group runs, which took 6 months to implement but is consistently cited as one of the best features in player surveys.
Even small quality of life changes, like the ability to sort inventory by gear type and mark items as favorites to avoid accidental deletion, were added directly based on beta feedback. The team still uses player feedback to guide post-launch updates, with new content patches dropping every 2 months that address common player complaints and add requested features.
At the end of the day, asking how long did it take to make The First Descendant gives you more than just a 4-year number—it shows you the level of care and attention that went into building a game that’s accessible, fair, and fun for all types of players. The development team didn’t cut corners to hit a faster launch date, and they prioritized player experience over short-term profits at almost every turn. Next time you take down a void boss or unlock a new descendant you’ve been grinding for weeks to get, take a second to appreciate the hundreds of developers who spent years working to make that moment feel as satisfying as possible.