Crimson Desert has hit 2 million copies sold just a day after launch, although it has suffered a mixed response from critics and players.
Pearl Abyss’ hotly anticipated open world action game launched across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S yesterday, March 19, and today, the Korean company announced that 2 million copies had been sold worldwide.
In its announcement, Pearl Abyss said it was aware of feedback from players, and would “work to make improvements quickly.”
"We are incredibly humbled to share that Crimson Desert has sold through 2 million copies worldwide," reads Pearl Abyss' statement. "Thank you so much to our fans, community, and everyone who has joined us in Pywel. We will listen closely to the wide range of...
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Unlike the exceedingly slow preceding month of January, February 2026 had a steadily moving line of new releases to shake up the U.S. sales charts, with Resident Evil Requiem debuting as the best-selling game of the month and, thus far, the entire year.
We don't have a specific sales figure for Requiem in the U.S., but Capcom has said it has sold 6 million globally, making it the fastest-selling game in the franchise ever.
Unfortunately for money and numbers people, all the new releases didn't really do anything to boost overall sales compared to last year. According to Circana's monthly report compiled and analyzed by Mat Piscatella, total gaming spending was only up 1% year-over-year, content spending was flat, and accessories were...
Slay the Spire 2 developer Mega Crit has outlined the game’s first big post-launch patch, which will be of particular interest to players given it comes with a huge balance pass.
In a post on Steam, the developer said the aim of the update is to make infinites harder to achieve. But it also adds a Phobia Mode with bespoke assets “that should mitigate various creepy phobia concerns,” Mega Crit said.
There is a long list of changes outlined in the patch notes, but highlights include all relics in the shop costing 25 gold less, the removal of relics that generate gold from the merchant, and you can no longer acquire epochs in Daily or Custom runs (bah!). Clamping down on those infinites, power values can no longer stack above...
Cards on the table: I love Crimson Desert. And despite the mixed response it’s getting from critics (check out our review in progress for the official IGN take), make no mistake, there is a lot here to love. Like, a lot. Too much, arguably. Which is why our review isn’t finished yet, on top of a bunch of technical issues, difficulty spikes, and progress-stalling bugs.
Dafter than a sack of hammers and yet more moreish than the Iberian Peninsula, until now the big question hanging over Crimson Desert was “but what’s the USP?”. This enormous tapestry of Open World Tropes is all at once a love letter, a greatest hits compilation, and a Frankenstein’s Monster of that type of thing: a Dragon’s Dogma broth with heaps of The Witcher 3...
If you’re playing Crimson Desert on PlayStation 5, you might have noticed blurry visuals no matter which mode you’re playing on. Well, you’re not alone. But the good news is that players believe they have found a fix.
This blurry visuals problem on PS5 is being reported across social media, on subreddits, and in Discords.
Players believe it is to do with Crimson Desert having trouble with the PS5’s "120hz mode," where the TV does not properly support 4K120. They're reporting that they’re able to fix this blurriness by going into the PS5 settings, and, in Video Output, setting "Enable 120Hz Output" to off. Will Powers, PR and marketing director at Crimson Desert publisher and developer Pearl Abyss, has also spent time on social media...
Ubisoft has reflected on the legacy of Assassin's Creed Shadows, a year on from the samurai blockbuster's launch.
Shadows arrived exactly a year ago today, following its high-profile delay and various pre-release controversies. The game was followed by a major expansion last fall, and a Switch 2 version right before Christmas. But, earlier this month, Ubisoft said it was moving on from the game, prioritizing future Assassin's Creed projects rather than providing substantial support for a second year.
Now, at an event designed to celebrate the game's first anniversary, Shadows art director Thierry Dansereau told IGN he was proud of the game's release, and that its technological advancements would benefit future games in the franchise...
Crimson Desert launched to big Steam concurrents, but it’s currently on a “mixed” user review rating on Valve’s platform, with most of the complaints revolving around the controls.
Pearl Abyss’ hotly anticipated open world action game launched yesterday across PC and console, and while we don’t have console player numbers, Steam concurrents hit a peak of 239,045 — enough to make it the third most-played game behind only Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 for a time.
However, user reviews are on “mixed,” and the controls (Crimson Desert encourages PC players to play with a controller) are at the heart of the reaction.
Some are saying the controls feel unintuitive and unresponsive. Generally speaking, players say the controls feel good in...
Activist investor Oasis Management Company has acquired a 8.86% in Japanese media powerhouse Kadokawa, parent company of Elden Ring developer FromSoftware, according to Gamebiz and Automaton.
