Pearl Abyss’ shares dropped by nearly 30 percent soon after reviews for Crimson Desert went live last night.
Pearl Abyss’ single player RPG spin-off from hit Korean MMO Black Desert was one of 2026’s most highly anticipated games thus far, and ahead of release Crimson Desert surpassed 3m Wishlists on Steam alone. However, enthusiasm may have waned a tad since then, with reviews largely sitting at a very middling average.
While some have praised its scope and ambition, others have lamented the game’s story, unresponsive controls, interface and more. At the time of writing, Crimson Desert sits with a Metacritic rating of 78. On OpenCritic, meanwhile, it’s 80. Market expectations were reported to be around the mid-to-high 80s.
With Crimson Desert falling short of review expectations, Pearl Abyss’ share price dipped dramatically overnight. At the time of writing, the company’s shares are down by 27.44 percent (see image below).
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So, can it bounce back?
“Make no mistake, Crimson Desert is a technically proficient game with killer combat (pesky lock-on aside). Yet its characters and story are fatally undercooked. And for all Pywel’s spectacular visual construction which impresses in its gigantic scale and gleaming prettiness, it lacks a certain distinctiveness,” reads Eurogamer’s three star Crimson Desert review.
“Think of The Witcher games: you can practically taste the fetid water, churned-up mud, and hunks of charred meat dined on by noblemen. Those are works of grit, texture, and a genuinely idiosyncratic sense of place. How does Crimson Desert taste? Well, it is not nearly so flavoursome – imagine, instead, a banquet where almost every dish has the faint taste of cardboard, and you have to eat it for what feels like forever.”
