When Crimson Desert was announced back in 2019, players were in shock. A brand new game from Pearl Abyss, the developers of Black Desert Online that looked to provide players an entirely overhauled experience. An upgraded graphical engine, enhanced combat, a strong focus on the narrative.
And let’s be real here: If there were to be an MMO that could unseat BDO as the most stunning, most engaging (at least in terms of raw gameplay) MMO, it would be the same people that created it, right?
When Crimson Desert was revealed to the world, it was revealed to be a large-scale, seamless open-world MMO featuring highly stylized action combat.
Pearl Abyss had intrigued the entire MMO scene with the promise of “the next generation MMORPG,” but immediately went silent. 13 months later – with not a sliver of information released up until that point, Pearl Abyss showcased a full, in-game trailer, showcasing incredible visuals, raw, bloody, gorey combat, the main cast of characters.
Yes, cast of characters. Because in the very same showcase, they confirmed the game would no longer be an MMO, rather, a full, single-player RPG with multiplayer aspects being developed.
This was a monumental blow to players, who had remained excited all year. But Pearl Abyss once more promised that this was the direction the game needed to go. It just wouldn’t work as an MMO, and in creating a single-player title, they could craft a deeper, more meaningful experience for us.
This was in December, 2020. Fast forward to November 2022, just shy of 2 years later, after 23 months of complete silence.. Pearl Abyss have once again made an appearance. And in their hour long video, confirmed via images something that.. well, does two things.
1.) Show ever increasing levels of incompetence, and 2.) Simultaneously hype us up once more for what could arguably be one of the best MMO releases in years: And that is because Pearl Abyss confirmed – once again – via labeling and images – that Crimson Desert is going to release as a fully functional MMORPG.
Not a single-player RPG. Not a small-scale MMO. Rather, a massively multiplayer online RPG, like its predecessor, Black Desert Online.

Or at least that is what we were all lead to believe while watching the live stream, and for several days proceeding the conclusion of the stream.

Looking down in both the description and pinned comment, you’ll notice a statement that reads “Certain information in this presentation, including the genre of Pearl Abyss’ new projects, were from past source materials and so have been removed. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.” This is untranslated, and directly from the source.

During the live stream, the studio clearly presented several games – Crimson Desert specifically, as being an MMO, once again. After days of leaving this information public, they realized their mistake and acted in an effort to remedy the situation. Which brings me to my first point – showing ever increasing levels of incompetence.
How do you hold a livestream in front of thousands of players without checking the material you’re presenting to them? Did they just grab some images and throw them on-screen? Is that the kind of quality we can expect from Crimson Desert’s release?

I know a lot of people saw this – I got DMs across Twitter, Facebook and Discord. I got Youtube comments telling me Crimson Desert is going to be an MMO once more – but no, no it isn’t. Crimson Desert was mislabeled as an MMO. It is still 100% a single-player RPG with potential multiplayer functionality.

But that wasn’t it. Players have been eagerly anticipating DokeV for equally as long, although to not nearly the same extent. A new intellectual property like DokeV is incomparable to an already established one like Crimson Desert, after all.
Nevertheless, Pearl Abyss, during their presentation further mislabeled DokeV, which was initially announced as an open-world collectible Anime MMORPG, and then, much like Crimson Desert, was confirmed to have undergone a transition to a single-player Anime RPG, by reusing old footage that displayed “MMORPG” as a label.
This has lead many people to believe that the “multiplayer functionality” that Pearl Abyss were hinting at is actually full-scale Massively Multiplayer, which just isn’t the case.
It is also worth noting that as of earlier this week, DokeV has been officially delayed indefinitely. 2022 was expected, then 2023. However, confirmation that the game has been delayed to “a date beyond 2023” was just made public.
So it’s unlikely we’re going to be receiving a playable DokeV any time in the immediate future, to the dismay of many creature collector fans.

Pearl Abyss have had infinite success with Black Desert Online. This success has funded an overwhelming number of simultaneous titles in active development 5 I believe all announced in 2019. But with such a monumental undertaking, there was bound to be an issue with quality.
How does a studio with a single title, Black Desert Online, take on 5 new projects without spreading themselves out too thinly? They don’t, as is highlighted by 3 years of relative silence, fumbling during live presentations, and fracturing your community with misinformation.
Neither Crimson Desert, nor DokeV or any of their confirmed projects announced around the same time are being developed as MMOs. They were originally, but they believe single-player RPGs better fit the kind of game they’re trying to make.
And that is perfectly fine. There’s nothing at all wrong with that. I’m all for new, high quality single-player games, but fact-check your shit, please. This has divided your community – between players that believe this to be an MMO, and those that don’t.

