Crimson Desert Patches Poll
Image: Push Square

Let's be real, the release cadence for Crimson Desert patches has been insane.

In all of our years writing about video games, we've basically never seen such meaningful updates drop so quickly. Since its launch on the 29th March, Crimson Desert has pretty much received one big patch every week or so — and there are no signs of this schedule slowing down anytime soon.

Again, these aren't your usual bug-squashing hotfixes — these have been meaty, full-on title updates that make significant changes to the experience, and even provide brand new content.

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So many of these improvements have been driven by player feedback, too — so you've got to consider just how effectively developer Pearl Abyss has been able to not only identify key issues, but address them within the space of just 15 days.

We don't know how much of the studio's actually working on all of this post-launch support, but the effort, and the subsequently rapid turnaround, surely must be applauded.

But there's a difference between praise, and weaponising Pearl Abyss in an attempt to dunk on other developers.

Crimson Desert Patches Poll

Across social media and in our own comments sections, we've seen a growing sentiment that the Korean company is putting its peers to shame. And honestly, it can be difficult to argue against such a claim.

Case in point: Starfield launched just last week on PS5, and it's becoming abundantly clear that the game's got a fundamental stability issue that can cause frequent crashes. The fix is supposed to be coming this week, but it's damning that the sci-fi title shipped in such a state to begin with.

Now obviously, Starfield is an extreme example; not every new release hits PS5 in a barely functional form.

But from our perspective, the groundswell of public positivity for Pearl Abyss is rooted in two key factors: the speed at which Crimson Desert is receiving updates — as mentioned — and the developer's ongoing communication with players.

In a world where so many studios and publishers give fans the silent treatment until they're absolutely sure that their next update is ready to roll, Pearl Abyss' commitment to laying out expectations is a breath of fresh air.

There is another side to this, though, and it really should be considered when looking at Crimson Desert from an objective standpoint. Indeed, this is a game that was, and still is, full of things that could, and should, be improved upon.

Crimson Desert Patches Poll

Technical performance, quality of life, gameplay balance, accessibility options, controller layouts — we could sit here all day and list ways in which the title could be bettered.

And this leads to the suggestion that Crimson Desert simply released in an unfinished state, and perhaps the idea that Pearl Abyss had the majority of these updates locked and loaded well ahead of time.

Tinged with conspiracy though it may be, it's not utterly unrealistic to think that the developer had a lot of this stuff banked for the sake of positive post-launch publicity.

Crimson Desert didn't release broken or anything like that, but it did drop with plenty of scope for improvement — the kind of improvement that, you'd imagine, would have been picked up on during development.

And so we're here to ask: what are your thoughts on Crimson Desert's patch policy up until this point? Just how much praise does Pearl Abyss deserve? Vote in our polls, and then update your opinion in the comments section below.

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