Crimson Desert Bonus Freebie Is Welcome After Rocky Launch

Xbox is offering a brand new Crimson Desert-themed free download for all users following the game’s rocky launch.

With Crimson Desert launching last week with some fairly controversial design and technical issues, it’s safe to say the reaction to the open world game has been fairly mixed.

As a show of good faith, Microsoft has released a few Xbox-exclusive features and freebies for Crimson Desert which players can now take advantage of.

Xbox Adds New Crimson Desert Support For A Load Of Its Features

For starters, a Crimson Desert-themed dynamic background has been added to the Xbox dashboard, featuring animated artwork from the game that can be seen any time you’re navigating the home screen.

Sea of Thieves and Towerborne also add new dynamic backgrounds for Xbox Series X/S, allowing you to customise your home screen however you want.

🧪 New console updates rolling out to Xbox Insiders
🎮 Additional titles now supported on handheld devices
🎨 New dynamic backgrounds to customize your Xbox Series X|S consoles

...and we're just getting started with what's new in the March update: https://t.co/wZqADJY2MR

— Xbox (@Xbox) March 25, 2026

Meanwhile, Crimson Desert has also been added to the Handheld Compatibility Program, along with Towerborne and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.

The Handheld Compatibility Program essentially ensures that games built to run on handheld Windows devices such as the ROG Xbox Ally and Lenovo Legion Go.

In our Kate’s review of Crimson Desert, the game seemed to be pushing her ROG Xbox Ally to the maximum, writing that “Pearl Abyss has done an impressive job when it comes to optimisation. I didn’t struggle with lag, nor did I really encounter any bugs outside of Kliff’s hair disappearing after one in-game death.

“The game didn’t look quite as, let’s say, glossy as I hoped. I played the Steam version of the game on a ROG Xbox Ally X with the game recommending I set textures and graphics options as ‘low’. In doing so, I managed to get Crimson Desert running at between 30 and 40fps.”

Finally, Crimson Desert has also joined the Stream Your Own Game collection, a new feature available via Xbox Game Pass which allows users to stream games that they own using the Xbox Cloud Gaming feature.

This is similar to how you can stream games available on Game Pass, except it works for games that you own on your account.

You can stream games to your console, PC, or any compatible mobile devices.

If you’re interested in reading more about the latest Xbox update, you can check out the full Xbox Wire blog post by going to the website.