[UPDATE] Here's a comment on the Crimson Desert and DokeV report straight from Pearl Abyss:
The release dates of Crimson Desert and DokeV have never been announced and our development team are currently hard at work to improve their quality. We hope to announce more about the release in due course.
[ORIGINAL STORY] A report from the South Korean website InsightKorea reveals that Crimson Desert may have been internally moved from Q2 2024 to Q2 2025 by developer Pearl Abyss (known as the maker of Black Desert Online and owner of CCP Games).
Kim Jin-gu, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, was quoted saying:
There was a delay of about a year in the release of Crimson Desert, which exceeded the 3 to 6 months acceptable in the market.
At the same time, he maintains that Pearl Abyss stock is the best in the Korean industry, as the games presented at G-Star last month weren't really a threat.
We took into account that the new games scheduled to be released by major competitors, which were revealed at this G-Star, did not surpass the company’s Crimson Desert, and the gap in this was significant.
Even so, Jin-gu urged Pearl Abyss to communicate the game's release date to investors:
I would like to state that Pearl Abyss Management must conduct more sincere and specific communication with all investors in an official setting. Crimson Desert is a game that takes 7 years from the start of development to the expected release date, and is not a typical game. It is a situation that exceeds the development period.
Currently, Pearl Abyss has many mid- to long-term investors who trust and invest in its own game engine and the high quality of new games, and considering that the return on investment for these people is negative, the company is monitoring the progress of development and the reasons why additional time is needed. It can be said that there is a need to disclose the expected release date of the base to investors in an official setting compared to the previous year.
Indeed, Crimson Desert has had a fairly lengthy development phase. The game was originally unveiled at G-Star 2019 alongside PLAN 8 (an exosuit shooter led by Counter-Strike co-creator Minh Le) and DokeV (a Pokémon like creature collection game). All of these were planned as MMOs at first, but Pearl Abyss switched genres for Crimson Desert and DokeV (while PLAN 8 hasn't been seen since), focusing on single player with some multiplayer elements instead.
Crimson Desert was delayed 'indefinitely' in July 2021 only to resurface at Gamescom 2023 with a new gameplay trailer. Pearl Abyss executives told investors development would be completed by the end of this year, but if the new rumor is true, the game is likely taking longer than that. DokeV, on the other hand, was shown the last time at Gamescom 2021. It is known to be coming after Crimson Desert, so it could be targeting a 2026 launch now.
We have reached out to Pearl Abyss for comments and will update this story if they provide any statements.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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