Crimson Desert has formally gone free-to-play to have a good time the profitable launch of its new DLC enlargement
The 2026 Sport of the 12 months contender released Charting the Abyss on October 29, including a brand-new space to the sport’s already absurdly massive map.
Crimson Desert isn’t my cup of tea by any means, however to offer credit score the place it’s due, Pearl Abyss did an excellent job with the sport’s open world. It’s monumental, appears to be like beautiful and appears to have simply sufficient to do for those who’re keen to place the hours in.
Its open-world scale is a double-edged sword, although. As spectacular as it’s, the sheer measurement of it was simply an excessive amount of for me with all the opposite AAAs we’ve had this yr; the identical’s true for different avid gamers.
Luckily, for those who’re unwilling to purchase a full-priced, 250+ hour RPG with out understanding for those who’ll prefer it first, a free five-hour trial is on the market now on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Collection X/S.
The right way to play Crimson Desert free of charge on PlayStation and Xbox
Accessing the free trial is easy, however Xbox customers are going to have a better time.
For PlayStation customers, you want a sound subscription to PlayStation Plus with the intention to play it, whereas Xbox homeowners can simply play it outright.
5 hours ought to be lots to find out whether or not the sport is best for you, and also you’ll be experiencing it at its finest as nicely as a result of the model playable is the upgraded Enhanced Version.
Do you have to take pleasure in your time with the sport and buy it, your progress from the trial will carry over to the total recreation, so that you received’t have to begin over. That’s a godsend as a result of the early elements of the sport might be fairly tutorial-heavy and also you received’t need to replay them.
There are a couple of limitations for the demo, nonetheless. For starters, you’ll be able to’t endlessly replay it. As soon as your fives are up, you’ll both should ditch the sport solely or purchase the total model to maintain enjoying.
It additionally doesn’t embody entry to the Charting the Unknown DLC. This isn’t an enormous drawback, to be trustworthy, as that’s late-game content material anyway. You wouldn’t need to play it in your first 5 hours.
All in all, this is a superb and beneficiant taster from Pearl Abyss. What’s extra, you’ve obtained loads of time to play it, because the free trial will likely be accessible nicely into subsequent yr.
PlayStation customers can entry it from the time of writing to October 27 2027, whereas Xbox customers have considerably much less time. Their trial will disappear on January 7 2027.
Crimson Desert is definitely one of many higher video games to launch this yr, and whereas it’s a straightforward Sport of the 12 months contender, it nonetheless has steep competitors. The Sport Awards 2026 goes to be an attention-grabbing present.
READ NEXT: The Game Awards 2026: Date, UK and US start time, tickets and how to watch