Pearl Abyss has delayed open-world action adventure game Crimson Desert from its previously planned late 2025 release window to Q1 2026. >“Before the Q&A session, I would like to first share an update on the development status and release schedule of Crimson Desert, which many of you have been curious about,” Pearl Abyss said in its Q2 2025 earnings conference call. “Currently, Crimson Desert has been in the process of voice-overs, while also carrying out tasks such as console certification in preparation for its release. In the case of marketing, we plan to participate in Gamescom and PAX West this August to showcase our open-world build. And in September, we will join the Tokyo Game Show to strengthen our marketing efforts in the Japanese market. >“The launch of Crimson Desert, our first large-scale AAA console 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, voice-overs, console certification, and other launch preparations. We sincerely apologize for not being able to meet the originally promised fourth quarter launch schedule. Please kindly understand that this is a strategic decision aimed at insuring success on a meaningful scale. >“The release date has been internally confirmed for Q1 2026. However, given the change in launch timing, we will announce the date at a more appropriate time based on business considerations, rather than making an announcement at Gamescom next week. We are grateful for your continued interest in our company, and we will do our utmost to deliver an even better experience going forward.” Personally, I think this game is either gonna be the next big open world game that brings all the normalfags together, or it'll be one of the biggest disasters since Cyberpunk PS4. I think it's extremely ambitious and promising the world, and I think that considering that this is an unknown game made by some MMO dev makes me think that this game is gonna be either a complete buggy mess or won't be released for another five years. The good news is that they released 13 minutes of gameplay where they basically go over some combat and a boss battle, nothing we haven't seen before. I'm just hoping the game will come out before GTA6 since publishers will likely try to avoid releasing games next to GTA due to normalfags chugging rockstars cock. gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKollpGYGrI source: https://www.gematsu.com/2025/08/crimson-desert-delayed-to-q1-2026