A report from the South Korean website InsightKorea reveals that Crimson Desert may have been internally moved from Q2 2024 to Q2 2025 by developer Pearl Abyss (known as the maker of Black Desert Online and owner of CCP Games).
Kim Jin-gu, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, was quoted saying:
There was a delay of about a year in the release of Crimson Desert, which exceeded the 3 to 6 months acceptable in the market.
At the same time, he maintains that Pearl Abyss stock is the best in the Korean industry, as the games presented at G-Star last month weren’t really a threat.
We took into account that the new games scheduled to be released by major competitors, which were revealed at this G-Star, did not surpass the company’s Crimson Desert, and the gap in this was significant.
Even so, Jin-gu urged Pearl Abyss to communicate the game’s release date to investors:
I would like to state that Pearl Abyss Management must conduct more sincere and specific communication with all investors in an official setting. Crimson Desert is a game that takes 7 years from the start of development to the expected release date, and is not a typical game. It is a situation that exceeds the development period.
Currently, Pearl Abyss has many mid- to long-term investors who trust and invest in its own game engine and the high quality of new games, and considering that the return on investment for these people is negative, the company is monitoring the progress of development and the reasons why additional time is needed. It can be said that there is a need to disclose the expected release date of the base to investors in an official setting compared to the previous year.
Indeed, Crimson Desert has had a fairly lengthy development phase. The game was originally unveiled at G-Star 2019 alongside PLAN 8 (an exosuit shooter led by Counter-Strike co-creator Minh Le) and DokeV (a Pokémon like creature collection game). All of these were planned as MMOs at first, but Pearl Abyss switched genres for Crimson Desert and DokeV (while PLAN 8 hasn’t been seen since), focusing on single player with some multiplayer elements instead.
Crimson Desert was delayed ‘indefinitely’ in July 2021 only to resurface at Gamescom 2023 with a new gameplay trailer. Pearl Abyss executives told investors development would be completed by the end of this year, but if the new rumor is true, the game is likely taking longer than that. DokeV, on the other hand, was shown the last time at Gamescom 2021. It is known to be coming after Crimson Desert, so it could be targeting a 2026 launch now.
We have reached out to Pearl Abyss for comments and will update this story if they provide any statements.
