Crimson Desert is a hit, selling over 6 million copies in less than three months. Despite initial reception at launch being mixed, the sprawling single-player open world action adventure has caught on with fans, who have marveled at the sheer number of updates Pearl Abyss has pumped out on a weekly basis, each one improving the quality of the game and added new content in a meaningful — and often surprising — way.
But there’s no sign of Pearl Abyss slowing down. The South Korean studio has said it wants to ensure Crimson Desert receives long-term support, outlining a summer roadmap of content that includes improvements to the core narrative – a recurring criticism of the game. And there’s even DLC in the works.
During Summer Game Fest 2026, we sat down with Will Powers, director of marketing and PR for Pearl Abyss, to catch up on the state of things with Crimson Desert. Along with breaking down the game’s success in its first months and lessons learned from its suite of post-launch updates, Powers explained how the developers have been able to quickly address feedback and release massive updates to the game in a timely manner since launch.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.
IGN: The game has been a big hit for Pearl Abyss, and many players have been enjoying exploring its world. How has the player response been overall since launch?
Will Powers: Well, Pearl Abyss is built on community, and that’s based on our experience in live service with Black Desert Online. It’s in the Pearl Abyss DNA to listen to the community and respond to them; that’s been incredibly important to the developers. The momentum going into launch, along with sustained feedback and hours played after its release, is driving the team to keep improving the game. The players are investing in the game, and as they keep playing, we’ll keep building it up. It’s something like Field of Dreams, that line where he says, “If you build it, they will come.”
One sort of question we get a lot is asking us, why this is a single-player game with live-service development? And part of it’s because we can, [laughs]. We can, and we want to, add more value to the game in the long term. We want to keep improving the experience for players who have been invested in from day one and ensure the game continues to get better.
IGN: Has there been a certain type of feedback that’s been consistent from the community, one that’s been a continuing effort to improve?
Will Powers: It’s difficult to say specifically, but I will say that one of the things the development team is incredibly proud of is their first-ever console-focused release, and that’s a big deal for the company. It’s a big deal for the Korean development team, and they want to continue improving the game’s console experience. It’s one of the few times that Korean development studios have had this level of success on consoles, and that’s been such a challenge. In Korea, the platform split for that game is 95% on PC and 5% on consoles, but it’s drastically different from the West. So when a Korean studio says, “I want to make a Western-appropriate product,” they look at console, obviously, because that’s where a lot of the audience is.
But in terms of the core game itself, I would say one of the consistent changes from feedback is improvements to the UI, that’s definitely a piece of feedback that they’re taking in, because they haven’t experienced single-player and console game development to this level before, when they are mostly working on MMOs. The UI changes are being made to account for single-player games being designed for players who sit down, relax, and play across a variety of platforms, displays, and more.
IGN: With all these updates to the game, is there a big challenge in not overcorrecting it? To the point where the game’s identity begins to change in response to community feedback that wants it to be more like other games.
Will Powers: Yeah, that’s a good question. There are definitely internal conversations about what sort of community feedback to take in. Do you listen to the vocal minority on things, or spend time figuring out who knows best about system changes with how something’s supposed to work in a game, and so on? But it comes down to needing a central filter on what the DNA of the game is before it comes to Crimson Desert, and that comes down to a core producer who takes any proposed changes, whether internal or external, and decides whether they compromise what makes this game at its core. They have to determine whether it is fun as is, or whether it gets in the way of things, because sometimes the opposite is true.
It’s like, ‘Okay, we optimized farming because too many button presses and all that, and this is getting in the way of fun, so let’s fix that.’ It’s all about creating a better, more approachable experience. Players are enjoying this, but let’s make it easier for them to enjoy it and have fun. Being receptive to feedback, regardless of where it comes from, is incredibly important. But being able to filter that and make sure that you don’t lose focus on the DNA of the game is critical, because that’s obviously the risk that you’re pointing at. We’ve made a lot of changes, but not sweeping ones that alter the game’s core identity.
IGN: On that note, one change that was discussed previously was plans to adjust the storytelling of the existing game. Would you be able to elaborate on what that means exactly, and what sort of feedback you got from the community?
Will Powers: Sure, I’ll start with what I hope is not a controversial statement: art is subjective, just in general. That’s not to discount anyone’s experience, and people’s different opinions are all valid, whether it’s a review or a consumer’s impressions. But that’s what comes down to the crux of the question: does that mean we’re overhauling this story and throwing away what we built for a different story than the one people originally played? No. Does it mean we are making a better effort to maintain story continuity and improve cutscenes to clarify story elements and provide a better onboarding experience? Yes. That’s the goal we have with the improved storytelling, and that’s ok.
