It was a busy weekend for Crimson Desert. Released on Thursday of last week, the game has become a topic for debate for the larger gaming internet. It is divisive, to say the least. You can read Game Informer‘s Crimson Desert review here.
On Saturday, developer Pearl Abyss released a statement after clear examples of genAI art assets were found to have been used in the game. You can see the full statement below:
We would like to address questions regarding the use of AI in Crimson Desert.
During development, some 2D visual props were created as part of early-stage iteration using experimental AI generative tools. These assets helped us rapidly explore tone and atmosphere in the earlier…
— Crimson Desert (@CrimsonDesert_) March 22, 2026
In the statement Pearl Abyss wrote, “This is not in line with our internal standards, and we take full responsibility for it,” adding, “We sincerely apologize for these oversights.” According to the statement, the assets were included early in development to “rapidly explore tone and atmosphere” and were erroneously left in the final game. The statement also promises that a thorough audit is being conducted on the game to remove the offending assets, and that those assets will be removed in future patches.
And speaking of patches, Pearl Abyss also launched Crimson Desert’s first big one. The patch is available now on PC (and you can read all the patch notes here) and will also be available on both Xbox and PlayStation today at 2:15 UTC and 8:15 UTC, respectively. To read about Crimson Desert’s pre-patch console performance, you can find our impressions of both platforms here. The short version of that article is that my colleague Wesley LeBlanc and I welcome patches to the console version of the game.
The most noticeable element of the patch, according to Pearl Abyss, is, “We’ve adjusted some gamepad and keyboard/mouse controls, increased Health restored from food and items, and added new item storage in the Howling Hill Camp.”
The full patch list is dense and includes elements like speeding up the time it takes to acquire knowledge, trees can be chopped with just swinging and not aiming first, some puzzles have been tweaked for clarity, as well as very specific bugs, like when a cat would stop leading the way for a mission in chapter two.
Again, you can read Game Informer‘s Crimson Desert review here, but you can also watch our video version of the review below.
It’s great to see Crimson Desert taking responsibility and addressing the concerns about AI art. The first big patch shows commitment to improving the game, and it’s exciting to see how it evolves. Looking forward to what’s next!
It’s encouraging to see developers listening to their community. The patch not only shows accountability but also highlights the importance of balancing technology with creative integrity in gaming. I’m curious to see how they’ll incorporate player feedback in future updates!