Doubts about how Crimson Desert will really run on consoles have flared up once again as it doesn't seem there will be any indication of how the game runs on a base PS5 or Xbox Series X/S until launch.
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.
There have been question marks about how Crimson Desert will run on consoles as the vast majority of gameplay readily available online is from the PC build of the game with console footage quite scarce.
That was until 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. This helped to alleviate some of the concern.
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.
And now in the Digital Foundry Discord, John Linneman, who conducted the analysis on the game, said it doesn't seem the publication will be able to test the game on a base PS5 or Xbox consoles ahead of launch.
When asked if he will be able to try the game on his own console or test the base PS5 version ahead of launch, Linneman replied: "I don't think we will because the issue is the activation server which isn't online yet."
While that doesn't guarantee there will not be any footage shared of the game running on base PS5 or Xbox consoles ahead of launch, this comment has already done the rounds on social media and has caused increased skepticism again among gamers who are planning to play the game on these consoles.
On a post about this in the GamingLeaksAndRumours Subreddit, one said: "Never a good sign."
"Well that's definitely not good," a second agreed.
A third commented: "Remember when the devs swore we would get info on the base consoles before release and that gamers are basically whining? Who knows, maybe it does run well but the fact that they are making every possible push to wait till after releases, just tell us it will likely run like s***."
"Crimson Desert 2.0 with the Phantasm Freedom DLC in 2029?" a fourth joked.
And a fifth said: "This is a worrying sign, I ain't buying a Pro just for this game so I'm hoping they show off some base PS5 gameplay."
The reason gamers are concerned is there are fears we could be heading for a Cyberpunk 2077-esque situation where the game ran pretty much as it should on PC but it was nothing short of a disaster in terms of console performance at launch (which CD Projekt Red worked tirelessly on to eventually fix).
Crimson Desert releases on 19 March on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Elsewhere from indy100:
How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel
Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
