AWS for Games Blog
Pearl Abyss boosts Crimson Desert game discoverability with Amazon GameLift Streams Instant Play Demos
For video game marketers, few things are more persuasive than putting a game directly into players’ hands. Trailers, screenshots, and cinematic reveals build anticipation, but only playing the game lets fans experience it for themselves before purchasing. Historically, players had to download game demos that were often restricted to certain platforms to trial a game. Amazon GameLift Streams Instant Play Demos removes the need for this download requirement so gamers can stream demos using a browser almost immediately, providing a more seamless demo experience and ultimately making the games more discoverable and accessible.
Game developer and publisher Pearl Abyss learned this firsthand with the release of its demo for their open-world action-adventure game Crimson Desert.
Launched in March 2026, Crimson Desert sold six million units in its first 3 months and earned critical praise. Following that success, Pearl Abyss focused on continuing to expand their audience through a demo that gives people around the world the chance to try it themselves. To be successful, the demo needed to convey the game’s richly detailed world and fast-paced combat.
At 150 GB, Crimson Desert’s file size would likely have to wait hours before they could experience a free demo, even then, developers would probably have had to create a vertical slice build that wouldn’t showcase the full Crimson Desert experience. This led the team to explore streaming solutions.
“Quality was a non-negotiable from our development team, and after much investigation, we found that Amazon GameLift Streams Instant Play Demos delivered a really good, low latency experience and we were able to use our full game build,” said Will Powers, Director of Marketing and PR at Pearl Abyss.
Finding a streaming solution fast enough for real-time play
Powers spent several months evaluating different streaming services to host the Crimson Desert demo but found that most were better suited to turn-based games, where lag has less impact. In an action-driven game such as Crimson Desert, any delay would be far more noticeable, so the demo needed to deliver responsive gameplay throughout. While browsing Twitch, he came across an instant play demo for another game and immediately saw the potential for Crimson Desert.
Using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) global footprint and powerful GPU instances, Amazon GameLift Streams empowers developers to deploy and stream full game content in minutes, without modifications. Instant Play Demos extends that functionality into demos. Players can immediately start experiencing Full HD AAA games from their browser, to explore and determine if they want to invest in the game.
20 minutes of Full HD gameplay, zero downloads
Pearl Abyss developers built a demo that players can use to fully immerse themselves into the world of Crimson Desert. Players can explore part of the game’s expansive open world and experience its movement and combat mechanisms. The demo is hosted on Twitch, where gamers can play for 20 minutes in a desktop browser using a keyboard and mouse or a connected controller.
“Whatever we put in front of our audience needed to be a close representation of the game they would play at home,” emphasized Powers. “We didn’t want the stream to compromise that experience.”
In launching the demo, the AWS team prioritized quick-start streaming, so people can enter the demo almost instantly, typically in less than 1 second. Collaborating closely in optimizing the demo experience, Pearl Abyss and AWS can have builds running within two days. The whole project, from Powers’ discovery of the service to the demo going live, took about a month.
From “try it now” to “buy it now”
Pearl Abyss released the Crimson Desert download-free demo powered by GameLift Streams on September 1, and it quickly became a significant traffic driver to digital storefronts. For Powers, the value of the demo lies in giving evaluating players direct experience of the game, which can help them decide whether to buy it in the moment.
“The response was one of surprise and delight,” Powers concluded. “A lot of people were really wowed by the experience, and when you have a strong product, that drives purchase intent.”
Streaming Crimson Desert to a browser also gives people a chance to experience the game even if they don’t have the hardware capable of running it locally. Ultimately, the AWS-powered demo has given Pearl Abyss something trailers and screenshots can’t: a way to truly experience Crimson Desert immediately, in Full HD. For game marketers, that opens up new possibilities. As streaming technology develops, instant playable demos will become an increasingly important option to introduce games to new audiences and let people try them before deciding whether to buy.
Play the Crimson Desert demo on Twitch.
Get in touch with an AWS for Games representative to learn more about Instant Play Demos with Amazon GameLift Streams.