When Pearl Abyss' PR director Will Powers shrugged off raw numbers and promised that Crimson Desert's continent of Pywel is "absolutely massive," he wasn't doing the usual marketing puffery: the team followed up with a pair of blunt comparisons. In a New Game+ Showcase interview Powers said the playable area is at least twice the size of Skyrim's world and larger than Red Dead Redemption 2's map.
That claim landed at the start of 2026 as the studio ramps toward a March 19 release, and it raises two obvious questions: how do you fill so much space, and how do you move around it without spending half your time walking?
How big is Pywel — and why that matters
Saying something is "twice the size of Skyrim" invites eye-rolls, but the shorthand matters because Skyrim and RDR2 are reference points for players who have spent long hours in sprawling landscapes. More space can mean more discovery, more emergent stories and, if handled poorly, a lot of empty kilometers.
Powers anticipated that criticism. "Size doesn't really matter if there's nothing to do," he said, stressing that the studio is focused on interactivity and filling Pywel with activities, distractions and lore-rich locations. Pearl Abyss' previews — the portions shown to press, he added — are just "a tiny corner of the map," which suggests the studio plans to stagger reveals rather than dump the entire world on players at once.
Travel, verticality and weird toys
Pearl Abyss isn't betting purely on horizontal sprawl. Crimson Desert features vertical elements such as sky islands that tie into the game's lore and traversal systems that go beyond horses: players can ride raptors, bears and dragons, and even pilot a mech in certain sequences, according to developer comments and preview write-ups. Dragon flight, in particular, is an obvious quality-of-life solution: when your map is that large, giving players aerial mobility keeps exploration fun instead of tedious.
Mechanics mentioned in media coverage include a deep crafting system, player housing, cooking, and the odd civic activity — like capturing enemies and turning them over to local authorities for rewards. One detail that stood out: the studio doesn't expect traditional RPG decision trees to carry the whole role-playing weight. Instead, Powers says players will create character identity through how they spend their time and which distractions they follow, forming "head canon" as they go.
Cloud play and platforms
Crimson Desert will launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Steam) and Apple Mac on March 19, 2026. NVIDIA confirmed at CES 2026 that the game will join GeForce NOW's streaming lineup, which should make the title playable on lower-end hardware and a wide range of devices without long downloads. If you follow the cloud-streaming conversation around console libraries and hardware, that ties into recent streaming developments for consoles like the PlayStation Portal and other remote-play services which have been expanding lately. For players who like portable PC play, improvements in handheld download and power behavior have been in focus for other platforms, too — an area that's relevant when streaming or running large open-world titles on the go Steam Deck recently gained a low-power download mode that makes long transfers less awkward.
If you're planning ahead and want to pre-order a console to play at launch, the game will be available on PS5 — for readers still hunting consoles, the PlayStation 5 Pro is one obvious option to consider.
Size isn't a shortcut to good design
History is mixed when big maps meet thin content: some games use every inch to tell smaller stories, while others fill space with repetitive fetch chores. Pearl Abyss is pitching Crimson Desert as the former. Beyond traversal and activities, the developer has talked about varied atmospheres across regions, puzzles on sky islands and a cinematic single-player focus — a combo aimed at making exploration consistently worthwhile.
There are other curiosities, too: previews and press assets hint at large-scale battles and cinematic set pieces, and on a tonal level the game mixes fantasy and steampunk elements, which gives environmental design license to get creative across its vast terrain.
Expectations will become clearer as the studio releases more hands-on footage and reviewers get time with the fuller map. Until then, the headline is simple: Pywel is enormous on paper, and Pearl Abyss says it's built to feel lived-in rather than just big. Whether that promise pays off will depend on the density of meaningful content and how well tools like dragon flight keep exploration fun instead of a slog.
Crimson Desert arrives March 19, 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam and Apple Mac. For cloud gamers, NVIDIA's GeForce NOW will host the title following CES' announcement.