Pearl Abyss recently explained why Crimson Desert uses its proprietary BlackSpace engine instead of Unreal Engine 5. The company believes that in-house technology is better suited for building large open worlds, supporting various platforms, and allowing the team to control feature development and update pacing.
Lead Engineer Kim Jin-hwan and Graphics Department Head Yoon Jin-ho stated that the team drew on their experience developing Black Desert while creating the BlackSpace engine, applying technologies such as seamless world loading and large-scale data processing to the new engine.
Crimson Desert was initially conceived as a massive multiplayer online game, so BlackSpace was designed from the ground up with multiplayer requirements in mind. The engine also features a scalable rendering system that helps reduce hardware load when numerous light sources, shadows, and textures are present simultaneously.
Optimization for lower-performance devices is also a key development focus. Pearl Abyss is working to reduce memory usage so that Crimson Desert can run on hardware with limited capabilities, including the Nintendo Switch 2. However, optimizing ray tracing for such devices remains one of the team's major technical challenges.
By adopting a proprietary engine, Pearl Abyss no longer needs to rely on third-party technologies or commercial engine update schedules. Developers can add features as needed, accelerate patch releases, and independently determine the future technical direction of the BlackSpace engine.
Pearl Abyss emphasized that the choice of BlackSpace was not because Unreal Engine 5 failed to meet development needs, but rather to maintain full control over the technical foundation of Crimson Desert. For a project requiring a large open world, multiplayer systems, and multi-platform compatibility, a proprietary engine allows the team to directly adjust underlying solutions and update schedules.