Crimson Desert launches today
Crimson Desert officially launched today (March 19) on PS5, Xbox, and PC as a sprawling open-world action-adventure — reviewers and players are live-posting impressions. Expect big production values and lengthy sessions: it’s one of the major AAA releases hitting consoles this week (x.com).
Early critic aggregates put Crimson Desert around a 78 Metacritic score based on roughly 80–90 critic reviews. (metacritic.com)) Digital Foundry and other technical outlets praise the PS5 Pro build’s ray‑traced lighting and fidelity as a standout on consoles. (digitalfoundry.net)) At the same time, multiple reviews — including Eurogamer and PCGamesN — single out underdeveloped narrative threads and repetitive, checklist‑style quest design as recurring criticisms. (eurogamer.net)) Pearl Abyss published console performance specs showing PS5/Series X balanced options and a PS5 Pro showcase with native or upscaled 4K plus ray tracing, while Xbox Series S is limited to a 720p performance/40fps target and lacks ray tracing by default. (altchar.com)) Retail pricing and editions list a $69.99 Standard edition, a $79.99 Deluxe edition, and a roughly $279.99 Collector’s Edition, with PLAION handling global physical distribution. (altchar.com)) Pearl Abyss confirmed a day‑one patch for launch and PC storefront updates added Denuvo DRM in the days before release, a combination that has sparked active warnings and technical threads on Steam and community forums. (gameranx.com)) The review embargo lifted at 6:00 p.m. ET on March 18, producing a wide spread of scores from near‑perfect praise to mid‑60s criticism, and OpenCritic currently registers the game as “Strong” with an approximate 80 average. (gameriv.com))
