Crimson Desert has been building up in peoples' minds for well over half a decade now, and has spent a fair bit of that time looking too good to be true. Developer Pearl Abyss knows that kind of hype can easily backfire, and is now doing its best to ensure players have the proper expectations, especially as the game has changed shape over the years.
"In a sense, we're kind of victims of ourselves – we announced the game too early, and, honestly, that's just inarguable [to dispute]," marketing director Will Powers tells IGN. "Things happened that way for multiple reasons; the game changed, and we built an engine, and not just for this game, but an additional engine altogether. So it's not just strictly development time for a singular title. But if we had to do it again, I don't think anyone would say we should announce the game six-and-a-half years in advance. That's just not a thing that happens often."
