Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss has issued a message to players addressing complaints around the game’s controls, which have been widely criticized.
In an online statement, Pearl Abyss said it was aware of the “discomfort” players are having with the controls, and confirmed a patch will address it. The developer did not say when this patch will be released, or detailed what it will actually do (most players are desperate for controller mapping and key binding support). Meanwhile, Pearl Abyss apologized to keyboard and mouse players for their experience playing the game (Crimson Desert recommends players use a controller instead of KB&M when you start, mindful, perhaps, of how fiddly its controls are).
As IGN has reported, Crimson Desert launched big on Steam with nearly 250,000 concurrent players, but it currently has a “mixed” user review rating on Valve’s platform. Much of the criticism from players revolves around the controls, which some have called clunky and unnecessarily complicated. There are some performance complaints too. For example, PS5 owners have come together to work out the cause of blurry visuals — an issue that’s also on the PC version.
Despite these shortcomings, Crimson Desert sold an impressive 2 million copies in just a day — and it remains among the most-played games on Steam (neither Sony nor Microsoft make player numbers public).
There is still no comment from Pearl Abyss on accusations that Crimson Desert contains AI-generated art. If Crimson Desert does contain generative AI art, it would put Pearl Abyss in violation of Steam’s AI Content policy, which requires generative AI use to be disclosed on the game’s store page. Currently, there is no such disclaimer.
Here’s Pearl Abyss’ statement in full:
Fellow Greymanes,
It has been a little over 36 hours since launch, and we would like to start with a sincere thank you to everyone who has been playing Crimson Desert.
Since launch, we have been listening closely to your feedback and doing our best to make improvements to the game. In particular, we are aware of the discomfort many players have experienced with the controls, and we are currently preparing a patch to address this. We also want to apologize for not providing keyboard and mouse players with a satisfactory gameplay experience.
Please know we are taking your feedback seriously and working to improve your gameplay experience as quickly as possible.
If you encounter any other issues while playing, please refer to the notice below for information on how to submit a report: https://pearlabyss.info/crimsondesertreport
We’re following your experiences across issue reports, videos, livestreams, and community discussions. Every report and shared experience helps us make the game better, and we truly appreciate the time you take to share them with us.
We’ll keep working to make your adventure in Pywel even more enjoyable, and thank you again for your continued support.
Pearl Abyss will be keen to address the main complaints with Crimson Desert sooner rather than later in a bid to improve its Steam review rating. This week, IGN reported on how Pearl Abyss saw its stock price plunge nearly 30% in what was seen as a reaction to review scores from critics. Yesterday, the company stock fell a further 9.78%. According to the Korean business press, Pearl Abyss reportedly spent seven years making Crimson Desert, with development costs coming in at 200 billion won (approx. $133 million).
We’ve got plenty more on Crimson Desert, including patch notes for its day one update, IGN’s Crimson Desert Review, and our launch interview with marketing and PR chief Will Powers. We’ve also got a Crimson Desert PC performance review.
And if you’re jumping into Crimson Desert’s huge open world, we recommend you take a look at our guide to Things to Do First in Crimson Desert, plus Things Crimson Desert Doesn’t Tell You (we’ve got 28 and counting!). We’ve also got a guide to the Best Early Weapons we recommend picking up, the Best Skills to Get First (including a handy explainer of the skills system), and 34 Essential Tips and Tricks to help you succeed in Pywel.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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