Crimson Desert reveals PS5 Pro gameplay footage and breakdowns

Fans have finally gotten a look at Crimson DesertPS5 Pro performance and early impressions are a good sign. It's been over five years since developer Pearl Abyss first announced the RPG, but now, several delays and a reworked vision later, the wait is almost over. With just one week left until the March 19 release date, Crimson Desert has just given console fans another reason to get excited for the upcoming launch.

Console versions of the game have been the subject of a bit of controversy as fans have called out Pearl Abyss for only releasing PC movies of the title so far. It reached the point that PR and marketing manager Will Powers stepped in to defend Crimson Deserts lack of console movies, the players promise that the studio would release console games before the release, but is busy optimizing the game. Now it looks like fans have finally gotten their wish, as Pearl Abyss has released footage of the PS5 Pro version of Crimson Desert out into the wild.

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Pearl Abyss Shares Crimson Desert PS5 Pro Game

In a cheeky response to the calls for console movies, Powers shared a Digital Foundry deep dive on Crimson DesertPS5 Pro performance. The studio had previously confirmed that Crimson Desert will have PS5 Pro support, but now gamers can see what those improvements actually look like. Overall, Digital Foundry says it was impressed with the copy provided by Pearl Abyss, praising the proprietary BlackSpace Engine for delivering “nothing short of remarkable” results in its performance, lighting, crowd behavior and more. Perhaps most importantly, given the recent controversy, the PS5 Pro version reportedly doesn't “lose that much” compared to how Crimson Desert run on advanced computers.

Crimson Desert character holding an artifact.

Ray tracing took center stage in the PS5 Pro's performance review, with the feature enabled in all three graphics modes. Digital Foundry notes that the lighting is not perfect, with occasional degrading artifacts, but that these flaws are not prominent. Crimson Desert also benefits from Sony's PSSR upscaling technology, and will launch with the PS5 Pro's upgraded PSSR feature first seen in Resident Evil Requiem, although the build provided to Digital Foundry did not have this newer version, the gameplay footage does not reflect this. Despite that caveat, the game looks great, with an impressive amount of detail and interaction, even in complex, crowded areas.

As described in Crimson Desert console specs Pearl Abyss recently revealed, the PS5 Pro version ranges between 1080p, 1440p and 4K at 60, 40 and 30 FPS respectively, depending on which graphics modes players use. Turning on VRR can push the game past 60 FPS, with Digital Foundry managing to hit 70 FPS in Performance mode in some areas. The deep dive reveals it Crimson Desert doesn't always run consistently at 60 FPS on PS5 Pro, which Digital Foundry claims is a CPU limitation. However, the 30 and 40 FPS modes are more stable.

Who is that character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Who is that character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s) Medium (5.0s) Hard (2.5s) Permadeath (2.5s)

Currently, there are no gameplay images for the vanilla PS5 and Xbox Series X, but that could change at any time, depending on how Pearl Abyss approaches the final days of Crimson Deserts marketing. However, the early look at PS5 Pro performance is promising. While there may be some room for improvement, the build tested by Digital Foundry seems impressive, especially if the upgraded PSSR feature holds up. Amid the recent controversy with Crimson Deserts PC version, it may come as a relief to see console copies of the game running smoothly and delivering stunning visuals. Regardless of which system fans plan to play on, they won't have to wait much longer now to experience it for themselves.