Crimson Desert has been delayed, pushing its release date out of 2025. The medieval open-world RPG was announced all the way back in 2019, but has remained just out of reach since then, thanks to several release date pushbacks. While Crimson Desert seems closer to its long-awaited launch than ever, hopeful fans will still need to wait a little longer.
Pearl Abyss originally intended Crimson Desert to be a prequel MMO to its earlier work Black Desert Online. Since then, however, it has undergone several changes, morphing into a single-player RPG with elements drawing comparisons to Dragon's Dogma and Tears of the Kingdom. Over the course of those shifts, it has also seen multiple delays, something that has remained unfortunately consistent across the game's development timeline.
Crimson Desert Has Been Delayed Until Q1 2026
In Pearl Abyss' Q2 2025 earnings call, the developer announced that the game has been delayed again and is now aiming for a release date sometime in the first quarter of 2026. In December 2024, the studio said Crimson Desert would come out in late 2025, so this latest delay is not a massive shift but an unfortunate update for fans nonetheless. According to Pearl Abyss, working with external partners on voice-overs, console certification, and distribution has taken longer than expected, leading to the decision to push the release window back.
While Pearl Abyss has offered a three-month window to expect the game within, it has not hinted at any more specifics beyond that. The representative making the announcement suggested that the team has a date in mind but would not reveal it until later. That's consistent with how the company has treated the launch window up until this point. In June, developers shut down a Crimson Desert release date rumor that said the game would come out on November 2, 2025. At the time, Pearl Abyss said it had not shared a date with any outlets, and now it's clear a November release is out of the question entirely.
Despite the delay, some gamers still have a chance to get their hands on the game before the year is up. Pearl Abyss has confirmed that a Crimson Desert demo will be playable at Gamsecom 2025 later in August. The language during the financial report makes it sound like the title is all but finished at this point, with only finishing touches remaining, so the demo will likely be true to what fans can expect from the full release. Crimson Desert may still not have a firm release date, but it is inching closer.
