Video Games

Pearl Abyss reportedly declined Sony exclusivity deal for Crimson Desert

Partnership would have prevented simultaneous Xbox release

Marco Wutz

Pearl Abyss

South Korean developer and publisher Pearl Abyss had an exclusivity offer from Sony on the table for Crimson Desert, its upcoming open-world RPG, according to the notes of a financial blogger attending this year’s Kiwoom Securities Corporate Day. Pearl Abyss presented some information about the project at the business event, including the declined offer.

According to the blogger’s notes – you can find a translated version on ResetEra – Pearl Abyss opted to self-publish the game instead of accepting Sony’s offer, because the developer thinks that the game will be more profitable if it launches on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S at the same time as opposed to being a timed exclusive on consoles.

In their presentation, Pearl Abyss representatives claimed that Sony apparently compared the atmosphere and story of Crimson Desert to those of Ghost of Tsushima.

Sony signed partnerships with Shift Up and NCSOFT last year, which confirmed reports of the company making offers to several big developers in South Korea. Pearl Abyss was among the names of potential partners linked to Sony as well, which gives the points made in the event’s presentation more credence.

Crimson Desert is an ambitious open-world action RPG that takes elements from The Witcher 3, Assassin’s Creed, Red Dead Redemption, and The Legend of Zelda, according to the devs. Built on Pearl Abyss’ own engine, the game is supposed to offer a high degree of freedom.

We’ve only played some boss battles of the title at Gamescom 2024, so we can’t comment on those descriptions of the exploration aspect. However, the combat action offered in those demo battles felt very challenging and in-depth, with many possible combos as well as a dodge and parry system, ranged options, and individual mechanics for each boss.

Crimson Desert is set for a release in Q2 of 2025 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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