Crimson Desert makes controversial change just a week before launch

This article was updated by Andrea Trama on March 13, 2026, with new details about Crimson Desert's use of Denuvo DRM from developer Pearly Abyss. It was first published on March 12.

Just a week before launch, developer Pearly Abyss has quietly added Denuvo DRM, a controversial anti-tampering technology, to the PC version of Crimson Desert. Gamers around the world have been eagerly awaiting the launch of Crimson Desertwhich officially launches for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on March 19. However, the addition of Denuvo DRM has many PC users concerned about possible performance issues that may occur, especially on older hardware.

It might not be out yet, though Crimson Desert already looks to be a strong contender for game of the year. What initially began as a prequel to Pearl Abyss MMO in 2015, Black Desert Onlinewould eventually become a standalone action-adventure game with plenty of RPG elements, a new setting, and plenty of story-driven content for players to sink their teeth into. Crimson Desert also has an ambitiously large open world, said to be larger than Red Dead Redemption 2 and twice as large as Skyrimmaking it one of the most anticipated titles of the year.

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In My Eyes, Crimson Desert's Massive Open World still has a point to prove

Crimson Desert looks massive and impressive, but its open world still leaves a question hanging over my head.

Crimson Desert adds Denuvo DRM to the PC version

The hype surrounding Pearl Abyss' next title is monumental, with Crimson Desert already over 2 million wish lists before the launch. However, PC users have been left disappointed after discovering that the title contains Denuvo DRM, a controversial type of anti-tampering software. Although the game's Steam page has been live for many months now, Pearl Abyss has just updated the game's info section with details about Denuvo DRM, a week before its release (first spotted by The Gamer). As expected, this has drawn criticism from the community, and many are now wary of how Crimson Desert will be performed on PC. “This was the nail in the coffin for PC gamers,” said one user, while another responded with “Very, very bad decision.”

Balance the critics' averages

Light (6) Medium (8) Hard (10)

For those who may be unaware, Denuvo DRM has long been a controversial choice for various reasons. The third-party software is used by developers to make it harder for a game to be tampered with and thus protect it from piracy. However, it is often criticized by gamers, largely due to the performance issues it can sometimes cause, such as lower FPS, increased CPU usage, and more. This is not necessarily due to Denuvo, but may be due to poor implementation on the developer's side. It has also attracted controversy in the past for its online controls. While players are not required to have a constant internet connection, there have been instances in the past where server outages have prevented players from playing single player titles.

It's worth noting that Paul Tassi of Forbes shared a post on Twitter about the issue after reaching out to Pearly Abyss for comment on Crimson Desert's use of Denuvo DRM. The full tweet follows, but the gist of it is that Denuvo allegedly has no impact on benchmark videos and performance specs, as these were made with Denuvo already in action.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first controversy Pearl Abyss has had in the lead-up to Crimson Deserts release. While the developer has shown plenty of gameplay footage to the world during new trailers, fans have been skeptical about the potential performance on consoles, especially on the PS5. Although the hype about the title is at an all-time high, many felt that Pearl Abyss was “hiding” something regarding Crimson DesertPS5 performance. This speculation then prompted a response from one of the game's developers, who said they were “sick of having to repeat [themselves]” and that details on console performance would come before launch.

Sure enough, details on Crimson Deserts performance modes on the PS5 were already revealed earlier this week, confirming three different modes for the console: Performance, which is 1080p at 60 FPS, Balanced, which is upscaled 4K resolution at 40 FPS, and Quality, again upscaled 4K from 1440p with high ray tracing and 30 FPS. Those with PlayStation 5's beeier Pro console will be able to get even better performance from Crimson Desertwith its quality mode providing native 4K resolution at 30 FPS and ultra ray tracing.