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This morning, during its Q2 fiscal year 2025 presentation, South Korean developer Pearl Abyss announced the delay of Crimson Desert. The upcoming action/adventure game was previously scheduled to launch in Q4 2025 but has been pushed back one quarter.
The CEO revealed that currently, Crimson Desert is undergoing voice-overs and console certification tasks in preparation for its release. In terms of marketing, they plan to participate in Gamescom and PAX West this August to showcase their open-world build. Additionally, in September, they will join the Tokyo Game Show to strengthen their marketing efforts in the Japanese market.
The launch of Crimson Desert, Pearl Abyss’s first large-scale AAA console game, has been unavoidably delayed by one quarter due to longer-than-expected timelines arising from schedule coordination and collaborations with multiple partners for offline distribution, voice-overs, console certification, and other launch preparations. The company sincerely apologizes for not being able to meet the originally promised fourth-quarter launch schedule. However, this is a strategic decision aimed at ensuring success on a meaningful scale.
The release date has been internally confirmed for Q1 2026. Given the change in launch timing, Pearl Abyss will announce the exact date based on business considerations rather than making an announcement at Gamescom next week.
Unfortunate news for anyone looking to play Crimson Desert this year, but no doubt the final version will benefit from a little bit more polish. The game was originally meant to be launched as far back as Winter 2021 but then underwent significant rework from its original MMO-like plan into a single-player open-world game. At this point, a few more months won’t make that much of a difference.
As mentioned in the executive’s quote, Crimson Desert will also be playable in a new build at Gamescom, PAX West, and Tokyo Game Show. Pearl Abyss will be present at Gamescom to check out this new version and report back, so stay tuned. The game is set for release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X.
