Whereas my family remains to be in mourning over the premature demise of Disney Infinity, the previous film studio and now cultural monopoly has at the moment unveiled a brand new online game that, if Disney is your factor, could be very a lot catering in the direction of your issues.
Right here’s the trailer for Disney Dreamlight Valley, displaying off a recreation—described by the builders as a “life-sim journey”—that’s as impressed by Animal Crossing as it’s The Sims:
That’s the excellent news! This multiverse shit is precisely what Disney followers are into, which explains the success of all the pieces from Kingdom Hearts to (initially) Disney Infinity to…properly, Disneyland itself. I confirmed this trailer to my spouse and daughter this morning they usually misplaced their minds, one for the informal crossovers between movies, the opposite as a result of it appeared like Animal Crossing, solely with Anna selfies.
And I gotta admit, for what that is taking pictures for—not a online game, however an train within the exploration of a fandom—it appears to be like cool as hell. Do I wish to play a fishing minigame? Eh, I may take it or go away it. Do I wish to go fishing with Goofy? Sure. Right here’s extra from the sport’s official pitch:
We’re significantly happy with the sport’s expansive, engrossing, story-driven marketing campaign. The Disney and Pixar characters you meet have their very own distinctive individualized story arcs and friendship objectives, each of which you’ll fulfill via exploration, gift-giving, and different enjoyable actions the place you’ll get to know your folks in new methods.
Your days shall be stuffed with all the pieces from whipping up delectable Disney-themed desserts in your village restaurant alongside Remy from Disney and Pixar’s Ratatouille, utilizing your newest catch out of your time on the fishing gap with Goofy, in addition to greens you planted and harvested from Wall-E’s backyard patch.
As you assist your new buddies, you’ll regularly start to take away the night time thorns round Dreamlight Valley with the facility of your inside magic leading to new areas with new characters opening up so that you can discover.
Better of all, we’ll be frequently updating the sport with extra content material, together with actions that coincide with new Disney and Pixar films and occasions.
Now for the not-so-great information: this can be a free-to-play recreation being developed by cellular specialists Gameloft, that means that numerous stuff you’ve seen in that trailer above goes to be locked away behind purchases.
Whereas early experiences say there’s “pretty non-aggressive monetization” to be discovered, the jury is clearly going to be out on that entire factor till folks have had an opportunity to take a seat down and play it when it’s correctly out in 2023 (although there’ll be an early entry model out there later this yr).
As for platforms, it’ll be coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Sequence X|S, PC, Mac, Change and the App Retailer.
