While the game launched in a somewhat mixed state, Pearl Abyss’ Crimson Desert has quite quickly managed to make a comeback, with a rapid response from the team helping to bring sentiment surrounding the game to ‘very positive’ on Steam. It appears as though this critical revival is being matched by its sales success, with Crimson Desert having now officially sold-through 5 million copies in under a month.

Taking to Twitter to make the announcement, the official Crimson Desert page shared the following message:

“#CrimsonDesert has sold through over 5 million copies worldwide! Thank you to every Greymane who has joined us on this journey, experienced the world of Pywel, and supported the game. Reaching this milestone would not have been possible without your support and we are truly grateful.”

While not the first time that Pearl Abyss have shared such a figure, this latest announcement specifically refers to sold-through numbers – meaning copies which have actually found their way into players’ homes – and not just units shipped to retailers.

Crimson Desert has already had quite the journey in its first month on the market. With its launch week woes seemingly behind us now however, it is safe to say that the game’s best days are still ahead of it.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Crimson Desert so far? How big of a deal are the recent improvements? How long before it inevitably reaches 10 million? Let us know your thoughts down below.

It's good to see even workstation Intel Arc GPUs being able to play Crimson Desert, but the game shows some weird behavior. Crimson Desert Now Supports Intel Arc Pro B70 Workstation GPU, But Shimmering Ruins the Experience Except on Ultra Settings After nearly three weeks of launch, the latest Pearl Abyss title Crimson Desert received support for Intel Arc GPUs. The official notes for the latest game patch revealed that the game should now run on Intel Arc discrete and integrated graphics cards, and should also bring the XeSS 3 and Frame Generation support. Since Arc GPUs are categorized into […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/user-confirms-intel-arc-pro-b70-can-play-crimson-desert/

Finally, the game has received official support for Intel Arc GPUs as well as its upscaling technology and Frame Gen feature. Pearl Abyss Adds Support for Intel Arc GPUs, XeSS 3.0, and Frame Generation for Crimson Desert Three Weeks After Launch With the latest Intel Arc driver update released a few days ago, Pearl Abyss's Crimson Desert finally started to launch on Intel Arc GPUs, but the latest patches further optimize the compatibility. If you have been following the developments around the game, you might be aware that the Intel Arc GPUs weren't supported in Crimson Desert. After a huge […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/crimson-desert-officially-receives-intel-arc-gpu-and-xess-3-0-frame-generation-support/

Crimson Desert has been off to a great start. While the game had some lower critic scores than expected, the game has secured high praise from players and that positive word of mouth has led to over 5 million sales so far. Now, the developers at Pearl Abyss are sharing what is coming next to the game.

In a developer update shared today, Pearl Abyss confirmed new content and features coming to all Crimson Desert players. For starters, the endgame will soon improve with boss rematches, allowing players to revisit any boss encounter in the game to test out new strategies. Liberated areas on the map can also fall back under enemy control through a new “re‑blockading” system, giving players repeatable combat challenges across Pywel. A full difficulty selector is being added as well, offering easy, normal and hard modes.

Character updates include new skills for Damiane and Oongka, addressing community feedback about their limited late‑game options. Players will also gain the ability to hide back‑mounted weapons, and new outfits are planned, including changes that allow previously restricted clothing to be worn.

Pearl Abyss is also working to expand the inventory system with dedicated spaces for food, crafting materials, gear and collected quest items. Pets and mounts are also being expanded, with more summonable creatures and new armour sets for non‑horse mounts.

System improvements round out the list of incoming changes, including UI readability upgrades, expanded controller and keyboard customisation, and enhanced distant‑scenery rendering to improve Pywel’s overall visual depth.

KitGuru Says: Pearl Abyss has been impressively quick to address feedback on Crimson Desert. Have many of you picked up the game yet? How are you finding it so far?

