Crimson Desert base PS5 gameplay finally revealed ahead of launch

At long last! Gameplay footage of Crimson Desert running on a base PS5 has finally been shared - and it looks incredibly promising.

Crimson Desert is an open-world action role-playing game from studio Pearl Abyss, which is best known for its MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) Black Desert Online. It's the studio's highly-anticipated first single-player game and was designed to be a prequel to Black Desert before eventually becoming a standalone title.

The gaming community has gone back and forth in its faith of Crimson Desert running as it should on base PS5 and Xbox consoles.

As no footage of the game running on these platforms has been readily available, yet videos and screenshots of the game running on PC have been plentiful, it caused some to wonder if we could be heading for a Cyberpunk 2077 situation where the game was great on PC but nothing short of a disaster on consoles in terms of performance (which CD Projekt Red worked tirelessly to fix successfully).

Those fears were alleviated to a certain extent when Pearl Abyss shared console and PC specs, with Digital Foundry recently posting its initial analysis of how the game will run on the PS5 Pro.

To note here, the publication interestingly said Pearl Abyss gave it a PS5 Pro console with Crimson Desert preloaded. Usually, studios and publishers give out download codes but it seems here Pearl Abyss did not want Digital Foundry trying to check the game out on a base PS5.

It didn't seem there would be any footage of the game running on base PS5 or Xbox consoles ahead of launch, with a number of gamers on social media saying it was giving them huge "red flags".

But PlayStation Japan's YouTube channel has finally giving the gaming community what it's been longing for - footage of the game running on a base PS5.

And it's extremely encouraging.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

To note, the YouTube video itself is limited to 1080p and there is no 60fps (frames per second) option, meaning it's limited to 30fps.

While it's trickier to definitively tell from this how good the game will look when running on base PS5 and Xbox consoles, Crimson Desert does seem to run smoothly with no noticeable frame rate dips or graphical glitches, which is extremely encouraging.

This was reposted in the Crimson Desert Subreddit and fans have been having their say in the comments.

One said: "I will put my hand up and admit I was wrong. Looks like very well optimised on the base PS5."

"I'm on base PS5 and this has made me even more excited for the game, I thought it'd look worse than this," a second commented.

A third commented: "Finally. Hopefully the console people will be satisfied. Too many videos mixing console and PC discussions, it's been a drag."

A fourth said: "Alright. I promised I would stop worrying once base PS5 footage came and what I saw, I loved. Pre-ordered. See you guys on Friday."

And a fifth declared: "Now all the haters should shut it."

Crimson Desert is out on 19 March on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Elsewhere from indy100:

• Crimson Desert PS5 Pro performance analysis is dividing opinion
• Crimson Desert physical copies already out in the wild

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