March 13, 2026: Pearl Abyss has commented on Denuvo's impact on Crimson Desert's performance in previews. This article has been updated to include its statement.
Crimson Desert has long had its optimistic fans - those that play its MMO predecessor, Black Desert Online, for example. But in recent months, it feels like everyone's squeezed aboard the Crimson Desert hype train - its scale, visuals, deep combat offering, and decision to make it a huge, MMORPG-lite single-player game has seen interest snowball. While I've still got my reservations about the overcomplicated control scheme Jamie encountered when he previewed it last year, it seems pretty nailed on to be one of this year's biggest new releases. However, just a week out from launch, some PC players may be disappointed to learn that, on Steam, Crimson Desert will require Denuvo DRM.
Honestly, I'm not surprised. Denuvo is probably the most popular anti-tamper measure out there, and I'm sure developer-publisher Pearl Abyss will be keen to avoid revenue loss to piracy. 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 in the way I'm anticipating them to; all of my casual gaming friends are talking about it, which is typically a very strong sign that it's going to be a biggun.
Denuvo's poor reputation within the PC gaming community isn't entirely unfounded. A/B testing on various games that eventually became DRM-free has shown that, in some cases, there's a noticeable performance uplift once Denuvo had been removed. Correlation isn't causation, but you can't ignore the trends. There are also those who subscribe to the same school of thought as GOG CEO Michał Kiciński - that DRM isn't a solution for piracy and only makes player's lives more difficult. As a veritable unc, I do miss the days where I could sit and play my favorite games, internet-free, without having to go online just so a DRM can report that I'm not up to any shenanigans.
Nonetheless, the move is sure to ruffle some feathers. Already on Reddit, players are staving off buying-in, while some claim to outright be refunding their pre-orders. Others, meanwhile, are more than happy to see how the game performs on day one before making up their minds. It's worth remembering that socials are typically enthusiast-skewed, so I don't see Denuvo's inclusion being a deal-breaker for most.
Responding to Forbes' Paul Tassi's request for comment, Pearl Abyss says: "The benchmark videos and performance specs we released were all created with the exact same implementation of Denuvo that is in the launch build. This includes the performance videos by Digital Foundry. It's important that reviewers and benchmarkers' experience with the game is ultimately representative of the final consumer's experience." So, don't expect any performance changes from what's been reported so far - what you see is what you get.
My only issue is that Crimson Desert won't have PC mod support at launch, but even that omission hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for it. The Crimson Desert system requirements are surprisingly modest, and based on Pearl Abyss' statement it should still run like a dream when the time comes to delve into Pywel for the first time.