We knew that Slay the Spire 2 had a massive launch, if only based on the fact that it reached 574,638 concurrent players on Steam just three days after it launched, after it had already seemingly had a huge start when it hit well over 400K concurrent players and took a jab at Marathon. Not long after its arrival, a report from data firm Alinea Analytics spied that it had already sold an estimated 4.6M copies and generated an estimated $92M in revenue, and now, Alinea's latest newsletter report calls MegaCrit's long-awaited sequel the best-selling game on Steam for March […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/slay-the-spire-2-reportedly-best-selling-game-on-steam-march-2026-beat-crimson-desert/

Crimson Desert was a hotly-anticipated brand new IP prior to its official launch earlier this month, with the ambitious open-world title garnering a ton of attention thanks to its pretty visuals, freeform gameplay and player agency. Upon its launch however, the game suffered from a number of issues, including rather awkward controls. Fortunately, the team at Pearl Abyss have been quick to respond to criticisms – with Crimson Desert having now climbed its way to a ‘Very Positive’ score on Steam.

With over 100,000 Steam reviews, Pearl Abyss’ Crimson Desert has managed to claw its way into a strong position, currently sitting at a Steam Score of ‘Very Positive’.

This marks a stark difference from its launch reception, which saw roughly 2/5ths of all reviews landing at a ‘Negative’.

Thanks to a number of patches as well as rather candid responses from the studio’s CEO, opinions on Crimson Desert have shifted. As mentioned, not only has the game managed to climb out of its mixed review status, but a solid number of the prior negative reviews have since been altered.

In case you missed it, Pearl Abyss have offered quite a few hints at what to expect from the game’s future, suggesting that Crimson Desert could receive free updates and even robust modding tools.

Considering the fact that Crimson Desert released just two weeks ago, the current shift in perception towards the title is interesting to see – and shows how big of a deal listening to fan feedback can be.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Crimson Desert two weeks following launch? Are you pleased with its current state? Let us know down below.

Prior to its release, Crimson Desert was easily one of the most anticipated new IPs for 2026, with the ambitious open-world action-adventure title garnering a ton of attention. While sentiment surrounding the game has cooled somewhat following its release, Crimson Desert has still found a large audience of fans. Alongside the announcement that the game has already sold over 5 million copies, Pearl Abyss’ CEO offered a bunch of hints for what could be in store for the future of Crimson Desert.

During the company’s most recent shareholder meeting, Pearl Abyss’ CEO Heo Jin-young responded to a number of investor queries. Alongside talk of a potential Switch 2 port for the title, the CEO was asked whether Crimson Desert had any plans for DLC in place.

According to Heo (as translated by ResetEra user ‘Neha’): “While expanding through paid expansions is good, there are also cases where expanding [free] content leads to more sales of the base game. We want to make strategic decisions that help Crimson Desert itself sell more.”

Interestingly, Heo was also asked about the potential for official modding support, to which the CEO responded: “The modding community is active, and since our game has a sandbox structure, supporting mods could be a strong advantage. To support mods, we would need to open up large parts of the engine, so while the development team is positive, there are no concrete plans yet.”

As mentioned by the CEO, Crimson Desert runs on Pearl Abyss’ own bespoke game engine, and so introducing modding tools is somewhat more complicated than flipping a switch. That said, offering such a feature could give the game a strong level of longevity.

Perhaps most curiously, Heo revealed that multiplayer was being considered for Crimson Desert prior to its launch, stating that “the development team did attempt to implement multiplayer internally, but given current hardware limitations, there are clear graphical sacrifices required.”

As mentioned, alongside these revelations, the CEO also spoke on the game’s sales success as well as a potential Switch 2 port – the full details for which can be found HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you enjoying Crimson Desert so far? How big of a deal would official modding support be for you? Let us know down below.

Alec Newman is an actor with over a decade of experience working in video games, though it appears his time as Kliff in the recently released Crimson Desert from developer Pearl Abyss was one of his oddest working experiences yet. Speaking in an interview on the Friends Per Second podcast, Newman dug into how the story suffered through major changes in the five years he spent in recording sessions for Kliff, describing the experience as a "roller coaster." Newman said his experience with Crimson Desert was "very different" from his most previous video game project, Still Wakes the Deep (which […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/crimson-desert-kliff-actor-confirms-story-suffered-major-changes-in-development/

Positive word of mouth is beginning to spread and more players are jumping in to Pearl Abyss's new single-player open-world action game, Crimson Desert. Since launch, the game has now surpassed five million copies sold and the development team is looking to boos this further with a new Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game. 