Crimson Desert is NOT an MMORPG, but that doesn’t mean I’m any less excited to play it. That doesn’t mean that it is any less anticipated – from any of us, right? In fact, that might make it all the more appealing to players, considering it won’t run rampant with pay-to-win – something that plagues their other popular MMO, Black Desert Online.

Interviews with Pearl Abyss have been surfacing on the internet, and with those interviews comes a surplus of new information pertaining to the upcoming game.

Today, I’d like to cover what’s on everyone’s minds: Is Crimson Desert an MMORPG? The answer is a resounding no. No it is not. Pearl Abyss have confirmed that while Crimson Desert was initially being developed as an MMORPG, somewhere down the line, after much of the narrative for the story was complete, they found that it felt a little too single-player focused than an MMO, and lacked a lot of what made an MMO.. well, an MMO. So instead of trying to somehow salvage the game and turn it into an MMO, they opted to build it as a single-player RPG, with the option of playing it multiplayer as well. Yes, there will be 100% full multiplayer functionality built into the game. You can either play the entire story alone, or you can bring some friends and tackle it as a multiplayer game instead. There are no plans, currently, for single-player or multiplayer exclusive content. As this is a narrative driven RPG, there is also a beginning and an end in mind. Pearl Abyss have confirmed that Crimson Desert will have a full ending, allowing players to still pick up and carry on after they’ve completed the story, running around the world, fighting, raiding and more.

Crimson Desert is being built for the PS4, Xbox One and PC, but is also going to offer players PS5 and Xbox Series X compatibility down the line as well, however there has been no mention yet of cross-play functionality.

Crimson Desert is scheduled to release (if all goes according to plan) in the 4th quarter of 2021, meaning anywhere between October through December. I’d honestly wager a guess that it’ll have a December 2021 release date, but don’t quote me.

When all is said and done, I’m even more intrigued by the kind of game this will ultimately end up being, and knowing I’ll get to play through – what is essentially a deep, narrative-driven Black Desert with Mrs Stix has me all giddy inside.

Pearl Abyss just revealed their brand new trailer as part of the 2020 Game Awards, and boy did it look good.

We were shown proper, full in-game footage for the first time since the initial announcement trailer last December. This marks an entire year since going radio silent on the project, however, and with the reveal that the game will be launching worldwide in Winter 2021, I’m hoping we don’t go radio silent for another year.

While quite a bit in the way of gameplay was shown: The combat, the graphical style, the character models, glimpses of the story, the mechanics, the severe FPS issues (performance was terrible,) there’s still quite a bit we don’t know.

Is Pearl Abyss still aiming for Crimson Desert to be an MMORPG? We’ve heard from numerous sources that the game is going to be an “MMO with a single-player narrative,” kind of how Final Fantasy XIV does things. But from other sources we’ve heard it’s going to be a “single-player RPG with MMO features.” Pearl Abyss have been silent on the matter, opting to not get involved in the discussion perhaps to create additional hype from both types of gamers.

We also don’t know whether the game is planning on going free-to-play or buy-to-play like its predecessor, Black Desert Online, which has been a paid title for years.

The trailer looked absolutely fantastic and this has me more excited than ever to try the game out for the first time. This could very well be one of the best MMOs in recent memory.

Black Desert Online was released back in 2015. By today’s standards, that means that the game is old. Dated. Almost obsolete in terms of graphics, combat, gameplay.
While admittedly, I don’t believe that’s true, the game is still outstanding in every one of the aforementioned categories, the fact remains that both Pearl Abyss, and even gamers of this generation themselves are definitely of that opinion.
Black Desert Mobile just launched and it has already garnered over 20 million players.. which is approximately two thirds of the entire Black Desert playerbase. Yes, there is over 30 million players within the Black Desert game-verse as of January 2020, which was when we received our last update on player numbers.
Why wouldn’t Pearl Abyss take this opportunity to capitalize on the franchise and create a pre-sequel-spin-off, right?

So when last we spoke about Crimson Desert, which was a few weeks after the announcement, we knew, what? The game was going to be an MMORPG, that it was going to use new tech to develop the game, and.. it would feature a separate timeline. I think that’s pretty much it.
Well, not only do we have a full trailer for the game – which I’m sure you’ve all watched and noticed certain.. I dunno, I’m not gonna say “similarities to a certain popular TV series” but “similarities to a certain popular TV series.” The trailer itself was pretty cool though, it just didn’t really reveal much.
However, recently there have been not only new information, but also new screenshots released onto the internet – which is what you’re all here for. Now initially, Crimson Desert was being developed with the goal of telling the history of Black Desert – delving into the game’s past.
But over the course of the development process, Pearl Abyss, the team developing the game realized that they wanted to do more.. they wanted to explore more, they wanted to show more, and thus the story, the game, evolved into something that was much more original.
Something that was less connected to Black Desert and featured different lands, a different narrative, and even different characters all together.

