Crimson Desert's less than ideal launch is a distant memory as it hits the 4 million sales milestone

Kliff looking serious
(Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

Crimson Desert's moment is continuing. Pearl Abyss's open-world romp is obtuse and a bit divisive, but that doesn't seem to have been an obstacle. Today, the studio announced that it had hit another sales milestone.

In just shy of two weeks, Crimson Desert has sold 4 million copies—an impressive result for the studio's first singleplayer game.

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I'm not entirely surprised.

Like I said last week when I sang Crimson Desert's praises, it's the exact kind of game that PC players in particular go wild for. It's a big ol' weirdo. But it's also a looker, and a massive open-world affair, launching during a pretty quiet period. The stars really aligned for this one.

Crimson Desert's launch was not without its problems, though. Bizarre design choices, jank and performance issues netted it a Mixed user review rating on Steam initially, though that quickly climbed up to Very Positive, where it has remained.

It took a moment because it's the sort of game that requires players to put the work in, but Peal Abyss has also released several updates and hotfixes over the last couple of weeks, though it's not all been plain sailing.

Over on PCG's hardware team, Andy Edser's been having some issues, despite the patches. Specifically he, and plenty of others, have been dealing with poor ray construction performance and visual glitches.

A lot of folk continue to be put off by the… unusual controls, as well, though Pearl Abyss says it will be making some changes. It's certainly seemed on top of things so far, so if you've been holding out for some more fixes before you jump into Pywel, hopefully you won't have long to wait.

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Fraser Brown
Online Editor

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog. 

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