Crimson Desert blocks Intel Arc players and tells them to get a refund

The highly anticipated open-world game Crimson Desert finally launched this week on PC. While many players are jumping right into the action, anyone using an Intel Arc graphics card is completely locked out.

The game simply refuses to start on these specific machines. Instead of promising a quick software fix, the developer is now telling those affected buyers to go ask for their money back.

Why the game will not run for some players

The developers at Pearl Abyss apparently built the game to actively reject Intel hardware. When users with an Intel Arc GPU try to boot the game, they just get a simple error message stating their graphics device is not supported. This hard block impacts both dedicated graphics cards and the integrated graphics found inside many modern Intel computer processors.

Normally, if a game does not officially list a specific card in its system requirements, players can still try to run the software. They might just deal with lower frame rates or minor visual glitches. Simply blocking a major hardware brand entirely from launching the application is a very rare move in the PC gaming space.

Angry fans and no clear fix in sight

The biggest source of frustration for the community is how the studio handled the news. Pearl Abyss did not warn anyone about this total block before the game actually became available to buy. The developer only quietly updated its official website after launch to confirm the lack of support.

That newly added page offers a blunt solution to the problem. The studio tells anyone who bought the game expecting it to work on Intel hardware to check their store’s refund policy. 

Because the developers are pointing people straight to the refund page instead of talking about future patches, many gamers feel the studio has no real plans to ever fix the compatibility issue.

Via Neowin