Is Crimson Desert multiplayer?

Is Crimson Desert multiplayer or singleplayer? Crimson Desert comes out soon and while there's a lot of footage going around revealing the moment-to-moment gameplay and combat, there's still a lot of uncertainty about where it's an online multiplayer game or not, especially as it has an increasingly tenuous link to the MMO Black Desert Online. I'll explain whether or not you can play Crimson Desert online or with other people below, as well as how it actually links to Black Desert.

Is Crimson Desert an online multiplayer game?

A man riding on horseback over a lush green field, riding toward a distant city beneath blue skies — (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

No, Crimson Desert is a singleplayer game, not a multiplayer one. Much of the confusion seems to come partly from a certain lack of clarity in some of the marketing material, but also due to the fact that Crimson Desert has links to Black Desert Online.

To explain, BDO is a 2015 online MMO and Crimson Desert was initially planned and spoken of as a sequel to that game, early in its development. Over time however, plans for Crimson Desert have changed, and it has morphed into something very different from those original plans. Now it is not multiplayer, and not even set in the same universe/canon as Black Desert Online, effectively becoming its own distinct standalone game with barely any ties that we know of, beyond some shared foundational concepts and a similar name. In fact, Crimson Desert won't even have microtransactions, as revealed in an interview with the game's PR and Marketing Director.

Want to prepare yourself for the harsh world of Pywel? Check out all the Crimson Desert weapons revealed so far!

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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.

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