Digital Foundry has delivered an in-depth analysis of Crimson Desert running on PS5 Pro, and impressions are undeniably positive. Yet within hours of that praise, the game's publisher sparked a firestorm by quietly adding Denuvo DRM to its Steam listing, just seven days before launch. The twin developments reveal how even a strong technical showing cannot insulate a major release from self-inflicted damage.
The analysis makes it clear that Crimson Desert is a stunner on Sony's supercharged system, with performance mostly solid across the board. On PS5 Pro, Crimson Desert will run at 4K (upscaled from 1080p) at 60 FPS using the new PSSR 2 feature, and the Performance mode still includes high ray tracing. John Linneman of Digital Foundry noted he was impressed by how well the game performed overall, though limitations can be more felt when it comes to CPU usage; the game can exhibit noticeable frame rate dips in performance mode when playing through especially busy areas like cities.
The reception might have ended there on a positive note. Yet on March 12, just a week before launch, developers Pearl Abyss added Denuvo to the game's Steam version. Designed to prevent games from being tampered with or pirated, the software is often blamed for performance issues in PC games, with titles like Resident Evil Village, Tekken 7, and Devil May Cry 5 all falling prey to issues the DRM causes.
The change sent shockwaves through social channels where excited players have congregated, with one discussion on the game's Steam tab titled "DENUVO = preorder instantly aggressively cancelled!!!" attracting 65 comments expressing dissatisfaction. Players voiced frustration online: one called it a "scummy move adding denuvo this last moment", while others said "Glad I waited before buying. Saved me money" and "I'm not going to be forced to ask permission to play something that I pay for."
The timing compounds the damage. Pearl Abyss has spent months fielding accusations of hiding console performance, with community manager Will Powers pushing back against critics last week. The developer promised transparency. Instead, adding controversial anti-piracy software with no advance notice suggests the opposite.
There is a legitimate case for Denuvo. A study from William Volckmann, published in Entertainment Computing 52 last year, suggests that games can take up to a 20% revenue hit if cracked in the first week, which is no small figure should Crimson Desert's sales rocket as anticipated. Protecting a major launch from piracy during peak sales weeks is reasonable business practice. Yet revealing your game will use DRM this close to launch after taking pre-orders seems like a crappy thing to do.
The console story remains unresolved. While Pearl Abyss has now confirmed performance figures for consoles, there is no new footage of the game running on consoles. PC codes went out for launch reviews, those only go live a day before the game is out and there seemingly won't be any hands-on console coverage of the game before people are faced with the question of whether or not to buy it.
PS5 offers three graphics modes: Performance (1080p/60fps), Balanced (upscaled 4K/40fps), and Quality (upscaled 4K/30fps), all with ray tracing support; PS5 Pro delivers native 4K at 30fps with Ray Tracing Ultra in Quality mode, and upscaled 4K at 60fps using PSSR in Performance mode; Xbox Series X provides similar options with three modes ranging from 1080p/60fps to upscaled 4K/30fps; Xbox Series S is limited to two modes without ray tracing: Performance (720p/40fps) and Quality (1080p/30fps).
Crimson Desert is due out March 19 priced $69.99, and Pearl Abyss recently confirmed it does not contain a cosmetic cash shop nor microtransactions of any kind. That commitment to a complete game is commendable. But it does nothing to repair trust eroded by last-minute DRM revelations and an ongoing lack of console gameplay footage.