Since it was first revealed back in 2019, Crimson Desert has looked almost too good to be true. Its trailers presented a convincing hybrid of The Witcher-style dark fantasy and a massive variety of open-world action. We were promised a game world bigger than the likes of Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption 2. Could developer Pearl Abyss, primarily known for the MMO Black Desert Online, deliver a single-player open-world game that matched those ambitions?
We're about to find out, because Crimson Desert is locked into its launch date of March 19, 2026. That date was announced a few months ago, but there's no escaping it now, as Pearl Abyss has announced that the game has gone gold. That's a bit of an old-school phrase in today's largely digital landscape, but it refers to the gold master version of a game disc, the copy that's sent to manufacturers to start mass producing physical discs for retailers. In other words, it means that the main development is essentially finished.
