Last month, it was revealed Japanese developer Kairosoft would be releasing its tiny simulation titles Game Dev Story and Hot Springs Story on the Switch eShop. A local eShop listing has now revealed both of these games are due out next week on 11th October and will be available for $12.00 / £8.99 each.
These games will be joined by Dungeon Village - another Kairosoft title releasing on the same day and for the same price. The mobile game was first released in 2012 and requires you to expand a town located in an RPG-inspired world. The aim is to attract heroes and then send them out to fight monsters.
In case you missed the original announcement, Game Dev Story was previously released on mobile in 2010. It allows you build and manage your own video game company as you work your way up from a small start-up studio to an industry giant. In Hot Springs Story - first released in 2011 - you develop a resort while juggling the needs of customers. To gain more wealthy clientele you'll need to impress critics by enhancing your resort and managing staff at the same time.
Kairosoft began life in 1996 and carved a niche in the games market with its micro-sized simulation games. Game Dev Story was one of the first, with an original release on Windows in 1997.
Are you interested in buying any of these games? Have you played these titles previously? Tell us below.
Comments 38
All 3 ideas sound interesting to me, but their origin as mobile titles concerns me. I don't want to play a micro transaction filled shell of a game.
@Heavyarms55 I think you aren't going to have to worry about that, these aren't free to play and the Switch versions are a little pricier than on mobile which leads me to believe they won't have microtransactions. Hopefully. I don't think I'm going to get them though, I played the demo for Dungeon Village and it feels too cheap imo
For some reason the first thing that popped into my head when I saw Game Dev Story was Rockstar Ate my Hamster by Codemasters on the old Speccy. Loved that game!
@Heavyarms55 From what I heard Game Dev Story on mobile didn’t have any micro transactions.
Oh cool, dungeon village is a really nice little game
I have Game Dev Story on my iPhone, no Microtransactions whatsoever. Awesomely addictive fun little game.
The early Kairosoft games (which include the three above) don't have microtransactions. They were paid apps that had all functionality available at the start.
Somewhere down the line, Kairosoft played around with several different monetisation models. A few of their games (if memory serves correctly) were free to download but you had to pay to have the full version, kinda like Super Mario Run in a way. Further on from that they went the free-to-play-but-look-here-lots-of-michael-transactions-for-you route for a number of titles.
It goes without saying that the games using the former two monetisation models were more fun (at least for me) while games using that latter had to rely on some form of community competition to entice people to cash in, which in some way impacted the game's fun factor.
@Heavyarms55 No reason to be sceptical, Kairosoft games are usually great little sims.
10 EUROS FOR THESE ANDROID GAMES?????
NINTENDO HAS THE WORST ECONOMIC POLICY FROM ALL GAMING COMPANIES!!!!
I am very happy that Dungeon Village is coming though I cannot say I care for the rest of them. Pocket Harvest was amazing and I hope that one also joins soon.
Can I call this shovelware without being judge like a heathen?
The price is to high, I would love to buy them again but not at this price.
These games stand quite far apart from shovelware. Personally, I don't really like Game Dev Story but I totally enjoyed Dungeon Village on my phone.
As a rule, simulation games like these aren’t my thing, but I have to admit that Game Dev Story is very, very good. Highly recommended for sim/strategy fans!
@Heavyarms55 There aren’t any IAP’s to be found in these games, buddy. Just the one time purchase price. Though £8.99 is a teeny bit steep in my opinion.
All three are excellent little games. I would say Game dev story is actually my least favourite of the three, Dungeon Village (along with Epic Astro story) is probably my favourite of all the Kairosoft games.
When I initially saw the pricing on Switch I was as sceptical as anyone else, But most of these are £4.99 on iOS and mobile pricing is a different beast entirely, It’s easy to compare but I don’t think it’s entirely fair. There is absolutely £8.99 worth of entertainment in these games. I’ve replayed Dungeon Village so many times on iOS I have more than got my money’s worth.
I won’t be picking any of these up, But only because I already own all 3 on mobile.
I read "mobile". That's enough for me to close the tab (after posting this comment).
@Rhaoulos They started on PC though. Game Dev Story was a pc game before being ported to mobile, I think Hot Springs Story was also. They may have found success in the West on mobile but their early stuff was on PC.
Browser games incoming...
When will NLife correct the spelling mistake of the company's name. It's Kairosoft, not Kariosoft. The link will forever be wrong I guess.
Kind of weird that the price is 10 euros, I would've expected something like 5 euros as max.
@onery that's probably one of the best and accurate comment(s) i've ever read.
Damn, I was really hoping for Beastie Bay. For being so crazily overlooked, it really is an addictive little game.
Great games, played them all before. Thought they’d come to Switch at some point... price is a bit high for a second purchase.
@Heavyarms55
Game dev story doesn’t, and all the titles I played didn’t either. I get your concern, I think the same way. But from what I can gather these games won’t have any in them.
However I think their sequel games did have MTs in.
Those games all look very appealing. If they could only make a physical collection I would be all over it.
The games themselves look really good, especially dungeon village. But I refuse to pay $12 for a port of a $5 cell phone game. I’m looking at the iOS version right now it’s a flat rate of $4.99. I don’t see any references to micro transactions and so I’d much rather pay $5 than $12. Especially for this type of game. Now when this goes on sale I will be on it like a vulture on a meat wagon, I just can’t personally justify that price!
My issue is pricing. $5 each on phones, $12 for the Switch versions is way over inflated, and I love these games!
Game Dev story was sooooo good. Loved that game. Only issue is it was only maybe 3-4 hrs long
I’ve really enjoyed the Kairosoft games on iOS but I’d suggest for an eshop sale before picking these up.
There's a lack of sim games on the Switch, so these ones really tickle my fancy. I'll probly choose Dungeon Village first. The only question is, Will I be able to wait for a sale?
Ooh, I used to love these! Would buy if they were 5$ each.
12$ is obviously too much. 12$ for all three would give them an instabuy.
I really like Kairosoft games but I'm not willing to part with £9 for them, especially when they're old titles and can buy them off app stores for £4
Game Dev Story is really fun and I was planning on getting it again but.. $12?? That's an awful lot for a 20 year old port of a port
@Galenmereth You do know that nintendo has the higher taxes on same titles from steam or other gaming console companies, right?
@Scirocco7 Source? Reports suggest around 30% from both Steam and eShop (similar to iOS and Android).
Having played through game dev story like 3 times on iOS. It’s a lot of fun and def worth picking up, hot springs story never did much for me but dungeon village is fun
@Heavyarms55 They don’t really have Microtransactions though I feel the asking price is slightly steep.
I never played the 3 games but I'm sure they are good. I just hope Kairosoft eventually adds all of their games on the Nintendo Switch. I really would love to see Dream House Days and World Cruise Story
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