Crimson Desert, the upcoming single-player open world action-adventure by Pearl Abyss has been delayed.
As reported by Gematsu, this was revealed to stakeholders in the South Korean developer’s Q2 2025 earnings conference call.
The reason for the delay, as per the conference call: “This is 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 good news is, Crimson Desert is currently in the process of adding voice-overs and console certification. The latter is the one of final processes in order to have a video game approved for release on consoles, which can infer that the game is almost close to going gold.
The other good news is that you can expect to see Crimson Desert be on the showfloor of Gamescom (happening later this August), PAX West and at Tokyo Game Show later in September.
This is the first single-player title Pearl Abyss will launch. The developer is known for Black Desert, the still-ongoing MMORPG available on consoles and PC alongside Black Desert Mobile, a separate experience for iOS and Android.
More and more developers in Asia have pivoted into launching premium AAA video games for the mainstream gamers playing on consoles and PC after accruing success in other video game markets. Another recent success story from South Korea is Shift Up with their release, Stellar Blade. It remains to be seen whether Crimson Desert can stack up, but it sure looks promising.
Crimson Desert now targets a Q1 2026 release (April 2026 the latest) for consoles and PC.