Pearl Abyss talks Crimson Desert multiplayer, lackluster story, Switch 2 version, and mods

Crimson Desert has seen major success selling over three million copies in just four days. The vast open world and incredible graphics have got players hooked, and while they are still discovering new aspects, questions about the future of the game have come up. Recently, Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young spoke with a Korean publication and shared more details about Crimson Desert and the team's plans for its future, with some good and not so good news.

The primary complaint about Crimson Desert has been the lackluster storyline. Speaking with YNA, the CEO admitted that they could have done a better job with it, but decided on focus on strengthening the gameplay instead. “I sympathize to some extent with the disappointment users feel regarding the story. I think it would have been nice if we could have done a better job with it,” he said. While there is no version update or fix that would address a storyline issue, additional content like DLCs could help with strengthening the arc. However, the team wants for focus on the base game for now and bring in money that way. No plans of DLCs as of yet.

Initially planned as an MMORPG, Crimson Desert pivoted to a singleplayer action adventure at some point in the development. When asked about eventual multiplayer support, the team shared that there are “aspects of graphics that must be sacrificed in the current device environment” in order to implement multiplayer. Therefore, that’s not really a focus for now.

Coming to mod support, once again, the CEO said there are no concrete plans. The team still believes that it would be a positive to have mod support in the sandbox that they’ve created, but it would require “opening up a large part of the engine,” which they don’t seem comfortable with for now.

As for good news, Crimson Desert could eventually land on the Nintendo Switch 2. The team has started R&D on it and is aware that due to hardware limitations, they will have to give up on some aspects of the game. This isn't really a confirmation for a Switch 2 version but shows that the team is interested in bringing the game to the handheld.