Trending
Following yesterday's disappointing review reception of long-awaited action adventure Crimson Desert, the developer and publisher Pearl Abyss saw their shares dropped 28.96% in early trading on March 19, falling to 46,600 KRW from the previous session, which can be seen as nothing but a swift (and perhaps a bit of a knee-jerk ) reaction from investors to the game's Metacritic score landing below everyone's expectations.
The game currently sits at 78 on Metacritic, a score that, while not poor by any objective measure, fell short of the mid-to-high 80s range that the market obviously expected. Crimson Desert spent approximately seven years in development, with reported development costs of around 200 billion won, making the stakes around its reception unusually high.
Add major marketing campaigns across the United States, some big pre-release showcases which unveiled a new mechanic every couple of days and yeah, the expectations and hype will only continue to rise.
However, where it mattered the most, the reviews from the press and content creators have been divided. Several outlets, including Forbes and Comicbook praised the game's scale, combat, and visual ambition. Others, including Eurogamer, VG247, and PCGamesN, cited a weak story, clunky systems, and technical issues as significant drag on the experience.
Despite this, it is well worth noting that a 78 on Metacritic is a generally favourable score by critical standards, so if Crimson Desert was a game you desperately wanted to play, you should still check it out, but perhaps wait for a price drop.
For Pearl Abyss, the problem was not that the game reviewed badly in absolute terms, but that the gap between expectation and reality was wide enough to spook investors.
And obviously, in the end, it's all about how many copies the game sells - If you see Crimson Desert's Steam playercount skyrocket to 300, 400k players on launch day, that will probably mean the stock will see some recovery.
The game launches globally on March 19 across PC, Mac, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and GeForce Now.
Crimson Desert screenshots
