Crimson Desert has finally arrived: For some it’s the game of the year, for others it’s a nightmare for the fingers

The market expected a masterpiece, but it got a compromise

Almost as soon as the first reviews were published, the value of Pearl Abyss shares on the South Korean stock market plummeted by almost 30 percent in one day. The price dropped from 65,600 to about 46,000 Korean won, wiping more than $1 billion off the company’s market value. A day later there was an additional drop of ten percent.

The reason for such a panicky reaction lies in the average score of 78 on Metacritic. Although such a result is formally considered “mostly favorable”, the financial market, which invested high expectations in the game, saw it as a failure. According to the Seoul Economic Daily, analysts have predicted that a rating in the range of 85 to 90 is needed to justify a seven-year development cycle and a budget of 133 million dollars. Serkan Toto, CEO of the Kantan Games consulting company, briefly commented that the ratings “apparently weren’t good enough for investors.”

Paradox scores 78 out of 100

Critics acknowledged the game’s technical impressiveness and visual beauty, praising the new “BlackSpace Engine” and the deep, visually attractive combat system. However, the almost unanimous complaint of players and reviewers was the extremely clumsy and unintuitive controls. Gamers complained about the noticeable delay in commands (input lag), which makes the character move “lazily” or “drunk”, and about the confusing layout of keys that goes against industry standards. Actions like jumping and interacting are often on the same key, which leads to frustrating situations. In addition, the story has been criticized as “standard”, while the huge open world, despite beauty, it seems empty.

In the world of film, a score of 78 would be a respectable achievement. But in the video game industry, where almost all big-budget titles are rated in the range of 7 to 10, a score below 80 for a project of this caliber feels like a disappointment. This is also confirmed by the reactions of the players on Steam, where the game currently has “mixed” reviews precisely because of problems with the controls.

The price of inflated expectations

In order to understand such a drastic drop, it is crucial to look at the movement of stocks in the months before the game’s release. Driven by clever marketing and promises of a revolutionary experience, the value of Pearl Abyss increased by approximately 125 percent in a year. Only in the period from the end of December 2025 to the end of January 2026, the stock jumped by more than 50 percent after the announcement that the game was “gold-plated”, that is, ready for production.

That enormous growth created a bubble of unrealistic expectations. Investors did not invest in a good game, butć into a cultural phenomenon and candidate for game of the year. When the reviews showed that Crimson Desert was “just” good, and not an epoch-making game on the level of GTA or Red Dead Redemption, that bubble burst.

The game doesn’t care about panic on the stock market

While investors were frantically selling stocks, gamers were doing the opposite – they were buying the game. Crimson Desert recorded a fantastic commercial start. Moreć pre-orders on Steam sold more than 400,000 copies, bringing in more than $20 million in revenue even before the game was officially released. On the day of its release, it was played simultaneously by more than 239,000 players, and managed to break into the fourth place of the best-selling games on the American PlayStation, right behind giants such as Fortnite and NBA 2K26.

According to the estimates of analysts from Alinea Analytics, the game surpassed the success of upcoming hits like Kingdom Come: Deliverance II in pre-orders almost four times. Total sales despiteč to mixed reviews, it is said that moreć reached two million copies, which shows that the gap between Wall Street’s expectations and the audience’s interest can be huge.