Will Powers, the public face of Crimson Desert in the west, has hit out at people accusing developer and publisher Pearl Abyss of “hiding” console footage of the hotly anticipated open-world action adventure game, and promised reveals are coming ahead of its release date.
Pearl Abyss has yet to confirm base performance figures for Crimson Desert on consoles, leaving PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S owners wondering how it will perform on their platforms. With the disastrous release of Cyberpunk 2077 still fresh in the memory, and the backlash developer CD Projekt suffered by not showing off the game on last-gen consoles ahead of launch, some have expressed concern that Crimson Desert might struggle on PlayStation and Xbox, and so would prefer to know the performance targets before pre-ordering the game.
Powers, though, has gone on the offensive, taking to social media and to reddit to hit out at the doubters. In response to one person on X / Twitter who accused Pearl Abyss of “still hiding all console footage,” Powers said: “We’re not hiding anything, and I’m sick of having to repeat myself. I’ve repeated 100s of times that we’ll reveal things ahead of launch to give people adequate time to still preorder the game for themselves. We’re saying this openly… Let us cook? Please and thank you. /rant”
Powers later commented on the reddit thread discussing his tweet, clarifying his position: “People have the right to information to make an informed purchase. Simply put, that’s transparency, and that’s what we’re promising. But people demanding information on their timeline is entitlement, and that needs to end.”
That thread, by the way, is a mix of genuine concern and enthusiasm, with some explaining why they’re worried about Crimson Desert on consoles, and others appealing for patience. “I understand it can get frustrating replying and responding to all the people asking for console footage but that’s because we’ve seen this before with Cyberpunk 2077 where they held back console footage until the very last minute and players found out that it was a mess,” said one person. “I wouldn’t call it entitlement but more like precaution and passion. We’re all fans eager to get our hands on the game. I’m sure demanding a few minutes of console footage isn’t asking too much especially as the game’s only two weeks away from launch.”
The situation with Cyberpunk was different, of course, given it released on the last generation of consoles as well as the current (Crimson Desert is PC and current-gen consoles only). But the backlash sent shockwaves throughout the video game industry, and CD Projekt ended up having to issue a public apology for not showing the base PS4 and Xbox One versions of Cyberpunk 2077 before launch. Even now, over five years after Cyberpunk came out, what happened with that game is driving the discourse.
The reason I’ve not pre-ordered your game yet is simple. Not seen it run on a base playstation console.
You only show it on playstation pro with PC.
you have no issues showing it running on PC just not consoles.We still remember @CyberpunkGame on consoles.
— Lukeyguy (@Lukeyguy_) March 4, 2026
“So from a consumer’s perspective, how late before release is a reasonable date for them to reveal console footage?” one person said. “The game comes out in roughly two weeks, we still have not seen much of console let alone the performance. I think it’s fair that consumers want answers when we’re expected to purchase a product,” said another person.
“Thank you for speaking out on that matter. You seem to be convinced that it won’t be another Cyberpunk console launch situation so let’s believe that,” another added. “I think it’s understandable that people rightfully get nervous when devs share footage of only one platform while the game releases on multiple. If it would be a disaster, you would’ve just made everything worse and the trust would be gone completely though.”
“As soon as I see the PS5 runs the game well, you’ll have my money. I’m literally sold [on] everything but performance,” one potential fan said.
Last month, Powers said the developers at Pearl Abyss were doubling down on the “optimization phase” in a bid to get performance as smooth as possible across all platforms ahead of Crimson Desert’s release date. Crimson Desert is due out March 19 priced $69.99. Pearl Abyss recently confirmed it does not contain a cosmetic cash shop nor microtransactions of any kind.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