This is a big enough stake to potentially enable the investor to influence Kadokawa’s operations. Back in 2014, Oasis encouraged Nintendo to pivot towards developing free-to-play mobile games, saying: “Just think of paying 99 cents just to get Mario to jump a little higher.”
An activist investor is an individual or company that aims to purchase a significant minority stake in other companies so that they can influence how they are operated or managed, usually with the aim of bolstering shareholder returns.
So what’s the attraction of Kadokawa...
The debut game from developer Sunset Visitor, 1000xResist, took us by surprise in 2024 and gained notoriety for its thought-provoking story and striking art direction. It was born out of a small independent team with a theater background that then turned to games as a creative outlet, and used inspirations such as NieR:Automata and Neon Genesis Evangelion (among other things) in the process. It turns out they're continuing down that path as the team teased that it's ready to reveal its next project during the Triple-I Showcase on April 9.
Game director and studio founder Remy Siu couldn't share many details ahead of the showcase, but did tell us, "We're really excited to share with everyone what we've been working on. We're always...
Crimson Desert looks set to hit big Steam concurrent player numbers after it broke into the top three most-played games on Valve’s platform just minutes after launch.
Pearl Abyss’ hotly anticipated open world action game had looked set for a huge launch, given it was at the top of the Steam sales chart and had secured 3 million Steam Wishlists ahead of today’s release.
Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, said earlier this week that Crimson Desert was “on track for a killer launch on Steam.” According to Alinea Analytics estimates, Crimson Desert was approaching 400,000 pre-launch copies sold on Steam, representing gross revenues of over $20 million. “This game could really blow up, if it sticks the landing,”...
Crimson Desert has launched across all platforms, and with it comes a day one update that makes some significant improvements to the game, some balance changes, and various fixes. Pearl Abyss recommended players download the patch “for the best experience.”
In patch notes published to the Crimson Desert website, developer Pearl Abyss outlined update 1.00.02, which is out now in full on PC via Steam, and will become available on Xbox, Epic Games Store, and Mac App Store “at a later time.”
PlayStation players get the patch in two-parts: Patch 1.00.01 and Patch 1.00.02. Patch 1.00.01 is available for download now.
Of note is the addition of a tutorial quest at the start of Chapter 3, “improved usability” for certain systems and...
Over the past few years, PC games have been facing an optimization problem. Leaning heavily on upscaling solutions like Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR, developers have been releasing ultra-detailed games, and hoping that these technologies will help mitigate the performance cost. Crimson Desert is a bit different, though.
While Crimson Desert is genuinely a beautiful – albeit buggy – game, developer Pearl Abyss announced super reasonable PC system requirements leading up to launch. What was particularly interesting about these is that some of the builds called out upscaling – but many didn’t, so I just had to test the game at native resolution to see how it held up.
And, sure, Crimson Desert does struggle a little bit on low-end cards...
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 publisher Focus Entertainment and developer Saber Interactive have issued an apology to disgruntled fans over the game's controversial $5 Voice Pack DLC, making it free for all and offering refunds to customers.
The debut Chapter Voice Pack sparked Space Marine 2’s first proper backlash, with some even accusing Focus and Saber of false advertising. It includes 450 re-recorded voicelines and a unique Space Marine Head cosmetic for the Blood Angels, Space Wolves and Black Templars chapters, and was only available as a standalone purchase (much to the annoyance of some fans). But it’s the way these new voice lines are incorporated into the game that caused an “overwhelmingly negative” Steam user review...
Bungie has been teasing the fourth map in its recently released extraction shooter, Marathon – but it's not just another open region for looting gear, getting into fights, and extracting.
Cryo Archive will be players' first taste of a raid-like instance in Marathon (and actually exploring the UESC Marathon ship), which will contain gameplay mechanics similar to ones seen in Destiny raids such as puzzles, in-match events, and evolving sequences of objectives. Bungie outlined everything you need to know about Cryo Archive in a recent blog post ahead of it going live on Friday, March 20 (and only available on weekends).
The team also just dropped a teaser trailer that shows gameplay in Cryo Archive, which looks to be a cold and hostile...
"It's Re-Rendering the Game!" – It Turns Out Game Artists Don't Love DLSS 5, Despite Nvidia's Claims
Nvidia revealed DLSS 5 earlier this week, working neural rendering into its AI technology suite for graphics cards. The company claimed that game developers were on board, despite some of the drastic changes it seems to make to the game's aesthetic – especially Resident Evil 5.
