Crimson Desert developer and publisher Pearl Abyss has confirmed the global release time for the hotly anticipated open world action game.
Preload is live now across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, having gone live on March 17. As for the release date, Crimson Desert launches simultaneously worldwide across all platforms on Thursday, March 19, at 3pm PT / 6pm ET / 10pm UK time. We have the breakdown of the global release times below so you can check when Crimson Desert goes live in your timezone.
Crimson Desert global release time:
- Los Angeles: 3pm, March 19
- Dallas: 5pm, March 19
- New York: 6pm, March 19
- Sao Paulo: 7pm, March 19
- London: 10pm, March 19
- Berlin: 11pm, March 19
- Paris: 11pm, March 19
- Cape Town: Midnight, March 19
- Istanbul: 1am, March 20
- Dubai: 2am, March 20
- Singapore: 6am, March 20
- Beijing: 6am, March 20
- Seoul: 7am, March 20
- Tokyo: 7am, March 20
- Sydney: 9am, March 20
In a launch FAQ, Pearl Abyss said Crimson Desert needs an internet connection to complete the initial setup (day one patch) “and ensure they have the latest version of the game.” Once installation is complete, you can play Crimson Desert offline.
As for advanced graphics tech support, Crimson Desert supports FSR 3/4 and DLSS 4/4.5 on PC, Upgraded PSSR for PS5 Pro, and FSR 3 for the PS5 base model and Xbox Series X and S. It also features support for AMD FSR Ray Regeneration and Nvidia DLSS Ray Reconstruction on PC versions. Frame generation (FSR, DLSS and MetalFX) is only supported on PC/Mac, as you’d expect, and Crimson Desert supports MetalFX Upscaler, Frame Generation, and Denoiser on Mac.
You can buy Crimson Desert on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Pro, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox on PC, Steam (PC & Mac), Epic Games Store, Mac App Store, and GeForce NOW. Cross-save is not available. Crimson Desert on PC supports Xbox controllers and the DualSense controller (USB only).
So far, we’ve seen Crimson Desert running on PC, PlayStation 5 Pro, and, earlier this week, we finally got a look at Crimson Desert running on base PS5. However, Pearl Abyss has yet to show Crimson Desert running on any Xbox console. Full specs for Crimson Desert on PS5 and Xbox have been confirmed, with performance, balanced, and quality modes detailed for all consoles except the Xbox Series S, which lacks a balanced option.
The console versions of Crimson Desert have come under intense scrutiny, with Pearl Abyss accused by some of hiding the PlayStation and Xbox versions prior to launch — something that sparked fears of a Cyberpunk 2077-style debacle, where CD Projekt’s game’s lesser-powered and buggy console versions were not shown at all before release.
Earlier this month, Pearl Abyss marketing chief Will Powers called on fans to “let us cook” and show the console version when it was ready. “We’re not hiding anything, and I’m sick of having to repeat myself,” Powers said. “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”
While you wait to play, check out IGN’s final Crimson Desert hands-on preview, and our launch interview with Will Powers.
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.
