Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss has confirmed that a patch is in the works to resolve the ongoing issues with controls after many players reported discomfort while playing. Although it’s frustrating that this issue has plagued the early Crimson Desert experience for many players, it’s good that the developer is acting quickly to fix it.
Overall, Crimson Desert has been pretty polarizing so far. Though there has been plenty of praise for the game and its vast, ambitious world, other areas such as the narrative have come in for plenty of criticism. The controls have also left many gamers feeling the need to vent their frustrations online, with multiple instances of players needing to use multiple inputs for basic actions. For example, on Xbox Series X/S, players press LB and A to interact with items, which in most games in the genre would be one button press. Doing this constantly is grating on players, and the fact that there is no in-game option to rebind the controls manually makes the issue even worse.
Crimson Desert Physical Version Has a Big Catch
Crimson Desert’s physical version comes with an unexpected limitation that means players won’t be able to jump in right away.
Crimson Desert Controls Patch is On the Way After Player Complaints
In a statement on X, developer Pearl Abyss confirmed that it was aware that the Crimson Desert controls were causing issues for players, and said that it is “currently preparing a patch to address this.” The studio also said that it is sorry for “not providing keyboard and mouse players with a satisfactory gameplay experience,” and reiterated the fact that it is “taking your feedback seriously.” It’s not clear at this point exactly what form this will take, whether it be improved inputs out of the box, or whether it will give players the option to rebind the controls themselves for a more customized experience. There’s also no indication of when players can expect these improvements to be released in a future patch for the brand-new open-world RPG, but it’s a positive sign that the developer is already on the case.
The decision to resolve Crimson Desert‘s control problems is a change in tune from the developer. Just after its launch, one Pearl Abyss employee described it as being “like riding a bike,” suggesting that Crimson Desert‘s controls will come naturally to players after they have some more time with the game. While it’s certainly true that most players will adapt over time, it’s still always going to be better to give players the choice to change the controls to something that suits them more. Giving players more customization in situations like this is very rarely a bad thing.
Crimson Desert players have not been shy in sharing their feedback about the RPG with Pearl Abyss at these early stages. For example, many players wish Crimson Desert had custom characters after protagonist Kliff has proven unpopular with some. Issues such as clunky controls are always going to take priority over more sweeping overhauls like this, but it will be very interesting to see how much the developer is able to resolve in the coming weeks and months.
- Released
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March 19, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
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Pearl Abyss
- Publisher(s)
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Pearl Abyss