Both Assassins Creed Shadows and Resident Evil Requiem were used to show off the new technology, but it seems like the art teams for Ubisoft and Capcom, respectively, didn't know about it until the trailer debuted, with a developer from the former telling Insider Gaming, "we found out at the same time as the public." Capcom's art team was particularly shocked and worried by Resident Evil's trailer, given the company's anti-AI stance with previous Resident Evil...
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is set to release on PS5, Switch 2, Xbox, and PC on June 18. It’s a new HD-2D RPG from Square Enix, specifically the makers of Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler. It looks great, with “an epic tale that spans across millennia.” It also features real-time combat, which separates it from its predecessors. It’s available to preorder now in two editions at most of the usual retailers (see it at Amazon). Read on to see what comes in each edition, what preorder bonuses are available, and more.
Standard Edition - $59.99
PS5
Get it at Amazon - $59.99 (free double-sided poster)
Get it at Best Buy - $59.99
Get it at GameStop - $59.99
Get it at Walmart - $59.99
Get it at PS Store (digital) -...
Ubisoft has announced yet more layoffs as part of its ongoing cost cutting program, with 105 staff now set to depart veteran Tom Clancy game studio Red Storm Entertainment.
Founded in 1996, the North Carolina-based team previously worked on numerous Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six titles. More recently the team had developed several VR games, contributed to the failed live-service shooter XDefiant, and spent years working on the now-cancelled free-to-play spinoff The Division Heartland.
Red Storm Entertainment is now being downsized permanently, IGN understands, and game development formally ended at the studio. The developer, which is set to celebrate its 30th anniversary later this year, will remain open — though simply focused on...
We know that Forza Horizon 6 will arrive with 550 cars on day one, which is the largest number of cars at launch for any previous Forza Horizon game. That number will obviously only continue to grow over the next several years. After all, Forza Horizon 5 arrived with just over 500, and now sports around 900. Whether it’s something brand new to the series, or a previously-seen car cleared for a return appearance, Forza Horizon 6 will no doubt grow weekly. As we’ve learnt in the past, the Forza team is never not building cars.
However, moving forward from the Xbox One and Xbox One X generation of consoles has given Playground Games the opportunity to finally pull the trigger on a number of improvements to vehicles; improvements which...
Tomb Raider: Catalyst developer Crystal Dynamics says it "remains fully committed to the future development" of the Lara Croft franchise despite suffering its fourth redundancy round in the last 12 months.
"Today, Crystal Dynamics is reducing its workforce by 20 talented team members, split between some development personnel and some central operations roles," the company announced on LinkedIn. "This is a difficult day for our studio, and we never make these decisions lightly, particularly after the restructuring we underwent last year."
At the time of its acquisition by Embracer in 2022, Crystal Dynamics had 273 employees across its Austin, Bellevue, and San Mateo offices. Since then, studio employees have endured three separate...
Valve is changing how we reload and manage ammo reserves in Counter-Strike 2.
Like plenty of other shooters, Counter-Strike games typically let us reload weapons without penalty. Now, however, Valve is bringing "higher stakes" to how and when you reload in CS2 by adopting a Helldivers 2-like approach where if you reload with ammo still in the chamber, you lose it.
"When you reload in CS2, the leftover ammo in your magazine is dumped back into an essentially endless reserve supply," the developer wrote in a new update. "And so the decision to reload has never offered significant trade-offs — in a safe position with enough time, you might reload after firing a single bullet, or half a mag, or after firing down to empty, and the rest of...
Pearl Abyss, publisher and developer of Crimson Desert, has seen its stock price plunge nearly 30% in what is seen as a reaction to review scores.
Reviews for the hotly anticipated open-world action game went live yesterday, March 18. On review aggregator Metacritic, Crimson Desert currently has a Metascore of 78 based on 85 critic reviews. But that number is expected to fluctuate as more reviews come online in the days and weeks following today’s launch.
IGN’s Crimson Desert Review So Far, based on playing the PC version, returned a 6/10, although that score is not final.
At the time of this article’s publication, the stock price for Korean company Pearl Abyss was down 29.88%, wiping approximately $13 off the value of a share. The...
By my count, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has now won over 30 different awards across 10 different award shows, as well as our own Game of the Year award and a pile of other nominations. It's settled happily at a 92 critic score on Metacritic and a 9.5 user score.
