Crimson Desert hits 276,000 players after new patch, fans ecstatic about tweaks and changes

Pearl Abyss is making good on its promise to release more fixes for Crimson Desert, including one fan-requested feature: summonable mounts. Shortly after the update, the game hit a new milestone on Steam.

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Instead of adding new DLC, expansions, or even mod support to Crimson Desert, developer Pearl Abyss has opted to tweak what's already in the game. The group says that it will continue refining Crimson Desert with new updates, changing the huge open-world fantasy sandbox-based into something that fans want to play.

One of the biggest complaints around Crimson Desert was the controls, which have been tweaked in the recent update. Gamers also wanted changes with the in-game summonable mounts and that's been done too. Pearl Abyss seems quite serious about appeasing fans--they even turned an aerial traversal trick that players were doing into an actual game mechanic. Gamers have responded very well to the update so far.

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Thanks to the positive buzz from the update, Crimson Desert set a new player record on Steam, achieving 276,261 concurrent players on the platform.

This is a big departure to how most RPGs are handled post-launch. Developers will tweak and bugfix with updates after a new game is released--nothing has changed there.

But what makes Crimson Desert's approach unique is that the dev teams aren't actually focusing on future content for the game; they aren't making DLC or expansions so their focus can be fully locked on improving the content, mechanics, and features that are in the game right now.

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This is interesting because the core of Crimson Desert's dev team is now making Pearl Abyss's next game, DokeV, indicating that a post-launch team has been set up for this express purpose.

Typically, after a big RPG is out, the teams will turn their focus on DLC/expansion content in an effort to have content available to sell, and then eventually fold back into a game of the year style all-in-one package that launches a year later, often for a similar retail price as the base game.

But Crimson Desert's approach has capitalized off of the initial strong sales and is using fan feedback as a guide to shape the game moving forward, treating the project as a kind of collaborative, early access-style AAA experience.

Be sure to check the Patch Notes Version 1.01.00 by clicking here.