Speaking at a shareholders meeting last week (via VGC), Pearl Abyss CEO, Heo Jin-Young confirmed to investors that the team is looking into a Switch 2 port for Crimson Desert. However, he does also warn that the Switch 2 has “lower specifications” compared to the likes of the PS5, so a Switch 2 version would require some compromises.

A Switch 2 version of the game would open Crimson Desert up to millions of additional players. So far across its PC, Xbox and PS5 versions, the game has garnered over 5 million copies sold, up from 2 million on its launch day, indicating that positive word of mouth is spreading quickly.

On Steam, Crimson Desert currently has more than 40,000 individual user reviews, with a Very Positive overall score.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Have you tried Crimson Desert yet? Would you recommend the game? 

Prior to its release, Crimson Desert was easily one of the most anticipated new IPs for 2026, with the ambitious open-world action-adventure title garnering a ton of attention thanks to its freeform gameplay and impressive visuals. While its reception may have been somewhat more contentious than was expected, Crimson Desert has still managed an impressive and strong launch – officially selling 2 million copies in its first 24 hours.

Taking to Twitter to make the announcement, the team at Pearl Abyss wrote: “We are incredibly humbled to share that #CrimsonDesert has sold through 2 million copies worldwide. Thank you so much to our fans, community, and everyone who has joined us in Pywel.”

The team also took time to address some of the game’s early response, stating “We will listen closely to the wide range of feedback shared by the community and work to make improvements quickly, doing our utmost to make the journey ahead even more enjoyable for our players.”

One such issue which they have already confirmed is being worked on is the game’s controls, with Pearl Abyss stating that “we are currently preparing a patch to address this.”

While certainly not for everyone, Crimson Desert does seem to have found itself a solid initial audience base. It will be interesting to see how the game’s reception evolves over time.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Crimson Desert so far? Has it managed to meet your expectations? Outside of controls, what other adjustments would you like to see made? Let us know down below.

Crimson Desert may have already sold 2 million units thanks to strong hype, but the reviews from critics and users alike aren't nearly as positive as Pearl Abyss investors had hoped, leading to a 30% stock crash on Thursday and a 10% one on Friday. Now, it seems a few developers have decided to speak anonymously about some of the issues that plagued the game's long development (it was even delayed indefinitely in 2021 and only resurfaced two years later). Two detailed posts about Crimson Desert's behind-the-scenes appeared on Blind (as spotted on Reddit), an anonymous professional social network primarily used by tech […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/crimson-desert-devs-reveal-development-issues/

Weirdly, the latest open-world title developed by Pearl Abyss doesn't even run on Intel GPUs. Crimson Desert Developer, Pearl Abyss, Confirms The Game Does Not Support Intel Arc GPUs; No Indication of Future Support Either [Update - 3/21/2026] - Intel has offered a statement on the lack of Arc GPU support in Crimson Desert: "We’re aware that Crimson Desert currently doesn’t launch on systems with Intel GPUs and we’re hugely disappointed that players using Intel graphics hardware can’t jump into the world of Pywel at launch. Getting games running smoothly is always a partnership between developers and hardware makers. Over the […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/crimson-desert-doesnt-run-on-intel-arc-confirms-pearl-abyss/

Crimson Desert finally arrived yesterday after multiple delays and years of waiting, and its launch has been mixed, to say the least. On the one hand, the game has already sold 2 million copies. On the other, critic and user consensus is decidedly mixed, while some critics (like Wccftech's Francesco De Meo) have loved their time with it, many are on the very opposite end, resulting in a Metacritic score of 78, while its user reviews on Steam launched at 'Mixed' but have since become 'Mostly Positive.' While the game caught a fair amount of flak online for adding Denuvo […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/that-is-egregious-players-have-already-found-whats-believed-to-be-ai-generated-art-in-crimson-desert/

