Crimson Desert – Pearl Abyss Reveal Additional Information and Screenshots

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.