Highlights
- After a two-year silence, Pearl Abyss will finally share news about Crimson Desert at Gamescom, where a new gameplay trailer will be revealed.
- Crimson Desert, set in the same universe as Black Desert, is an open-world single-player game set in the continent of Pywel, with players controlling mercenary leader Macduff.
- Fans are excited about the return of Crimson Desert, hoping for a release date and wondering if the Pokemon-inspired project DokeV will also make an appearance.
Later this month, South Korean studio Pearl Abyss will share some long-awaited news about Crimson Desert with fans for the first time in nearly two years. Until recently, 2021 marked the last time any posts went out on the Crimson Desert social media feeds, following an announcement that the game had been delayed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Set in the same universe as Pearl Abyss' award-winning MMORPG Black Desert, Crimson Desert was initially conceived as a prequel to Black Desert before becoming a separate, open-world single-player game. While plot details remain limited at the time of writing, Crimson Desert is set in the continent of Pywel. Players will take control of the mercenary leader Macduff, who has a checkered past that players will uncover during the game. Pearl Abyss revealed Crimson Desert during the 2020 edition of The Game Awards, where it was billed at the time as a winter 2021 project via a 5-minute gameplay trailer. That window has long since come and gone, and Pearl Abyss has kept silent on the project ever since.
That silence will soon be broken, as Geoff Keighley revealed on Twitter that Crimson Desert will have a new gameplay trailer shown during Gamescom Opening Night Live on Tuesday, August 22, starting at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. The announcement of new Crimson Desert news for the first time in nearly two years joins a loaded slate of announcements at Gamescom, with games such as Black Myth: Wukong and Assassin's Creed Mirage confirmed to be part of the show. While Keighley clarified that Gamescom Opening Night Live would focus on previously-announced titles, that has not stopped excitement from building for the show.
Following the return of Crimson Desert from seemingly out of nowhere, other Twitter users replied to the news with both excitement and cautious optimism. While Crimson Desert was previously confirmed to run on PS4 and Xbox One in addition to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, support for the previous generation of consoles has waned since Crimson Desert's initial reveal in late 2020. Some fans also wondered if another project from Pearl Abyss, a Pokemon-inspired project called DokeV that was revealed at Gamescom in 2021, would also return to the spotlight alongside Crimson Desert. Only time will tell on both those fronts.
With gorgeous environments and fast-paced combat taken from Black Desert, the return of Crimson Desert is an unexpected but welcome surprise. It remains to be seen what Pearl Abyss will show, and if a release date for Crimson Desert will be confirmed at Gamescom.
Crimson Desert is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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