Crimson Desert’s DLC Delay Is the Right Call for an Open-World Game That Hasn’t Stopped Changing

Crimson Desert has only been out for a little over six months at this point, and in that time, developer Pearl Abyss has continued changing and tweaking the game in significant ways. When Crimson Desert first launched back in March, the discourse surrounding the game was incredibly divisive. Players were initially met with an open-world action-adventure formula that required a steep learning curve, a baffling control scheme, and a barrage of bugs on the PS5. It wasn’t an easy start for Pearl Abyss’ ambitious open-world adventure, but an ongoing series of patches have helped solve some of the game’s problems.

Despite the game not even being a year old yet, Crimson Desert was set to get a DLC on October 15 called Charting the Unknown. Players got some bad news recently, though, after Pearl Abyss announced that the Crimson Desert DLC had been delayed. The good news is that players won’t actually have to wait too much longer. The new release date for Charting the Unknown was pushed back a mere two weeks to October 29. Even though this is good news for fans who have been anticipating this expansion, Pearl Abyss may risk going overboard by introducing so much content in such a small window of time.

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Pearl Abyss Needs to Give Crimson Desert’s New Content Time to Breathe Before Bringing DLCs Into the Mix

There have been a variety of updates that have fixed some of the game’s more glaring issues. One of the best updates to hit the open-world game was the change to Crimson Desert’s controls. This feature was one of the most critiqued parts of the game when Crimson Desert first launched, and Pearl Abyss offering a fix proved that the developer was taking fan feedback to heart. Since launch, the developer hasn’t stopped adjusting the game. That definitely isn’t a bad thing by any means, but it also makes it quite clear that now is not really the time for a DLC launch.

Biggest Changes to Crimson Desert Since Launch

Controller remapping option

Improved story elements

Added cross-save

Difficulty settings

Over 100 mounts and pet options

70 new outfits, items, and equipment

Added more voice languages

Expanded skills for each playable character

Extensive gameplay, UI, and quality of life improvements

Crimson Desert updates have been far more than just simple tweaks to the experience. What Pearl Abyss has done so far this year demonstrates that Crimson Desert hasn’t reached the finished product point that makes additions like DLC make sense. It’s truly impressive how far Crimson Desert has managed to come in such a short amount of time, but taking a moment to let the game settle in with its new content would be a better way to drum up excitement for the game’s first DLC.

Crimson Desert’s Charting the Unknown DLC Should Be Pushed Back Even Further

The reasoning behind Pearl Abyss delaying Charting the Unknown by two weeks is to give the team more time to polish the expansion and make sure it’s stable. That’s great and all, but after so many updates, pushing the launch back a few more months might be even better for the DLC. For a DLC to really pack a punch, developers have to make players crave content. Pearl Abyss has been constantly handing out new content, which doesn’t create that sense of scarcity.

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Take Dragon’s Dogma 2, for example. Dragon’s Dogma 2’s Dark Arisen expansion is coming out two and a half years after the game’s original launch. Now, I’m not saying that Pearl Abyss needs to wait that long before bringing a large-scale content update to Crimson Desert. Waiting as long as Capcom did with Dragon’s Dogma 2 is pretty risky, since a lot of players may have moved on to other games. Delaying Charting the Unknown until Crimson Desert’s one-year anniversary sounds reasonable enough, though.

Pearl Abyss Needs to Avoid Doing Too Much Too Soon

The other downside of releasing a DLC in the midst of significant gameplay and content reworks is that it sets expectations that are going to be harder to meet in the future. If players are bombarded by a flood of updates in addition to a big DLC, the game risks feeling boring once Pearl Abyss has found a good stopping point with Crimson Desert’s improvements. Pearl Abyss has said that Crimson Desert post-launch support is going to keep going as long as the demand is there, but that support needs to be spread out in a way that can be sustained at a healthy pace.

Having the promise of new Crimson Desert content on the way is great, but it’s also important to avoid content overload. Considering the fact that Crimson Desert’s story completion stats reveal that a surprisingly low number of players have beaten the game, fans still clearly have plenty to do and explore before DLC is truly needed.