On a podcast, Powers was reported as ruling out third-party DRM

In an account of the Dropped Frames podcast, Will Powers was reported as saying Crimson Desert would ship without third-party DRM, including Denuvo. The stated reason was CPU load and frame drops in a game with heavy physics and a dense world. The recording.

He described the project as a single-player adventure that does not fit hard online checks. Instead of strict protection, this account said the studio expected people to buy a license to support updates after more than five years of work. Skipping Denuvo was also tied there to future modifications and to the game still launching years later, when activation servers might be gone.

The note dates launch to 19 March 2026. This is how the podcast was reported at the time, before the store page was updated.