Why Crimson Desert Does Not Use Unreal Engine 5

The developers of Crimson Desert have explained why Pearl Abyss used its proprietary BlackSpace Engine instead of Unreal Engine 5. This choice allows the team to release updates faster, maintain control over the technology, and adapt it for different platforms.

In an interview, Lead Engineer Jin-hwan Kim and Head of Graphics Division Jin-ho Yoon discussed the creation of the BlackSpace Engine. According to them, the engine inherited experience from Black Desert, including seamless world loading and the handling of large data volumes.

Crimson Desert was originally planned as an MMO, so BlackSpace was built with multiplayer support from the start. The developers also use scalable rendering to reduce the load when dealing with large numbers of light sources, shadows, and textures.

Special attention was given to lower-end systems. Pearl Abyss is trying to reduce memory consumption and is working on running the game on low-spec devices, including the Switch 2. At the same time, optimizing ray tracing for weaker hardware remains a difficult task.

The developers explained that bypassing a commercial engine stems from a desire to avoid depending on third-party technologies and updates. Proprietary technology makes it possible to implement necessary features and release patches more quickly while maintaining control over the development process.