Is Crimson Desert coming to Game Pass? Speculation, potential release date, and more

Crimson Desert launched to a lot of criticism and hate, but managed to turn the tide and eventually sell over four million copies, officially enshrining itself in video game history as a certified smash hit. Though its incredible success is something to genuinely be studied, considering how it got there, many players feel daunted by its big $70 price tag, despite how much content it offers at that cost. In light of that, many wonder if it'll ever come to the Xbox Game Pass service, as so many games out there have. So, here's everything we know. Is Crimson Desert on Game Pass? Everything we know Image via Pearl Abyss At the time of writing, no, Crimson Desert is not available on the Xbox Game Pass, nor has there been any announcement about its potential release. This is primarily because Pearl Abyss, the studio behind Crimson Desert, is separate from Microsoft and isn't either an official partner or a subsidiary of that company. With Pearl Abyss being fully independent from any major publisher, we can expect Crimson Desert to spend many moons on its own, sold across all platforms, including Xbox Series S and X. It has sold over four million copies since it launched on March 19 and is only going to keep growing, much as its user review scores have grown since their initial lukewarm state. However, there are strong precedents in the gaming industry for third-party titles to eventually make their way to the Xbox Game Pass. Titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, neither of which was made by a major first-party Xbox studio, did eventually get added to the service's top tier as huge selling points, probably earning their respective publishers a good chunk of change as well as boosting Microsoft's own subscription model. Cyberpunk 2077 was added to Game Pass on March 10, over five years after its initial launch, while KCD2 came out a week earlier, just a little over a year since first coming out. We can see a huge discrepancy between studios choosing to be featured on Game Pass, though we could justify that with Cyberpunk's long recovery journey, which first had to absolve it of its horrible release. If we go by these examples, we could perhaps expect Crimson Desert to be included with Game Pass by early 2027, if not later. Furthermore, I would also be more inclined to think it'll come to PlayStation Plus or be packaged with some PlayStation deal, as there are no doubt strong links between Sony and Pearl Abyss. The latter's reliance on the PC market, especially when it comes to MMOs, could lean it toward Microsoft and its Windows-based service, though that remains uncertain. As things stand, you're going to have to purchase the game on consoles or on Steam, and that should remain as such for the foreseeable future. The post Is Crimson Desert coming to Game Pass? Speculation, potential release date, and more appeared first on Destructoid.

Apr 2, 2026 - 03:58

Is Crimson Desert coming to Game Pass? Speculation, potential release date, and more

Crimson Desert launched to a lot of criticism and hate, but managed to turn the tide and eventually sell over four million copies, officially enshrining itself in video game history as a certified smash hit.

Though its incredible success is something to genuinely be studied, considering how it got there, many players feel daunted by its big $70 price tag, despite how much content it offers at that cost. In light of that, many wonder if it'll ever come to the Xbox Game Pass service, as so many games out there have.

So, here's everything we know.

Is Crimson Desert on Game Pass? Everything we know

Image via Pearl Abyss At the time of writing, no, Crimson Desert is not available on the Xbox Game Pass, nor has there been any announcement about its potential release. This is primarily because Pearl Abyss, the studio behind Crimson Desert, is separate from Microsoft and isn't either an official partner or a subsidiary of that company.

With Pearl Abyss being fully independent from any major publisher, we can expect Crimson Desert to spend many moons on its own, sold across all platforms, including Xbox Series S and X. It has sold over four million copies since it launched on March 19 and is only going to keep growing, much as its user review scores have grown since their initial lukewarm state.

However, there are strong precedents in the gaming industry for third-party titles to eventually make their way to the Xbox Game Pass. Titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, neither of which was made by a major first-party Xbox studio, did eventually get added to the service's top tier as huge selling points, probably earning their respective publishers a good chunk of change as well as boosting Microsoft's own subscription model.

Cyberpunk 2077 was added to Game Pass on March 10, over five years after its initial launch, while KCD2 came out a week earlier, just a little over a year since first coming out. We can see a huge discrepancy between studios choosing to be featured on Game Pass, though we could justify that with Cyberpunk's long recovery journey, which first had to absolve it of its horrible release. If we go by these examples, we could perhaps expect Crimson Desert to be included with Game Pass by early 2027, if not later.

Furthermore, I would also be more inclined to think it'll come to PlayStation Plus or be packaged with some PlayStation deal, as there are no doubt strong links between Sony and Pearl Abyss. The latter's reliance on the PC market, especially when it comes to MMOs, could lean it toward Microsoft and its Windows-based service, though that remains uncertain.

As things stand, you're going to have to purchase the game on consoles or on Steam, and that should remain as such for the foreseeable future.

The post Is Crimson Desert coming to Game Pass? Speculation, potential release date, and more appeared first on Destructoid.

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