Disney Dreamlight Valley Opens Gates For Early Access In September

Would’ve been cooler if it was not a life sim

Why do I get a strange feeling that I’ll get attacked for saying I want to try this game?

I heard this game will be free-2-play. 🧐
Because I am against free-2-play practice.

@Greatluigi It does look interesting, I'll give it a look when it's released.

It's nice of Nintendo to give us another nap break partway through the Direct!

@Greatluigi Despite being F2P, I'm looking forward to both, this and Disney Speedstorm (which was strangely absent in today's Direct mini).

May not participate in the Early Access, though.

Disney did really look at the two best selling games on the switch and said "let's make our own free to play version!" lmao

Even more so than the last trailer, I LOVE everything about how this game looks. I really want to play it. It pains me that its "free to play" and from Gameloft...

I got really into Magic Kingdoms on mobiles for a while (previous Gameloft F2P Disney park game with what looks like an identical plot to this one) and was happy to drop £5-10 every month or so to speed up my progress or buy cool exclusive things... considering how much fun I had with the game I felt that was very fair, and to begin with, it was optional.

But over time it evolved into a massive money sink and made it impossible to play for free or just spend a little... every month would be a new event with new characters, rides, items etc that were literally impossible to get without spending about £50, even if you solidly grinded all day... I'd have my phone on at work and be tapping at it every few minutes to try and get the things in time but it got to the point where even doing that AND spending around £20-30 each month I only got 50% of the way there, and that time and money was wasted. After a few months in a row of that happening I took a good look at myself and realised I wasn't having fun anymore, and the game was just exploiting the goodwill it had originally got from me and my love for Disney properties and theme parks.

I uninstalled it, and now it makes me sad to think about, because I miss playing the game that used to make me happy but don't want to log back in and see all the cool stuff I unlocked, because right there in the menus is the countless amount of "time limited" things that you've missed out on - presumably to bring fomo for the next event, and every now and again offer you the chance to literally buy it for an extortionate price. I felt exploited.

For any parents who think their kids might like this, I'd suggest buying Disney Magical World 2 instead - very similar thing, full priced game, but no "micro" transations.

Couldn't give us Kingdom Hearts natively but a Disney sim is okay? Typical Disney and Square there.

I would be ok if nintendolife didn't give any attention to free-to-play games.

It's a shame that such a good looking game isn't a regular retail game.

I be am really hoping this wIll be good. Please have Mulan and Tiana.

Looks good. Will give this a try

First time I hear of an early access on consoles, really. Does it mean the game will be free to start for a while?

@nhSnork Its a free to play title from a mobile developer. Sadly, as per my rant above, previous game from the same studio started off amazing (I really, really loved it) but became very exploitative over time once the user base was big enough to milk. I'm hesitant to try this, even though if it was a full priced game I'd happily pay $60 for it no question based on what we've seen.

@Anti-Matter Gameloft does a lot of Free 2 Play titles.
don't get me wrong, it would be neat to see gameloft try to do paid games though.

While I will admit that this game does look well made, it pains me that it's a free-to-play game and is yet another Disney themed life-sim/Animal Crossing-like game.
Realize that a model like this is probably a safer bet to make money but I can't help but miss the days where we saw some actual variety from different Disney properties in different genres.

Maybe that is how we finally get the Disney Afternoon Collection on Switch. Make it like Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball where you have to negotiate with Uncle Scrooge to unlock the different NES games. 😉

@samuelvictor ah, all freemium by default? I assumed it would be a retail one like the recent port of Disney Magical World 2, especially since these games seem to offer a similar experience.

Honestly looks fun......?

@nhSnork Yeah, sadly its Freemium and if its like the previous game, its the absolute worst kind.

I felt absolutely exploited by the previous one because to begin with, it was perfectly possible to play for free, and it was a really nice high quality game so I voluntarily and happily started paying for extras, because the prices were fair and I wanted to support the devs.

But once they had a big enough install base that had got into the habit of playing everyday, they slowly started making it less and less easy to play for free, and increasing the prices of everything whilst imposing very tight deadlines on exclusive content to pressure you into buying (and actively punishing you for not by filling your menus and inventories with innaccessible stuff you could have bought but were too late).

