In a nutshell: For years now, Crimson Desert trailers and teasers have looked so good that many thought the game couldn't possibly live up to the previews, much like when No Man's Sky launched. The RPG arrives later today, and the early reviews are… pretty underwhelming. The failure to meet expectations has resulted in developer Pearl Abyss' shares falling almost 29%.
With its incredible open world, massive battles, flight, and stunning looks powered by Pearl Abyss' proprietary BlackSpace engine, Crimson Desert was one of our most anticipated PC games of 2026.
But as is so often the case with hugely hyped games, most early reviews have been far from earth-shattering. Many big publications have scored it between 60 and 70 – even IGN, which has a reputation for generous scoring, has given it a 6 in its "review so far."
A lot of the criticism has been aimed at the weak story, crowded controls, frustrating elements such as difficulty spikes, and quality-of-life issues like awkward healing and inventory management. The term "flawed" appears in many of these reviews' headlines.
There are some positive opinions: PC Gamer scored Crimson Desert an 80, Vice rated it 5/5, while both DualShockers and Forbes gave it 9.5/10. But the game still has a Metacritic score of 78, which is a lot lower than the mid-to-high 80s or even somewhere in the 90s that was expected.
Seoul Economic Daily reports that investors dumped Pearl Abyss stock following the publication of the reviews, plunging the stock down 28.96% from the previous session.
The publication writes that Pearl Abyss spent seven years developing Crimson Desert at a cost of around $133.4 million.
The big caveat here, of course, is that a game doesn't always have to be critically acclaimed to sell well and prove popular with players.
Presales alone have already pushed Crimson Desert to the top of Steam's best-sellers chart. It's also being released on Mac, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S and X, so it'll be available on plenty of platforms to make back those huge development costs.
If you do intend to buy Crimson Desert, make sure to check out our benchmark guide looking at the game's performance across 40 different GPUs.