Pearl Abyss explained the presence of Denuvo in Crimson Desert: all tests were conducted with this protection

Pearl Abyss quietly added Denuvo to Crimson Desert's system requirements a week before launch. There was no formal announcement; players noticed the change themselves and reaction was swift. Threads calling for pre-order cancellations popped up on Steam, while the game's subreddit racked up hundreds of comments within hours.

Most of the outcry focused on performance — Denuvo has been blamed for slowdowns in other titles, e.g., CPU-bound frame dips and longer load times reported by users. A number of studios later dropped the protection after such complaints, but Pearl Abyss opted for a different path this time.

According to the developer, Denuvo was embedded in the build from day one; even Digital Foundry's recent technical analysis used that same protection. Pearl Abyss says all benchmarks and tests were run with the final Denuvo implementation, i.e., the measurements reviewers posted should reflect what buyers get.

That said, the company failed to highlight the presence of Denuvo when the Steam page went live and during a recent podcast. The omission helped spread the idea that Crimson Desert would ship DRM-free — a story that collided with the late post of the system-requirements change, leaving some players feeling misled.