Crimson Desert

Crimson Desert is an open-world action-adventure from Pearl Abyss. It follows Kliff, a fighter with the Greymanes, whose group is scattered after an attack by the Black Bears. In his search for the survivors, he travels across the continent of Pywel, from cities and villages through forests, deserts and mountains to ancient ruins and the mysterious Abyss.

The story stays closely tied to the open world: Kliff rebuilds the Greymanes, meets rival factions and gets caught up in a conflict that goes far beyond his original search for his companions.

Crimson Desert was released on March 19, 2026. On August 25, 2026, Pearl Abyss released the free Crimson Desert Enhanced update for owners of the main game. The Enhanced version adds new cutscenes and story moments, extra voice audio including German, and all previously released content and quality-of-life updates.

Enhanced is not a separate sequel or a new base game: existing owners get the updated version at no extra cost.

Crimson Desert is available natively on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. On PC, the game is sold through Steam and other PC stores; Steam supports both Windows and Apple Silicon Macs. A native PS4, Xbox One or Linux version is not confirmed.

On PlayStation 5, the game supports DualSense features, Remote Play and PS5 Pro optimizations.

Pywel is built as a freely explorable fantasy world. Cliff travels through plains, forests, deserts, mountains, settlements and ruins, climbs cliffs and walls, glides through the air and uses different mounts. Besides horses, the world also includes more unusual means of transport such as dragons and machines.

The combat system combines various melee and ranged weapons with abilities, dodge manoeuvres and elemental enhancements. Enemies range from human fighters to large beasts and bosses; alongside duels, there are also large-scale battles.

Besides combat, the lasting game systems include gathering resources, cooking, fishing, hunting, character customisation and mini-games. The open world is not meant to be just a backdrop for the main story, but also to carry standalone activities and discoveries.

Charting the Unknown was released on Oct 29, 2026. The expansion introduces ships, maritime trade routes, new islands and underwater exploration. It also adds three character quests, new enemies, the Garden of Trials and an expanded home and relationship system.

The DLC is available for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The Mac version on Steam was updated at launch; the corresponding update on the Mac App Store follows later. For more details, there is a separate page on Charting the Unknown.

On Windows, Crimson Desert requires at least Windows 10 (64-bit), a Ryzen 5 2600X or Core i5-8500, 16 GB RAM, a Radeon RX 5500 XT or GeForce GTX 1060, DirectX 12 and 150 GB of free SSD storage. Recommended specs are Ryzen 5 5600 or Core i5-11600K, along with a Radeon RX 6700 XT or GeForce RTX 2080.

On Mac, the native version requires Apple Silicon, macOS 15 or later, 16 GB RAM and 150 GB of storage. Intel Macs are not supported.