Crimson Desert Ships with Denuvo and a Mandatory 48GB Day-One Download
Pearl Abyss added Denuvo DRM to Crimson Desert just one week before its March 19 launch, and physical copies revealed the disc only holds about 60% of the game's data.
Crimson Desert is launching on March 19 across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC - but the lead-up to release has been anything but smooth. Pearl Abyss quietly added Denuvo DRM to the PC version just one week before launch, triggering immediate backlash from players concerned about performance hits, particularly on older hardware.
The last-minute addition follows a familiar and frustrating pattern in PC gaming. Denuvo has a well-documented history of drawing criticism over potential CPU overhead, and announcing it with so little notice gave players no time to factor it into their purchase decisions. The studio has not publicly addressed the pushback.
If you were planning to pick up a physical copy and skip the download queue, there are more bad news. Early copies reveal that the disc contains only roughly 60% of the game's data. A mandatory 48GB download is required before the game will even launch, with a total install size landing around 150GB.
Whether the game lives up to that scale remains to be seen when it releases on March 19. For now, PC players should go in knowing Denuvo is in the package, and anyone buying physical on console will want a fast internet connection ready to go.