Crimson Desert will be launched globally on March 19 at 10:00 pm GMT (March 20, 3:30 am IST).
Here is Everything You Need to Know About Crimson Desert
Photo Credit: Pearl Abyss
Crimson Desert is scheduled to be launched globally later today (Friday morning in India) across all major platforms. The upcoming game developed by the South Korea-based studio Pearl Abyss is currently available for pre-order. It will ship in a Standard Edition and a Deluxe Edition, which brings special weapons for the players. The open-world action-adventure game is a spiritual prequel to the South Korean developer's Black Desert Online. Originally expected to launch last year, the release of the game was pushed to 2026 due to various production-related issues.
Since there are only a few hours left until the launch of Pearl Abyss' new open-world game, here is everything you need to know about the upcoming Crimson Desert.
The South Korean developer Pearl Abyss will launch its open-world action-adventure title, Crimson Desert, on March 19 at 10:00 pm GMT (March 20, 3:30 am IST). The single-player game was earlier expected to be released at the end of last year. However, the developers delayed its launch due to production-related delays, including offline distribution, voice-overs, and console certification, which led to a longer than previously anticipated time. However, the game is finally coming to all major gaming platforms later today.
Crimson Desert is currently on pre-order in India and other global markets. While the price of the physical disc is currently unknown, the digital version of the Standard Edition is priced at Rs. 4,499 on the PlayStation Store, Steam, Epic Games Store, and Xbox Store. On the other hand, the digital version of the Deluxe Edition can be pre-ordered for a price of Rs. 5,129. The price of the physical discs is expected to be revealed after the launch later today.
Pearl Abyss' Crimson Desert will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Pro, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and Mac. The company recently revealed the minimum and recommended specifications requirements for PC and the modes for the gaming consoles. The upcoming game will run in Performance, Balanced, and Quality modes on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Pro, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X.
The Performance mode will over higher framerate with some compromises on the resolution front, running the game at 1080p and 60fps with raytracing set to low. As the name suggests, the Balanced mode will offer a balanced framerate and resolution gaming experience, running Desert Crimson at 1280p upscaled to 4K at 40 fps.
Lastly, the Quality mode will favour resolution over framerate, running the open-world title at 1440p upscaled to 4K at 30fps with raytracing set to high. While the standard PlayStation 5 will not run the game at native 4K, the PlayStation 5 Pro model is confirmed to deliver 4K resolution gaming at 30fps in the Quality mode with raytracing set to Ultra.
Meanwhile, on Mac, Crimson Desert will support devices powered by Apple Silicon M2 Pro or newer chipsets. It will require the Mac device to have at least 16GB of RAM and is confirmed to occupy up to 150GB of storage.
For better understanding, we have curated a table highlighting the PC specification requirements for Minimum, Low, Medium (recommended), High, and Ultra modes. You can read more about it here.
| Component | Minimum | Low | Recommended | High | Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics Preset | Minimum | Low | Medium | High | Ultra |
| Performance Specs | Upscaled 1080p/30 fps | 1080p/30 fps | Up to 4K/30 fps | 1440p/60 fps | 4K/ 60 fps |
| GPU | AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 | AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 | AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 | AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 | AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel i5-8500 | AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel i5-8500 | AMD Ryzen 5 5600 or Intel i5-11600K | AMD Ryzen 5 7600X or Intel i5-12600K | AMD Ryzen 7 7700X or Intel i5-13600K |
| RAM | 16GB | 16GB | 16GB | 16GB | 16GB |
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit 22H2 or newer | Windows 10 64-bit 22H2 or newer | Windows 10 64-bit 22H2 or newer | Windows 10 64-bit 22H2 or newer | Windows 10 64-bit 22H2 or newer |
| Storage | 150 GB, SSD required | 150 GB, SSD required | 150 GB, SSD required | 150 GB, SSD required | 150 GB, SSD required |
Coming to the features, Crimson Desert's game interface and subtitles support 14 languages, including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish (Spain), Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Latin America), Traditional Chinese, Portuguese (Brazil), and Turkish. Meanwhile, voiceovers will be available in English, Korean, and Simplified Chinese.
Leading up to its launch, South Korea's Pearl Abyss has released multiple trailers, teasers, and other marketing materials to hint at what one could expect from the game. Set in the medieval fantasy continent of Pywel, the single-player follows the story of Kliff, a sword-wielding warrior of the Greymanes. In the opening hours of the game, the protagonist you are playing as is killed by a rival clan, only to be brought back to life by supernatural forces, giving you supernatural powers in the process. As Kliff, you have to rebuild your life and move on to newer adventures.
With 94 reviews for the PC version of Crimson Desert, it scored an aggregate rating of 78/100 on Metacritic. Meanwhile, on Opencritic, Pearl Abyss' new title has received an aggregate rating of 80 out of 100 from top critics on the platform. Since we did receive an early access copy of Crimson Desert, you can expect our review coverage at a later date.
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