Crimson Desert Dev Explains Why Not Being AAA is a Major Advantage

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Published May 7, 2026, 1:19 PM EDT

Miller Reynolds is a Writer at DualShockers specializing in news, reviews, guides, interviews, and lists. He began covering games professionally in 2025, bringing a journalism background and more than 25 years of firsthand gaming experience to his work.

Miller studied Advanced Journalism for online, print, and broadcast media at Loyalist College, where he received the Excellence in Writing and Production Award. Before focusing on games coverage, he gained experience writing across topics such as politics, entertainment, and sports. Today, he combines his journalism training with his long-running passion for games to cover current releases, developer interviews, reviews, and practical guides for players.

Developed by Pearl Abyss, Crimson Desert has broken onto the scene in spectacular fashion this year, selling five million copies in under a month and even receiving praise from South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok.

Crimson Desert Dev has Traded EVE Online Back for a Boatload of Cash and Game Crypto

Pearl Abyss has sold CCP Games for $100 million in cash, and $20 million worth of token acquisition rights.

The single-player experience of Crimson Desert has captivated Greymanes across the globe with endless exploration and satisfying combat, and one Pearl Abyss Director attributes the success to listening to community feedback and not being restricted by a 'brand bible'.

Pearl Abyss Uses Community Feedback to Its Full Potential

Pearl Abyss has been fixing issues and adding new content to Crimson Desert at what seems like a blistering pace, but they're able to do it with ease because the studio has been releasing major Black Desert updates almost every week since 2015—they're built for this.

In a recent interview with Gene Park from The Washington Post, the studio's Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Will Powers, stated that all the patches and content updates have been a direct result of community feedback, "Everything, patch-wise, content-wise, has been iterated in real time based on feedback. ... If you bake in a road map, you’re presuming. We are not baking in presumptions around what the players want."

Soon after the game launched, players began calling for additional permanent mounts, as you could ride many of the animals you encountered throughout Pywel, but couldn't keep them.

It wasn't long before five new permanent mounts were added, some of which are legendary animals that will help you in combat, and Powers says the studio is efficient with these content updates because they aren't being held back. In his words, "We can actually have fun and we can do things. We’re more adaptable, we are more malleable. We can pivot faster, versus the AAAs of the world that are restricted by their brand bibles."

The studio has been releasing major Black Desert updates almost every week since 2015—they're built for this.

It's pretty amazing to see how the world of video games has evolved, especially when we're talking about live-service games and the active role that gamers get to play in the development process.

Every review you leave on Steam, or heartfelt piece of feedback you post on a game's Discord server, has an actual chance of being seen by the devs and taken into consideration—and that's pretty cool.

"There is no 'Black Desert' if there are no players, and there is no 'Crimson Desert' without 'Black Desert'," said Powers, "The DNA of the company is inherent in listening to players."