We're just two weeks away from the launch of Crimson Desert (at the time of writing), and on the basis of trailers released to the world, as well as early previews that a select few have been able to experience, this game is already being compared to GTA 6 in terms of hype and the spectacular vision it could deliver — and it's causing doubt to creep in for some.
We’ve all been there: flashy trailers, curated preview builds, bold promises that build the hype up and up and up, before reality brings the dream crashing down. While Crimson Desert hasn’t launched yet, some are already preparing themselves for potential disappointment.
For a start, a loud portion of the internet has pointed out that despite a promised console launch and PSSR support for PS5 Pro upscaling, everything that's been seen of the game so far has been based on PC gameplay. Because PCs can be kitted out with absurdly high specs that most normal people won’t have access to, it’s a tactic some use to make their titles look better than they really are.
In response to this, Will Powers, Marketing Director for Pearl Abyss, the team behind Crimson Desert, took to X to insist: “We’re not hiding anything.”
He added: "We'll reveal things ahead of launch to give people adequate time to still preorder the game for themselves. We're saying this openly… Let us cook?”
When this was shared to the Crimson Desert subreddit he responded, saying that while people have a right to transparency, folks “demanding information on their timeline is entitlement, and that needs to end.”
There’s a note of exasperation in Powers’ words, and scrolling through his social feeds it's clear that he’s been battling these claims for a while across a few platforms. That said, the easy answer would be to just give us PS5 footage for a game announced back in 2019 (which the Powers admits was “too early”). It’s not like there hasn’t been time to edit together a proper trailer for a single PlayStation Direct.
Nothing to hide
At risk of being proven wrong in a fortnight, I don’t believe Pearl Abyss even has something to hide.
In footage shared to Digital Foundry the dev team showed the game running at 4K 60fps with Ultra quality settings on years-old tech including a Ryzen 9 7900X3D and Radeon RX 7900 XTX — a definitively last-gen CPU and GPU pairing.
This impressive performance is credited to Pearl Abyss’ BlackSpace engine, which Crimson Desert runs on. This would give the team much better control over how it can optimize the platform to eke out the absolute best performance from systems.
That said, PC footage isn’t the same as PS5 footage, especially as the above PC specs would be more powerful than Sony’s console, so I do hope we get a proper look at Crimson Desert on console soon.
In any case, if you aren’t confident that Crimson Desert will live up to the hype, just wait. You don’t need to preorder a game, and you don’t even need to get it on day one. Wait for first impressions to be posted, wait for reviews, and then make your decision; even if the risk feels low it’s still just safer to wait, especially if your budget isn’t big enough to cover getting burned.
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