It's a really, really good game. But apparently its developers truly had no idea how good their game was before it was released, as demonstrated by a number of silly bets they made on what the game's metascore would be, all of which they lost. As a result, a number of Expedition 33 devs are on the hook now for dying their hair, doing stand-up comedy, getting tattoos, and more.
This comes from our recent interview with Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, a writer on Expedition 33...
I was really stoked when, ahead of February's DICE Summit in Las Vegas, I was offered the opportunity to chat with Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, one of the writers of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I already knew Svedberg-Yen had a fascinating story. Past interviews with her talked about her background in finance, how she had barely played video games before signing on with Sandfall Interactive, and how she found the studio incidentally, through responding to a Reddit post.
But even that background that did not prepare me for how wonderfully strange her path to game development truly was.
Svedberg-Yen and I sat down in a busy hotel Starbucks for over an hour to talk about her and her work. We covered not just her finance background but also a...
If you've finished Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, you probably have some strong opinions about the game's multiple possible endings. I feel like saying anything more about that at the top of this article would be irresponsible, but this is a story about one of the game's writers saying that developer Sandfall Interactive is not going to "canonize" one ending over the other, even as they work on future games set in the same universe.
As such, from now on, I'm going to talk as if you have beaten the game and seen at least one of the two endings. Huge spoilers for the ending of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 below the video! Read on at your own risk.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 offers two possible endings no matter how you choose to play the...
It's that time of year again, when the warmer weather starts rolling in and spring sales start popping up. For those looking to add some new games to their library, this is an excellent time to do it. Ahead of its Big Spring Sale on March 25, Amazon already has some great game deals to check out, including a huge discount on Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake on all platforms.
The Xbox Series X version has hit $19.99 at the retailer, while both the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch versions are down to $29.99. These even mark the lowest-ever prices for Xbox, PS5, and Switch, so what better time to grab it?
Save on Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
While the price alone makes Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake well worth picking up right now...
From its gorgeous landscapes, gripping acting, and historically inspired combat animations, 1348 Ex Voto makes a strong first impression in its opening moments, seeming to promise something bold is about to follow. It doesn’t live up to that promise at all, however, quickly abandoning the interesting bits of its story and leaning most of its gameplay on shallow and shoddy combat and mission structures. Even it’s beauty is compromised by bugs and glitches that make playing through it a burdensome vow to keep.
The story of Aeta, the knight errant we pilot through this blood-soaked Black Plague-era hack-and-slash, and her charge Bianca is a bit of a mess. On the whole, it's pretty straightforward: Bianca is meant to be shipped off to a...
With Xbox Project Helix and DLSS 5, the Next Generation Of Gaming Is Going To Be Expensive and Weird
I have been on vacation or sick for most of the last two weeks. In that time, Microsoft soft-announced its next console, Valve gave more information about what the Steam Machine will be able to do, and Nvidia previewed DLSS 5 way before it was ready. Needless to say, a lot of shit has gone down.
When you put all of it together, it starts to paint a picture of the next generation of gaming hardware that looks completely different than anything we’ve seen before. Rather than the similar x86 boxes that we got from the PS5 and the Xbox Series X, it seems like every platform is going to be doing its own thing.
That’d be awesome in normal times, but the times we’re living through are decidedly not normal. RAM and other hardware shortages...
Crimson Desert feels like it was designed in a lab by someone who wanted to combine elements of all their favorite big budget action RPGs into the ultimate video game. It’s got the open-world adventuring of The Witcher 3, the slow horseback conversations of Red Dead Redemption 2, the open-ended puzzle solving of Tears of the Kingdom, and the do-whatever-you-want dynamic world of something like Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto 5. And while it tries to smash all these things I love into one package, it ends up being a jack of all trades but a master of none. The adventuring and combat fall far short of the best open-world RPGs, the dialogue, characters, and story are laughably bad, the puzzles are unintuitive and janky, and the reactivity of...
Vice Studios could soon help Chains, Dallas, Hoxton, and Wolf break into the movie and TV business after acquiring the film and television rights to the Payday franchise.
The company behind Gangs of London announced it was laying the groundwork to bring the popular video game franchise to a new medium as part of a partnership with Starbreeze Entertainment today. No details regarding how the pair will translate co-op heist gameplay for new audiences were revealed, suggesting it will be a while before plans materialize.
“PAYDAY has a world that is bigger than the game itself,” president of Vice Amy Powell said in a statement. “There’s mythology behind the masks and a crew of characters with real history that is incredibly exciting to...