Crimson Desert is one of those games that keeps falling out of the videogame filing cabinet in my brain, and then every so often I'll remember it exists and say to myself "Hmm, I wonder what's going on with that?" Turns out the answer to that right now is: another delay. Unfortunate.
As reported by Gematsu, Pearl Abyss' upcoming action game (a single-player spinoff from the Black Desert Online universe) is facing another setback as its release date has been pushed from the vague window of "2025" to the equally corpo-vague window of "Q1 2026".
The pushback was revealed during an earnings call, where the developers shared an update on the game: "Currently, Crimson Desert has been in the process of voiceovers, while also carrying out tasks such as console certification in preparation for its release," a translator for Pearl Abyss said before revealing that the game "has been unavoidably delayed by one quarter from the previously announced schedule.
"This is due to longer than expected timelines arising from schedule coordination and collaborations with multiple partners for offline distribution, voiceovers, console certification, and other launch preparations. We sincerely apologise for not being able to meet the originally promised fourth quarter launch schedule. Please kindly understand that this is a strategic decision aimed at ensuring success on a meaningful scale."
The call went on to confirm that the developer was now shooting for sometime in early 2026, adding it "will announce the date at a more appropriate time based on business considerations, rather than making an announcement at Gamescom next week."
Now I'm not one to gossip (lie), but that almost makes it sound like Pearl Abyss was planning to make some sort of date announcement during the show later this month. That would've been pretty major—the game's been in development for at least five years at this point—and it sounds like the decision to push things back is a fairly recent one.
It's not the first time Crimson Desert's been delayed either. It was originally slated for a late 2021 release before Pearl Abyss pushed things back indefinitely, citing the need for extra time while "ensuring the health and safety of everyone involved in delivering the game".
While the marketing has been fairly lowkey, the game's been making numerous appearances at all kinds of game shows in the last year or so—Harvey Randall checked it out at Gamescom last year and determined it was "shaping up to be an absolute riot to play so far," and Morgan Park gave the thing a whirl during this year's Summer Game Fest. He wasn't quite as excited, saying Crimson Desert "continues to look strong, but unwieldy."
If that's anything to go by, maybe a little more time in the oven is a good thing. It ultimately boils down to a few extra months of waiting, and hopefully means we get to start 2026 with a bang. Or a sword clash.
