Jason Schreier

And that's also the kind of thing that a lot of critics are, I think, more likely to kind of dismiss because because of like the specific things that the game does well versus the things it doesn't do well.

Right, but the specific weaknesses are part of it.

The Crimson Desert has this total nothing-burger story and main character, and then you have to actually really dig into it to start to understand where the cool stuff is.

I don't know, like it's a specific type of game that winds up having this reaction, right?

Like there is a reason that Crimson Desert is having this like this sort of split thing between people who really like playing it and critics and not games in other styles or with like that other games, I guess, that have gotten a 77 on Metacritic.

It's like particular to this to some things about Crimson Desert.

Yeah, I think it's something related to the size of the game for sure.

I'm thinking of that old Mad Max game that came out in the 2010s.

It's the quintessential example of this kind of game where it gets its high 70s maybe or low 80s on Metacritic.

and critics kind of dismiss it as like, ah, it's sort of a mid, you know, check-the-boxes open-world game.

And then a lot of people are like, yeah, but I love check-the-boxes open-world games, and it's really pretty, and it's set in Mad Max, and it's cool, and it's great.

And, like, then it winds up kind of having a longer life and doing better.

And Crimson Desert strikes me as a game like that.

And I also think...

Some people really do love a game that's just beautiful looking, and that game is incredible looking.

It's just graphically amazing, and that does still sell games.

I think a lot of people were drawn to it because when you see it on YouTube,

And someone's like, you know, I don't know, gliding around an exploding building while a dragon is overhead and landing and getting in this crazy fight.

And you're like, what is this game?

I mean, I watched so much footage of it and thought, this looks amazing.