At the time of this writing, Crimson Desert has not even been out for a full 24 hours. It launched yesterday, on March 19, 2026, at 3pm PT / 6pm ET / 10pm BT, but it didn't need the full 24 hours to hit its first sales milestone. Developer Pearl Abyss has already reported that Crimson Desert hit 2 million copies sold in its first day. The studio shared the news on the game's official X (formerly Twitter), while including that it is "doing our utmost" to respond to player feedback, as these big launch sales come despite the fact […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/crimson-desert-hits-2m-copies-sold-first-day-pearl-abyss/

Crimson Desert launches today with full support for AMD’s latest FidelityFX Super Resolution technologies, giving players access to FSR 4.1 Upscaling, FSR Ray Regeneration and FSR Frame Generation from day one. Pearl Abyss’ open‑world action‑adventure has been one of 2026’s most anticipated releases, and AMD is positioning the game as a showcase for its newest image‑quality and performance‑boosting features.

Crimson Desert arrives as a large‑scale, story‑driven adventure built on Pearl Abyss’ in‑house BlackSpace Engine. The game blends open‑world exploration with cinematic combat and large set‑piece encounters, all rendered with ray‑traced shadows, global illumination and reflections. Launching today across PC and consoles, it places a heavy emphasis on visual fidelity, making upscaling and frame‑generation support particularly relevant for players targeting higher resolutions or smoother performance.

AMD’s FSR 4.1 Upscaling is the centrepiece of the integration, improving image clarity and preserving fine detail such as foliage, particles and reflective surfaces even when using performance‑oriented presets. The company says the new algorithm delivers cleaner edges and more stable motion, especially at 4K. Crimson Desert also supports FSR Ray Regeneration, a neural‑network‑based denoiser designed to improve the quality of ray‑traced lighting, shadows and reflections by reducing noise and shimmering in complex scenes.

FSR Frame Generation rounds out the feature set by inserting additional frames to increase perceived smoothness and responsiveness. All three technologies are available through AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 26.3.1, so be sure to update your drivers.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: FSR 4 support is limited at the moment, so you'll need an RX 9000 series GPU to benefit from these new features. If you do have one of those, let us know how you get on with FSR 4.

Crimson Desert is Pearl Abyss’s ambitious open-world epic, taking players to the war-torn continent of Pywel. Following Kliff, the leader of the Greymane mercenaries, you will navigate political intrigue, master brutal combat, and explore a world filled with mythical creatures and ancient mysteries to restore the mercenary company after it was decimated by a surprise attack from the rival Black Bears. In this Complete Walkthrough and Guides Hub, you will find everything you need to rebuild the Greymanes, master the complex combat system, and uncover the secrets of the Abyss. Getting Started Pywel is a vast and unforgiving land where […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/how-to/crimson-desert-complete-walkthrough-and-guides-hub/

Open-world games are among the most popular video game genres nowadays, but it's undeniable that, among the many released each year, only a few achieve widespread success and enduring popularity. This isn't very surprising. While the idea of having huge maps filled with activities and secrets to discover is always enticing, the execution makes all the difference. Those that fall into the "Ubisoft" open-world formula often become tiring very quickly without a strong, cohesive narrative, while those that do away with markers and quest indicators, leaving players on their own, like Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/review/crimson-desert-review-blissfully-lost-in-pywell/

Pearl Abyss' long-awaited open-world adventure, Crimson Desert, will be out and available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S in just two days at the time of this writing, and analytics firm Alinea Analytics is pointing to its launch being about as big as the world of Pywell you get to explore in Crimson Desert. In the firm's latest newsletter, analyst Rhys Elliot reports that on Steam alone, Crimson Desert has already reached nearly 400K copies sold, generating an estimated $20 million in revenue just off pre-order sales on Steam. What's more is that for all of the concern over […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/crimson-desert-estimated-400k-copies-sold-20m-in-pre-order-revenue/

We are finally one week away from Crimson Desert hitting PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S consoles next week on March 19, 2026. Developer Pearl Abyss put out the game's official launch trailer today, showcasing it once more ahead of its launch date that you'd be forgiven if you believed would never come at one point during its many delays. Thankfully, it is actually on its way. We've seen what feels like a hundred gameplay clips with its multiple deep dives and Gamescom previews over the years, and earlier this week, we finally got a look at its full recommended […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/pearl-abyss-shows-crimson-desert-off-once-more-confirms-denuvo-drm-inclusion/