Crimson Desert has officially gone gold

Crimson Desert has gone gold two months ahead of its global release, according to game developer Pearl Abyss on social media. With Crimson Desert After completing main development, the ambitious open-world title will launch without further delay.

Crimson Deserts impending arrival comes nearly six years after Pearl Abyss first revealed the project in 2020. Originally developed to take place in the same universe as the Pearl Abyss MMORPG, Black desert, Crimson Desert will see players explore the war city continent of Pywel. The main character of the game is Kliff, a member of the Greymane mercenaries. After an attack by the Black Bears faction decimated the Greymanes, Kliff is tasked with finding his lost comrades, exacting revenge on the Black Bears, and navigating Pywel's own political turmoil. With features like dragon riding and combat with visceral action, Crimson Desert will be a dark and gritty take on the open world fantasy RPG genre.

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Crimson Desert goes gold ahead of schedule

Four months after I announced it Crimson Desert was set to launch on March 19, Pearl Abyss confirmed it would stick to that release date. On social media, Pearl Abyss shared the good news that Crimson Desert had “gone gold” two months before its scheduled arrival on PC and current-gen consoles. The Korea-based developers posted a group photo and thanked fans for their support. In short, a game that has gone gold means that the project has completed all major development and is in a playable state from start to finish. However, developers can still work on fixing lingering bugs or other issues before the game launches.

During Crimson Desert's development cycle, the game suffered some delays. The last delay was published in an earnings call by Pearl Abyss in August 2025, which pushed Crimson Desert out of a potential 2025 release window.

But with that in mind Crimson Desert has gone gold two months before its March 19 launch, the game shouldn't be delayed any further. Crimson Desert will use Pearl Abyss' proprietary BlackSpace Engine, which the company stated is an upgraded version of it Black deserts game engine. With that in mind Black desert has been praised for its environmental graphics and character details, Crimson Desert could give fans looking for an open world RPG with top-notch graphics something to consider. At the time of writing, the PC specification requirements for Crimson Desert stated that an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080, an AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, or a newer graphics card is recommended to play the game.

Crimson Desert's ambitions are as large as its open world

One of Crimson DesertThe biggest draw is the sheer scale of the continent of Pywel, a region ravaged by war and inhabited by fantastic monsters. In various interviews in 2025, Pearl Abyss claimed that the open world of Crimson Desert would be greater than those in Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption 2. With that in mind Red Dead Redemption 2s playable map is just under 30 square kilometers, over twice the size of Skyrims playable region, Crimson Deserts map should be absolutely massive.

With Crimson Desert now locked in for a March 19 launch, it will arrive amid a busy time of year for the gaming industry. Mouse PI for rent and Dynasty Warriors 3: Complete Edition Remastered also launched on March 19, and games like Slay The Spire 2 and Marathon also coming in early March. Given how many games are on the way, only time will tell Crimson Deserts sales could match the ambitions Pearl Abyss has for the open-world title.