Many players didn’t necessarily understand the character’s motivation in the beginning hours, and they felt like characters appeared without them understanding who they were in the story. We can address that, but that won’t change the experience of those who already played the game. But does it make it better for people playing for the first time, or for people who want to play again? Yeah, totally. But at the end of the day, we didn’t want to compromise on fun, and we also don’t want to detract from people who are early adopters for the game as well, so everything that we’re doing is a way of rewarding their experience by making it additive to what they’ve already experienced.
IGN: There have also been updates hinting at more changes for Damiane and Oongka, who are Kliff’s playable allies in the game. Will there be attempts to make them feel more important and worthwhile within the game’s overall experience?
Will Powers: We’ve had conversations about fleshing out the backstories for the additional characters, and the specifics are still to be determined. But obviously, all of that’s on the table, and to go on record as saying that the developers do read the feedback that they see across the internet. Players have expressed a desire to see more backstories for the additional playable characters and to understand how these people came to be involved in the main story. But yeah, it remains to be seen whether and how we end up doing it, but that’s one of the options we have for continuing to expand the story in Crimson Desert. That’s not as much as rewriting the story, but coming in to put more meat on the bones of the story.
IGN: There are also plans to add DLC to the game. Can you share any insights or details about what that will entail exactly, whether it’s purely a content upgrade or maybe something more sweeping to the core game?
Will Powers: I think that remains to be seen about what direction we will take with our upcoming plans for that. But, you know, words are important. So let’s be very clear about the difference between the words ‘update,’ ‘DLC,’ and ‘expansion.’ What we’ve called everything we’ve done and added to the game right now has been updates. We’re calling this upcoming project a DLC, so this will be different from all the updates we’ve had after the game launched. So that’s where I’ll go with that. We’re calling it something different, and there’s a good reason why we’re calling it a DLC.
IGN: It’s been interesting to see what’s been added to the game so far. We recently saw a pinball minigame added, and I think what’s worked well in Crimson Desert is how it mashes up different fantasy RPG styles. It’s high fantasy and steampunk as well, and that seems to have given the developers a lot of freedom to expand things as they see fit.
Will Powers: Yeah, it’s a type of power fantasy. Like, how do these things make sense in the world? There’s been a lot of conversations internally leading into launch about, ‘Okay, well, how do dragons, mechs, trains, and dinosaurs like raptors, all make sense in the same environment?’ And it just all comes down to this being a fantasy game, and it’s a big freaking world. So when you play it, it does make sense, and I think that’s what you hit the nail on the head of, that’s the beauty of Crimson Desert. It’s so massive, and you can play with what makes sense in the different regions with different cultures and environments, and that presents the artistic liberty to do whatever the hell you want. It then becomes the question of, ‘What do we want to do?’ rather than, ‘What do we have to do?’ and that’s a fun question.
IGN: Has there been any consideration to add mod support for Crimson Desert?
Will Powers: Yeah, I don’t have a good answer for that, but I would say my impulsive response is that we’re trying to maintain a consistent experience across all Crimson Desert platforms. We just announced cross-save for the game, and we’re gonna have cross-side support for all versions, so I’m not sure how you do that well by splitting features that can change one version of the game. The community’s already doing it for the PC version, but as a publisher, I don’t see an official way to do that. That said, we like seeing players engage with the game to build their community and everything related to it, which is really great. I like seeing players talk about their experiences playing the game and talking about what they uncovered.
IGN: Going back to the game’s broader appeal, it’s been interesting to see just how much support has been given to a single-player game like this in such a short time, and players have certainly been keeping up with it. Do you feel the success of this game speaks to a larger trend that audiences want more engaging single-player games?
Will Powers: I don’t see a single variable for this game’s success. I think there are many factors at play, but it certainly helps to have a good game. The other elements that threw us for a loop internally were that we had to rethink how we have a community for a single-player RPG. Like, Pearl Abyss didn’t have community managers for a single-player game, but we did for live-service games. We have to work at retaining a community around this game to support it. They want more and more content because they’re enjoying living in this world, which feels like a live-service game in scope, but it’s very different. Like when you purchase this game, you buy it once, and it’s yours.
We also wanted to reward players who have been there the whole time by avoiding sudden discounts for early adopters. Typically, in video games, the first discount is 90 days or so. We haven’t discounted the game, but that’s not because we’re really greedy by any means. We want to add more value, so we’re continuing not to take away anything but make it a better experience with more value for the people who spent not just their hard-earned money but also their time, because that’s probably the biggest factor right now for many people who want to play the game. We’re asking you to play 100+ hours, which is a significant time investment. But if you’re going to spend your money, we want to reward that experience by giving you a ton of things to do and making it more rewarding.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
