Since Crimson Desert was first unveiled by developer Pearl Abyss, the gaming world has been pretty enamoured by its impressive open world RPG goodness - but unfortunately, folks are going to have to wait a little longer to go hands on with the game on Xbox.
As part of a recent earnings call, the South Korean game maker has announced a slight delay to Crimson Desert. Previously planned to launch this year, the Xbox RPG will now release in Q1 2026, due to "longer than expected" development timelines.
Here's the word from Pearl Abyss (via Gematsu):
"The launch of Crimson Desert, our first large-scale AAA console game, has been unavoidably delayed by one quarter, from the previously announced schedule. This is due to longer than expected timelines arising from schedule coordination and collaborations with multiple partners for offline distribution, voice-overs, console certification, and other launch preparations. We sincerely apologize for not being able to meet the originally promised fourth quarter launch schedule. Please kindly understand that this is a strategic decision aimed at insuring success on a meaningful scale."
The team went on to say that while it's decided on a Q1 2026 window internally, it's not ready to commit to a new public release date for Crimson Desert just yet. Instead, Pearl Abyss "will announce the date at a more appropriate time based on business considerations", while ruling out an announcement at next week's Gamescom 2025 convention.
If you want to remind yourself of just how good this game is looking so far, we'll throw a meaty gameplay showcase for Crimson Desert down below. You can look forward to this one hitting Xbox Series X and S consoles in early 2026.