While again, the game was developed initially as a prequel, and therefore shared a lot of the same environments, it seems as though Crimson Desert is re-creating the vast majority of the landmass we get to explore.
According to Pearl Abyss specifically, there will be a few “identifiable in-game homages,” but they wanted to create “entirely new worldviews, religions and characters unique to the world of Crimson Desert.”
Which is a fantastic change – and one for the better. Don’t get me wrong, Black Desert has an exceptionally stunning world. However, it already exists within Black Desert. We don’t need the world re-created in a new engine.
And Pearl Abyss apparently came to the same conclusion, and not a moment too soon. Not only will the majority of the world be completely unique to Crimson Desert, but Pearl Abyss wanted to expand a little on the narrative as well.

Black Desert Online has a story. A narrative that drives the game and the player ever forward… one that 99% of the playerbase doesn’t know exists, ironically enough, because it just doesn’t serve any purpose, and I’ll be the first to admit, as a fan of story in MMOs.. is actually very, very poorly told.
Crimson Desert aims to change that by providing a much stronger narrative, offering players a much more prevalent questing system. According to Pearl Abyss, Crimson Desert is going to provide players an “immersive single-player campaign teeming with engaging quests based on the exploits of many mercenaries you’ll find available for hire.”
This is.. interesting. Probably the most interesting of the entire announcement and perhaps more so than any additional information revealed thus far.
See, they mention it’ll be a “single-player campaign,” not that it’s going to be a campaign that is doable “solo,” meaning that – at least pertaining to this specific form of content, there will be no option for anything but solo play.
That defeats the purpose of an MMO, but at the same time Pearl Abyss know that PvE content is crucial to the success of the game. They need something different to Black Desert.. lest they provide competition for their own game.
Whether solo-play for this specific form of content will remain or they’ll open it for larger groups is up for discussion, but they did make a note to state that there will be a substantial amount of content that is found in more traditional MMORPG format.

Also worth mentioning are the NPCs, which Pearl Abyss claim have their own unique, personal backgrounds and stories that are entwined with not only the character you’re playing, but also the band of mercenaries that follow you.
These stories, the quests you take, the journey you go on, everything you do, every decision you make will have an effect on the game. Or – again, so they claim. I think this is a little grandiose, honestly, and feel like they’re perhaps exaggerating just a little bit like most developers seem to do.
I don’t doubt you’ll have options that will change dialogue, or maybe result in different gear or maybe even something a little deeper, but I wouldn’t expect more than that. I’d love to be proven wrong, though.
Finally, I believe that open-world PvP was confirmed in something they mentioned: “The biggest friend or foe, as in any MMORPG, will be the player right beside you.” That sounds like open-world PvP, right? Of course it does. How else would the guy playing right beside you be your biggest foe?

Crimson Desert could be something truly epic. The funding the game is no doubt going to have is off the charts. The success of Black Desert Online, the success of Black Desert Mobile.. they’ve made a fortune off of the IP thus far, and with the expansion onto almost every gaming platform, they’re only continuing to grow larger.
I’m excited to see where the game ultimately ends up going, but I have a few concerns that will need to be answered, or at the very least elaborated on before I get my hopes up.
On the one hand, I love that Pearl Abyss have taken feedback and player opinion into consideration and have realized that while yes, Black Desert struck gold with their style of game, nobody wants to play two different versions of the same game.. Black Desert is all about grinding.
It takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of dedication. Splitting that time between two different games would be impossible, so it’s refreshing to see they understand this, and have provided various other types of gameplay to occupy players – content that won’t require mindless grinding.
Now my concern is that I’m not entirely certain what form this will take, because if it’s just questing.. yeah that won’t really fly. I’m still waiting to see their thoughts on dungeons, raids and other more traditional MMORPG features found in almost every other MMO out there.
Then I’m concerned that they’re going to be creating additional competition for themselves. Like, don’t get me wrong. They’re developing DokeV as well, which is another MMORPG, but it’s a cute monster-collection MMO that will likely not impact Black Desert in any capacity.
But if the goal is to create something like Black Desert.. but prettier, then what happens to Black Desert as people migrate over to Crimson Desert? You know? And then finally, comes the methods with which they monetize the game, and the business model.
Buy-to-play works well, but Pearl Abyss offer much more than should be offered in a buy-to-play game to players via the cash shop.. and you can see this sentiment echoed throughout the community.
I know it’s going to be a South Korean MMO.. but I hope they listen to the community and don’t riddle the cash shop with items that ruin the game or give advantages to players with larger bank accounts.

