First PS5 Pro Gameplay for Crimson Desert Revealed, But Base Console Versions Remain Unseen

Fans of the upcoming open-world epic Crimson Desert have finally gotten their first glimpse of the game running on PlayStation 5 Pro, thanks to a detailed analysis from Digital Foundry. This comes after some players voiced concerns about how the ambitious title would perform on consoles.

Digital Foundry's John Linneman was clearly impressed, describing the PS5 Pro version as "a stunning game" with fully implemented ray tracing and beautiful water effects. The tech experts confirmed that the game meets the performance targets outlined by developer Pearl Abyss, though they're reserving final judgment for the launch version.

Linneman noted that Performance Mode "puts up a good fight," generally maintaining its 60fps target. "I was surprised by how good it was overall," he added. However, frame rate drops do occur in crowded scenes with many NPCs or enemies, and occasionally in quieter areas. During a major early battle, the frame rate dipped "significantly" into the 30s, with similar results possible in large cities. Linneman emphasized this is "not the norm at all," and found the 30fps and 40fps modes more stable overall. He recommends the 40fps or 60fps options, noting the 30fps mode feels less responsive—possibly a deliberate design choice for the game's "heavy" gameplay feel.

Notably, we still haven't seen Crimson Desert running on base consoles, including the less powerful Xbox Series S. Digital Foundry mentions this in their video, expressing hope that we'll get to see these versions soon.

Digital Foundry chief Richard Leadbetter told IGN: "When Pearl Abyss offered us the chance to take a look at the PS5 Pro version with no limitations, we jumped at it. My main concern was CPU demands. Yes, it can be demanding, but overall performance across the three modes is impressive. More impressive is the game's scale, scope, and systems-driven open world. The high-end PC experience scales well to PS5 Pro, and we're looking forward to seeing the other console versions."

Earlier this week, Pearl Abyss detailed how Crimson Desert will run on consoles just over a week before its March 19 launch. As expected, there's a wide range of performance benchmarks across consoles, from Xbox Series S to PlayStation 5 Pro. For each machine—including base PS5 and Xbox Series X—the developer has provided details for up to three modes (Performance, Balanced, and Quality), including resolution, target frame rates, and ray tracing quality.

The console versions have recently faced scrutiny, with some fans accusing Pearl Abyss of hiding PlayStation and Xbox versions before launch—sparking fears of a Cyberpunk 2077-style situation where problematic console versions weren't shown pre-release.

Last week, a spokesperson for the highly-anticipated game asked fans to "let us cook" and promised to reveal the console version when ready, despite being just days from launch. "We're not hiding anything," said Pearl Abyss spokesperson Will Powers. "I've repeated hundreds of times that we'll reveal things ahead of launch to give people time to preorder. Let us cook? Please and thank you."

Last month, Powers stated that developers were intensifying the "optimization phase" to ensure smooth performance across all platforms. Crimson Desert launches March 19 priced at $69.99, with Pearl Abyss confirming it contains no cosmetic cash shop or microtransactions of any kind.