Crimson Desert: the August update was free, the October expansion is $24.99

Search Steam for this game and the listing comes back as Crimson Desert Enhanced[1]. Anyone who bought it in March could reasonably read that as a second product to buy. It is not. Enhanced is the same appid, 3321460, under a name changed in August, and the contents arrived as an update that cost owners nothing[2].

The reason the name is circulating again today is the expansion. Pre-orders for Charting the Unknown opened storefront by storefront through the afternoon of 3 September 2026[3]. On the same day the Steam Korea top sellers chart held the base game at number five and the freshly listed expansion at number eleven[4]. Every figure below was read on 3 September 2026.

A company scattered, and one survivor going to find the rest

The setting is a continent called Pywel and the lead is Cliff, of a mercenary company called the Greymanes. The official Korean page describes a continent already tense with factional rivalry, where the Greymanes were ambushed by their old enemy, the Black Bears, and either killed or scattered[5]. Cliff sets out to gather the survivors. Wonka and Damien travel with him.

The genre line reads open-world action adventure[5]. That means the continent opens up rather than funnelling players down a set corridor, and the order of travel is left to the player. Steam lists single player, achievements, full controller support, DualSense support, quick save and HDR, with no multiplayer entry anywhere on the page[1]. This is a game played alone.

Pearl Abyss developed it and publishes it directly[1]. The company was founded in September 2010, keeps its headquarters in Gwacheon, and lists Black Desert, Black Desert Mobile, Crimson Desert, DokeV and Plan 8 as its own titles[6]. The studio behind a long-running MMO has released a single-player production.

What Enhanced changed, and what it did not cost

The 25 August notice opens by calling Enhanced a free update applied to Crimson Desert[2]. Existing owners update to version 2.00.00 and stop there. In most catalogues the word remaster introduces a new SKU. This one added no product and changed the name on the old one.

The additions sit inside the game. New cutscenes and story scenes were placed across the main quest. German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese gained voice acting, and Arabic gained an interface and subtitles[2].

That last item is worth reading closely if you play in an Asian language. Steam lists fifteen subtitle languages and marks the ones with full audio, and the marked set runs to English, French, German, Spanish (Spain), Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese[7]. Since five of the eight arrived in August, the game shipped in March with spoken dialogue in three languages: English, Korean and Simplified Chinese.

One purchase, and three products standing next to it

The base game lists at $69.99 and sat at $55.99 under a 20 percent discount, with the Deluxe Edition at $79.99 and $63.99[8]. Korean store prices run 79,800 won and 63,840 won, and the Korean Deluxe Edition lists at 92,800 won[1].

After that the game stops asking. Steam records no in-app purchase category and no multiplayer entry, which leaves no structure for a battle pass or a loot box to attach to[1]. Free-to-play titles covered on this site tend to start with the arithmetic of how many pulls guarantee the thing you want. That table does not exist here, because there is nothing to publish odds for.

Three products do sit beside the game on the storefront. The Deluxe Pack lists at 14,500 won, currently 11,600 won, and its description covers armour, horse gear and cosmetic items for Cliff[9]. The Original Soundtrack Volume 1 arrived on 24 April as a separate music product[10]. The third is the expansion that opened for pre-order today, at $24.99 or 27,800 won[11].

The discount currently attached is the first the game has had. The notice of 24 August is titled “Crimson Desert’s first discount begins” and states that all platforms carry a 20 percent reduction for a limited period[12]. Depending on platform and region it closes between 9 and 10 September. Filing $55.99 away as the price of this game will leave you wrong by next week.

One storefront label deserves a note. The Xbox listing carries a line offering in-app purchases under the title[13]. What it points at is the paid DLC above, not a currency sold inside the game, and Steam shows no equivalent marking. Read the label alone and you get the opposite of the actual structure.

Pre-orders opened today, and Mac owners were told to wait

Pre-orders opened at different hours by storefront. The official notice puts PlayStation Store first at 15:00 UTC on 3 September, followed by Steam and the Epic Games Store, with the Microsoft Store at 21:00 UTC[3]. Release is set for 07:00 on 16 October in Asia, the same moment as 22:00 UTC on 15 October in Europe.