But that’s pretty much it. All the info we’ve been made aware of up until this point, and my thoughts on the game.

Crimson Desert doesn’t have an official release date currently, nor is it confirmed whether or not the game will be launching in English at the same time as the South Korean version but Pearl Abyss are looking to open Beta testing this year. When specifically is anyone’s guess but it’ll likely be this year nevertheless.

I was just as shocked at this announcement as you guys no doubt are right now. Pearl Abyss just announced that they’re going to be debuting several upcoming games at G-Star 2019 this year.
G-Star is one of South Korea’s largest gaming conventions, taking place every year. They bring together both South Korean developers and overseas gaming developers to showcase their latest titles to the gaming community.
Now G-Star 2019 takes place beginning November 14th and lasts until Novembed 17th. So trailers along with full information will be revealed next week.
However that doesn’t mean good ‘ol Pearl Abyss has neglected to provide info to whet our appetite a little in the meantime.

So there are a few games announced. We’ll go ahead and start this off with what you’re all waiting for, though, because I’m not a dick like that:

DokeV – formerly known as Project V. DokeV is an adorable looking upcoming MMORPG that is targetted at all ages.
DokeV is a casual, family-friendly MMO being developed on a brand new game engine bringing on board CCP Games of EVE Online popularity to assist in development.

Shadow Arena – formerly part of Black Desert actually. I did a video on this and found it to be a pretty entertaining form of PvP.. but hated that everyone just ran away from me until the end of the match.
Unless they were significantly better geared and could 1-shot me.
Since then, the Battle Royale was removed from the game, and Pearl Abyss decided they’d jump into the whole BR craze and try to make Shadow Arena a standalone title. Kinda like what Ashes of Creation did with Apocalypse.

Plan 8 – I don’t think we ever really knew about Plan 8 – but here we are, a brand new MMO shooter.
Pearl Abyss really are trying quite hard to expand into other niches, huh?
Plan 8 is, interestingly enough, spearheaded by the co-creator of the entire Counter-Strike franchise.. which could actually end up being really promising. “could” being the keyword here.
Not much is known other than it’ll be an “exosuit MMO shooter.” Make of that what you will.

Crimson Desert – I know, I know. None of you care about this one, right? It’s only Pearl Abyss’s next upcoming open-world fantasy-themed MMORPG from the game design director of Risk Your Life Online.
It’s only going to be an even better looking, potentially PvE-themed MMO successor to Black Desert Online.
Oh, wait, I’m wrong? This is what you were actually looking for info on? Whoops. My bad. Well, then, allow me to elaborate on this one for you!

In an interview with Pearl Abyss recently, they revealed that the game engine for Black Desert was getting old and felt a little.. dated.
I don’t think this is true – I feel like BDO still looks amazing but Pearl Abyss are obsessed with making games that look better and better so who am I to question them.
With this in mind, they wanted to take the time to develop new games – including MMOs on a brand new engine. This way they aren’t limited by “old tech.” Fast forward to 2018 when Crimson Desert began development.
Pearl Abyss wanted to make something even faster, even better looking – with combat that made Black Desert look like a thing of the past.. so they decided to bring on the lead combat designer of Risk Your Life Online and C9: Continent of the Ninth.
He’d be in charge of making certain that the combat would be possible of taking things to the next level. Honestly, C9 still has great combat – you can ask anyone that still actively plays the game what they think of it.
And Risk Your Life? People continue to talk about that game to this day.. they’re both titles that have left lasting impressions on the community and I’m honestly excited to see where, specifically, Crimson Desert will go.
I know that it’s possible to get action combat better than BDO, I do. I just didn’t think we were at a point that required it yet.

Crimson Desert will take place on the continent of Pywell. It’ll be set in the middle of a war between three different tribes, all vying for survival and dominance.

And.. that’s pretty much it.
That’s all that’s known regarding any of the games.

DokeV looks like something really cute that you can play with your kids. But at the same time it might be something entertaining for people of all ages. We’ll have to wait and see.
Shadow Arena likely won’t take off – I very, very highly doubt that.
Plan 8 is an interesting concept. I can see it doing well if handled correctly, but is there room for a South Korean Counter Strike game?
And finally, Crimson Desert could be amazing. It has the potential to be something truly groundbreaking, truly epic.
If it takes a more traditional route in terms of content – adding in things that players have been asking for for years now, like Dungeons, Raids and other group-related content.. we could see something actually challenge WoW or Final Fantasy XIV.
But with the track record of Pearl Abyss.. at the same time it’s highly unlikely to be nearly that good.
Then we have the problem of pay-to-win, which is an ever prevalent problem in their games. It’s probably the most complained about thing in Black Desert.

