It's no secret that gaming has seen a significant boost thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and Jackbox Party – now spanning seven entries, all of which are available on Switch – has been one of the many beneficiaries. Initially designed as a local experience to be played off your phone, 2020 saw record players joining in remotely.
With current events stopping local play from being practical, fans are hoping for more online features in the next entry. Speaking during a recent Venture Beat interview, Jackbox Games CEO Mike Bilder confirmed they're looking into this:
Because we were so far along in the production cycle of Party Pack 7, we didn’t have the [cap]ability to add specific features to enhance gameplay over video conferencing. But it’s definitely something we’re looking at for the future, like what might we do to make things easier to get a game running through Zoom. It’s fairly straightforward and simple, but for people who aren’t experienced with our games or with deep knowledge of how to run video conferencing, there’s still a little bit of hand-holding that we have to do. Those things are front of mind right now as we start building new games for the future.
Back in March, Jackbox Games previously gave advice on how to play remotely via apps like Zoom or Discord, linking some streaming tips for Nintendo Switch players too. So, given their recent success, it's not surprising to see them looking into this further.
Do you play Jackbox Party with friends? Got a favourite entry? Let us know down below.
[source gonintendo.com, via venturebeat.com]
Comments 14
TBT I always felt the Jackbox Party Games would work better as free websites with a little less emphasis on presentation. They can for the most part be easily replicated with pencil and paper IRL.
I personally thought they were easy enough to play remotely? I've had friends who would play on Discord.
i can't play any of them with anyone. there are only in engliish.here in italy it's so hard to find more than 2 people in the same famiily or between friends that can understand a little of english
We play the PC versions on Zoom with our extended family every month or so. It's not too hard but you do need pretty good internet to stream it over the meeting without lag.
Anytime I played this with friends, it's always been the PC version over either Zoom or Discord.
I was actually thinking about this the other week, how most people (especially now) are playing these games remotely rather than all at the same place how it's meant to. And I'm sure most people experience some sort of lag or delay, and that a natural next step for Jackbox is to allow players a better way to play this way.
I used to buy Jackbox via Switch so if necessary, I could also take it to a friend's house for game nights. Recently, I've bought the newer ones off PC and I've streamed via private rooms in my Discord server. The lag was almost non-existent
Cause a Jackbox Party Don't Stop
We’ve had a tonne of fun with it. Zoom on the iPad, face towards the telly, volume up. Riotous multiplayer fun that has eased our lockdown a little.
The best Quality of Life update I could ask for would be a unified launcher for all of the games, so I don't have to spend 5 minutes figuring out which game has Fibbage 3, and then switch between Party Pack 5, and then to 7, and then back to 4, etc.
just need to be able to share a screen
Would be great if the Switch games updated to somehow share the screen or stream the game to others through the site they join on
@Auenegheps Same here. The Jackbox games would have been an Insta-Buy if they would have cared for language packages (German here)
@Hofnarr It's definitely not that they don't care. I've watched their streams and they regret not being large enough to be able to translate their games to many different languages. This is a company of less than 50 people churning these out every year.
Tap here to load 14 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...