In 2025, the video game industry in the United States made more than $60 billion. An industry that decades ago was accused by numerous media outlets of manipulating and atrophying young minds, inducing them to commit random acts of violence and engage in antisocial behavior. Over time, news outlets surrendered to the power of the monster they had sworn to protect us from, and after years of evolution, they changed again, mutating into specialized gaming media. The effect Crimson Desert had during its March release was, without a doubt, a reminder that the spirit of those old outlets remains, once more, motivated by fear and profit.
Crimson Desert is the result of seven years of development of Black Space, a state-of-the-art graphic engine produced by Pearl Abyss, a Korean company, that brings huge amounts of details to world scenarios including hair and cloth dynamics, water flow, volumetric fog, and atmospheric scattering interacting naturally at users’ sight, increasing the level of realism at a scale never seen before. In simpler words, a gamer’s wet dream displayed at an open-world scale.
On the day of release, March 19, 2026, Pearl Abyss’s shares dropped by more than 13%, losing nearly a third of their market value. Was SONY’s invisible hand behind this due to the Crimson Desert executive team’s refusal to platform the game exclusively for the PlayStation console? Is a question that few have wondered about.
Buying Narratives
The amount of hate Crimson Desert received in its first days of release reminds me of that received by similar games such as Stellar Blade, Black Wukong, and The First Descendant. What do all these games have in common? Besides being Triple A, and exquisitely designed? They are all produced by foreign companies that have shown they are capable of competing in the US and global markets.
However, Crimson Desert is particularly interesting because of its total rejection of Sony’s offering. As a consequence, instead of letting the rules of the free market do its job and drive game sales in line with consumers’ preferences, the corporate gaming news outlets in the US and Europe suddenly, to this writer’s surprise, reviewed the game negatively in unison.
A group of critics based in the US and London decided that Crimson Desert’s technical achievement was simply not worth it. Yes, the corporate media that include minions such as IGN, Eurogamer, and VG247, who claim to be independent news (although, what actual gamer believes that IGN in particular is independent? I have no idea), whacked Crimson Desert launch to the floor, scoring it low and flagging it as a game that did not meet expectations.
Is this a coincidence? Or was it premeditated? I’ll let you decide that.
What I can tell you is that in May 2024, IGN, a property of Ziff Davis, bought Game Network, housing the gaming media companies mentioned above under the same roof, including ‘Rock, Paper, Shotgun’ too. And we all know how those guys are, too.
If the biggest gaming news outlets agree on their verdict, we need to remember this as a warning, a desire to retain dominance over an industry clamoring for new products and innovation.
A Game Sucess is Determined by Gamers
The negative of Pearl Abyss’s decision to become a Sony exclusive to retain all its profits by launching the game simultaneously on Xbox and Steam was a slap to the corporate giant. Previous gaming news scores for games such as the Dragon Age 9/10 (editor’s choice), and Concord’s 7/10 by IGN makes this suspicion even stronger, revealing an interest to drive you towards specific types of games that no longer have the traditional player in mind, but that follow particular agendas, sometimes political and commercial, unwelcome for the majority of truly game lovers.
Crimson Desert belongs to a new generation of games that demands exploration and depth, time, evaluation, and patience. In contrast, gaming news outlets have used this against it, branding it stale and infuriating, precisely because they are not playing the game as it is: an RPG. A game that demands using abilities and constant equipment modification and upgrade to achieve the full character potential. Such tactics are easily spotted by other gamers, who have quickly uncovered these suspicious reviews that unfairly condemn the game.
Crimson Desert is not perfect, but it’s certainly not a 6/10. Western news outlets need to chill out, play hard, and accept competition. The change is inevitable, and gamers know it.
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