The expansion’s own page sets out what it adds. Players sail out to reach new islands, dive underwater for treasure and ruins, rent facilities and improve their housing, and build relationships with the people of Pywel[14]. New chapters for Cliff, Wonka and Damien come with it, and the pre-order bonus is a set of diving suits for the three of them.

One group is left standing outside. Both the expansion page and the pre-order notice state that Charting the Unknown is not offered on the Mac App Store, with a line promising a separate announcement if a Mac release is decided later[14]. A player who paid 63,900 won on the Mac App Store therefore has no checkout to use on 16 October[15]. That sentence is worth reading before choosing the Mac build.

Clearing 150 GB, and a game with no calendar attached

Installation is the first hurdle. The PC minimum is an i5-8500 or Ryzen 5 2600X with a GTX 1060 or RX 5500 XT and 16 GB of RAM; the recommended spec is an i5-11600K or Ryzen 5 5600 with an RTX 2080 or RX 6700 XT[8]. The graphics requirement is modest for a game of this scale. Storage is the part that will not move: 150 GB appears in both columns. The Mac build needs macOS 15.0 or later on an M2 Pro, M3 or M4 and downloads at 124 GB[15].

Age rating is the second hurdle. Korea classifies the game as adults only, with the classification number printed in the footer of the official site[5]. Steam sets required_age to 19 and describes the content as violent and gory, so the store link opens a date-of-birth check first[1]. The Mac App Store rating is 17+[15].

After that the game begins, and how the first hours go varies by player. Nothing here narrows that variance on purpose. There are no login rewards, no daily missions, no season calendar and no other players to keep pace with. Quick save, individual audio adjustment and subtitle options are all listed, so stopping and resuming costs nothing[1]. To be straight about the limits of this review: Pearl Abyss has never published an average completion time, and no invented figure will appear here.

Buy before the sale closes, or wait for the price to come back up

The fit is clear enough. Players who want one payment and no odds tables, who are content to cross a continent alone, and who want the story spoken in Korean, Japanese or Chinese will find the shape of the game agreeable. Steam’s own user reviews stand at 170,400 with 142,744 positive and a summary reading Very Positive[16]. That number comes from buyers rather than from any review outlet, and reads best with that caveat attached.

The misfit is equally clear. Anyone whose first question is whether a friend can join is out of scope, since nothing in the game is multiplayer. So is anyone who cannot clear 150 GB, and anyone the adults-only rating rules out. A player buying on a Mac who also wants the October expansion should not pay today.

Which leaves three moves. Take the base game at $55.99 and revisit the expansion in October, add the pre-order and its diving suits now, or wait for the price to settle back at $69.99 and judge in winter. Pre-orders stay open until 16 October, so a few days with the base game first will not cost you the bonus. What a Mac owner will be able to do on that date rests on a promise of a separate announcement if a Mac release is decided. No such announcement had appeared as of 3 September.

Sources

[1] Valve. Steam app details API, appid 3321460, Korean storefront. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[2] Pearl Abyss. Crimson Desert Enhanced update notice. Official notice, 25 August 2026, 18:25 UTC.

[3] Pearl Abyss. Charting the Unknown pre-order notice. Official notice, 3 September 2026.

[4] Valve. Steam top sellers chart, Korea. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[5] Pearl Abyss. Crimson Desert official site, Korean pages. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[6] Pearl Abyss. Company profile. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[7] Valve. Steam app details API, appid 3321460, supported languages field. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[8] Valve. Steam app details API, appid 3321460, US storefront. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[9] Valve. Steam app details API, DLC appid 4024620, Deluxe Pack. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[10] Valve. Steam app details API, appid 4572870, Original Soundtrack Volume 1. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[11] Valve. Steam app details API, DLC appid 5001840, Charting the Unknown. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[12] Pearl Abyss. Crimson Desert’s first discount begins. Official notice, 24 August 2026.

[13] Microsoft. Crimson Desert on the Xbox store. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[14] Pearl Abyss. Crimson Desert Enhanced: Charting the Unknown official page. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[15] Apple. Crimson Desert Enhanced, App Store lookup data, Korea (id 6747100856). Accessed 3 September 2026.

[16] Valve. Steam user review summary API, appid 3321460. Accessed 3 September 2026.