Pearl Abyss confirmed in its latest earnings letter that Crimson Desert's first DLC is targeting a release before the end of 2026 and buried in the same update is a line about the studio "pondering" multiplayer modes for the game. Neither is a huge surprise if you've been following the game since its March launch, but having it in writing from the studio itself is a different thing than fan speculation.
The DLC Timing, and Why "Imminent" Is a Stretch
Both Push Square and Forbes are running with the framing that DLC is "imminent," but pump the brakes a little on that word. What Pearl Abyss actually said is that it's "preparing DLC, pricing strategies, and platform expansion for long-term performance," with DLC content direction and quality still under review, targeting a year-end release. Given we're already past the halfway point of August, "year-end" gives them roughly four months of runway that's not exactly next week.
Still, four months is fast by RPG DLC standards, especially for a studio's first major post-launch expansion of a brand-new IP. Crimson Desert only launched on March 19, 2026, so getting real paid content out within the same calendar year is an aggressive pace.
Multiplayer: An Idea, Not a Feature
The multiplayer talk is the more interesting thread here, and it's worth being precise about what was actually said versus what's being implied. Pearl Abyss's own language, as quoted by Forbes, was that "given Crimson Desert's dynamic action combat and expansive open-world structure, there is significant potential for expansion into multiplayer modes," while noting that "integrating multiplayer functionality is far more complex" than it sounds.
That's a studio acknowledging an idea exists, not a studio announcing a feature. Multiplayer in a game built from the ground up as single-player is a genuinely hard retrofit you're not just adding netcode, you're rethinking combat balance, world state, and progression systems that were designed around one player's choices mattering. Pearl Abyss knows this, which is probably why the language is so hedged.
Patch 1.17.00: A Quiet Bug-Fix Pass
Separate from the DLC news, Crimson Desert got patch 1.17.00 on August 7. This one's not flashy it's cleanup work:
- Fixed overlapping footstep sounds and animation stutter while moving
- Fixed unobtainable treasure chest icons showing up on the map
- Fixed trade routes displaying incorrectly on the map
- Localization fixes across all supported languages
Pearl Abyss also updated its known-issues list alongside the patch, flagging that fish caught in certain areas can get stuck unable to move, and that Greymane faction quests can't progress while playing as Damiane or Oongka. Those are still open bugs, not fixed ones worth knowing if you're mid-quest with either character.