We Finally Have Our First Look at Crimson Desert Running on PS5 Pro — but We’re Still Waiting on Base PS5 and Xbox Series X and S

After some fans expressed concern about the performance of ambitious new open world game Crimson Desert on consoles, we finally have a look at the game on a PlayStation 5 Pro.

The reveal comes courtesy of the tech wizards at Digital Foundry, whose John Linneman sounded enamoured with what he called “a stunning game.” The game’s ray tracing features are fully present on the Pro, and the water looks lovely indeed.

Digital Foundry said its counts confirm the PS5 Pro targets outlined by Crimson Desert developer and publisher Pearl Abyss below, but it’s reserving judgment for the final release. Performance Mode “puts up a good fight,” Linneman said, and “by and large” the 60fps target is maintained. “I was surprised by how good it was overall,” he added.

Crimson Desert on console! An extended look at the near-final game running on PlayStation 5 Pro, covering all graphics modes. And one of my favourite video intros I’ve seen from the channel! https://t.co/jCcap1oa7s pic.twitter.com/xLrxVi8WEm

— Digital Foundry (@digitalfoundry) March 12, 2026

DF found the frame rate drops amid larger crowds, anything involving tonnes of NPCs or enemies, with occasional dips also in quieter spots. The frame rate dropped “significantly” during a big early battle, slipping all the way into the 30s. You can trigger similar results in some of the game’s large cities, too. But, Linneman stressed, this is “not the norm at all.” The 30fps and 40fps modes are more stable overall. Linneman recommends the 40fps or 60fps modes because the 30fps mode feels less responsive than he would have liked, but he thinks this “heavy” gameplay feel is a design choice.

Now, it’s worth noting that we still haven’t seen Crimson Desert running on base consoles, including the less powerful Xbox Series S. Digital Foundry notes this in its video. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to see how Crimson Desert runs on base consoles soon.

Digital Foundry chief Richard Leadbetter told IGN: “We’ve not seen much of Crimson Desert on consoles, but when Pearl Abyss offered us the chance to take a look at the PS5 Pro version with no limitations on what we could cover, we jumped at the chance. My main concern was not so much about graphics but on demands on the CPU. Yes, it can be demanding, but overall performance across the three modes is impressive. But more impressive is really what this game is about — the scale and the scope and the systems-driven open world. The high-end PC experience scales well to PS5 Pro and we’re looking forward to seeing the other console versions.”