But overall, with the success of Black Desert, and the current popularity of both Black Desert for the PC and console, along with the high anticipation for Black Desert Mobile.. do we really need something to replace it?
Will it even be replaced? Is that the goal of the game or are we instead going to have the game run concurrently with Black Desert?
Like take a moment and think.. one of the reasons why large companies don’t normally push out new MMOs when they have an already successful-title is because they’ll take attention, players and even other devs from the current game.

Do we want the playerbase to be split between Black Desert and Crimson Desert?
Do we need Crimson Desert so desperately that it’ll be at the expense of Black Desert? I don’t think so, and I don’t believe that’s what Pearl Abyss are aiming for.
But if that’s not their goal, and the vast majority of Action MMORPG players already play BDO.. then what is the purpose of Crimson Desert?
Crimson Desert’s main competition would be.. Black Desert. Which makes absolutely no sense.
If you play BDO then you know that it’s a game that requires a lot of time and effort devoted to it. You can’t just play it on and off casually.
Or, well, okay you can, but you’re not going to be able to do it competitively. So if you want to play competitively, you’re going to need to dedicate a lot of time to it.
And if you opt to dedicate large amounts of time to the game – like players currently do, you don’t really have much time for another MMO. Which applies to all MMOs, really.
That’s part of what makes an MMO an MMO, and is actually something people genuinely miss about the genre.. dedicating large amounts of their life to a game that is worth dedicating time to.

But overall, Crimson Desert’s success can only come off of a reduction of active players in Black Desert.
The only way it won’t, is if it’s an entirely different kind of game.
Like Black Desert’s current active playerbase has absolutely no effect on Final Fantasy XIV’s playerbase.
BDO is an action MMO with no story, dungeons, raids or competitive PvE scene. Yet it has a highly active PvP community.
Final Fantasy XIV is an MMO with a ton of story, lots of dungeons, raids, and a lot of PvE content to do.. but at the same time doesn’t have much of a PvP community.
So the two games in no way have a conflict of playerbase, nor do they impact each other’s populations. Well, not unless you play both games. But the percentage of players that do is probably fairly small.
However, from what little we know of Crimson Desert.. it’s going to be an Action MMORPG set in a large fantasy-themed world, with a large emphasis on PvP. So, yeah.
Similarities are shared with BDO. Far too many for it to be anything other than the successor to it..

So then that begs the question: If Crimson Desert is essentially the 2020 version of Black Desert – enhanced graphics, improved combat, more traditional features like dungeons and raids, but not at the expense of PvP and freedom.. will you guys migrate over?
Or do you think you’re going to remain in Black Desert?
And, if you don’t plan on moving games, what do you think Pearl Abyss are doing creating direct competition for their own game?
Do you think they’re trying to capitalize on the success of BDO and are attempting to have 2 popular MMOs concurrently?
Or do you think that since launching on various consoles, PC, and now also on mobile.. they’ve come to the realization that from this point on, they’re likely going to stagnate, and have therefore come to the realization that it’s time to move on?

I’m not a game developer so I can’t say, but I know Pearl Abyss are a money-hungry organization, like many are.
I understand the need and reasoning behind expanding – I do. I’m not angry nor do I harbor any ill-will towards the game when it eventually goes live.
But I’m just curious their reasoning behind it.

Should they really sacrifice everything they’ve built up ’til this point to build something new?
Or, maybe sacrifice is too strong of a word.
But let’s be real here.. they’ll be sacrificing two important things: The rate of new content produced for Black Desert, because Crimson Desert will take precedence henceforth.
And team-size, as there will likely be some shift in active team members working on the game so even though the rate of new content will be reduced, the scope of new content will also lessen.
Iunno. I’m excited for the game but like all new MMOs, especially South Korean MMOs.. Just because I’m excited doesn’t mean I’m highly anticipating it.
I think it could end up really epic, but at the same time.. I feel like it could be just another flop.

Either way, on November 13th we’ll get the first official trailer for the game.
Furthermore, on November 14th we’ll likely receive some actual, solid information on the game.
So this is all speculation that will likely have a more concrete answer when the event is over. But it’s something to think about and ponder while waiting until next week.
Maybe even get a little excited for.