With only a week and alter left till Harmony hits the bottom working, the group behind the first-person hero shooter has introduced its plans for the PlayStation 5 console unique’s future. A roadmap confirms at the very least three seasons of post-launch updates, in addition to a microtransaction retailer coming in October.
“The bottom recreation is a basis for us to construct upon over time, by techniques that can develop the universe, introduce new methods to play and grasp every character, provide you with lots of of distinctive rewards to earn and unlock, and narratives to unfold week after week, alongside seasonal updates that can introduce new characters, new maps and worlds, new modes, new tales, new options, and extra,” recreation director Ryan Gillis wrote on the PlayStation Weblog on Tuesday.
Season 1 kicks off in October and can add a brand new playable character, map, Freegunner variants, high quality of life updates, new rewards, further cinematic vignettes, and most significantly an in-game merchandise store. That’s the place gamers will have the ability to spend further cash over the $40 boxed worth to “complement the lots of of rewards earnable by development.” Gillis stresses that none of these things will affect gameplay, although it stays to be seen how a lot cooler the stuff within the retailer appears than what you may unlock simply by enjoying.
Season 2 will go stay initially of 2025 in January. That’s when Harmony will get its 18th playable character, one other new map, a brand new recreation mode, and different updates, rewards, and story cinematics. Season 3 will observe in April, however the studio’s not revealing what’s deliberate for it simply but. And naturally, even in-between seasons, the sport will proceed getting its mini-story drops initially of every new week. There’s no battle go and all of the seasonal content material is free.
It’s an formidable slate of content material for a live-service shooter only a few folks consider in proper now. The beta, whereas showcasing stable gunplay and matches that had been enjoyable sufficient, didn’t really feel prefer it had the spark crucial to breakthrough in a aggressive panorama dominated by massively fashionable current free-to-play video games like Valorant, Apex Legends, and Fortnite. It seems like it doesn’t matter what occurs, Sony and Firewalk Studios are dedicated to delivering on Harmony’s first 12 months.
After that, as we’ve seen with different video games, together with 2024’s Suicide Squad, Harmony’s future will in all probability be much less sure. If it may discover a foothold within the present PC and console gaming panorama, although, it is going to in all probability be on account of its Crew Builder mechanic. There’s an entire layer of Harmony that lets gamers customise the crews they take into matches with variants of characters which have distinctive stats, together with buffs that get utilized to the remainder of the group as soon as that character has been utilized in a specific match for the primary time.
It’s an fascinating concept that didn’t actually floor within the beta however might set Harmony aside. We’ll know as soon as the complete recreation comes out on August 20 for deluxe version homeowners and August 23 for everybody else.