This didn't happen overnight. It was the very definition of "boiling the frog"... and I'm embarassed ho long it took me to jump out the pot. Thats never happened to me before or since.

The thing that really sucks is it was a really well made game - great graphics, loads of variety, extremely fun. I'd have happily bought it at funn price, and ponied up for expansion packs / dlc. This new game looks to be the same, but as its newer and on more powerful hardware, it looks even better. But I don't want to get tricked into getting my goodwill and time exploited again.

As you say, it is similar to Magical World 2, and thats the game I'll be sticking with. I hope we get a nice sequel to that game, but I feel like Disney will likely find that a Freemium game makes more money, so what's the incentive?

I love animal crossing but a free to play disney version really doesn't appeal to me.

If it had combat, I'd say it looked like a spiritual successor to the Disney Magical World games.

Being f2p and early access is a gigantic red flag, unfortunately.

@samuelvictor

While not surprising, this is disappointing to hear. This game should check almost no boxes for me...I don't like life sims, F2P or early access. However, the fact that the other half of the game is inspired by adventure games and (reportedly) has a emphasis on exploration and puzzles has drawn me to this. The Disney world is something of a guilty pleasure for me...They typify the monopolistic, cynical mega-corporation, but I truly love a lot of the content they produce.

Hopefully, they'll stick to their statements that there will be no time-gating, P2W or ways to use real money to advance gameplay. Though even if that remains technically true, your post shows that there are ways to make even "you can only by cosmetics" horrible. Time will tell, I guess.

@Trialus As a pretty leftwing guy I'm right there with you on mega corporations... I've been in the entertainment industry for over 2 decades and having worked in at least some capacity with almost every major movie studio and music label as well as a few big tv ones too, I'm more than aware of some absolutely appalling things that go on behind closed doors and have actually walked off many projects, requested my name been taken off credits, and turned down very lucrative contracts because I couldn't profit from what I saw and keep my principals.

However, I'm a massive Disney fan (probably what some people label as a "Disney Adult" which is apparantly quite a disparaging term in some circles) and I'm sure at least some of that love for their properties and parks comes from many happy memories linked to both my own childhood, and from raising both my kids, and happy family memories created together.

I'm not usually a fan of large companies buying up smaller ones or media giants aquiring franchises, but being that as a kid I was a huge fan of Muppets, Star Wars and Marvel, I actually didn't object to Disney buying them as I trusted they would look after them and give them the budgets they deserved, and I was excited for crossover opportunities and seeing them further integrated into the parks. It makes me somewhat of a hypocrite, I would have been far less happy if any other major media company bought them. I definitely feel my bias, but Disney owning these other things I love just made me love them more, essentially buying me even more brand loyalty based on nostaglia.

I even lived in a Disney owned property for a full year and went to the parks pretty much every day for fun (even if just for half an hour to grab lunch, or watch a show) and I can honestly say that year was one of the happiest in my life and I'm strongly considering going back and buying property so I can live there permanently. So maybe I'm just hopelessly indoctrinated! lol

All that said, from a professional standpoint, whilst they are of course far from perfect (no corporation of that size can be, really) I can honestly say that boots on the ground, Disney is the best large company I've worked for/with and in 20 years I've not seen or heard anything first hand or from any of my colleagues on a day to day basis that made me uncomfortable, save for one incident which I reported and I felt was dealt with reasonably afterwards (essentially them hiring someone to work on a kids show that should have been better background checked, shall we say... he wasn't fired as it was only a temporary contract and he did nothing wrong on set, but he was carefully monitored and then quietly never hired again, I was ok with that result).

In general, I'm far more comfortable with independent companies and art. But being heavily involved in the industry, Disney is the "mega corporation" that I have the least qualms with.

I'm still mad at Gameloft though! Fool me once...

@Falmingos nothing wrong with life sims cause Animal Crossing is a life sim and is the Switch's best selling game 🥱

I might mess around with it if Chip, Dale and Clarice are in it. If the micro-transactions are diabolical then I will stay away.

@SwitchplayerJohn Yes, you're right of course. Usually, even back then, I avoided F2P games like the plague. I was just so tempted to try it because I loved Disney characters and parks so much, and it looked really high production values and well made etc. Pretty much learned my lesson and have never played another since then... but this one looks so cooooool lol

@CodyMKW Animal Crossing is not the Switch's best selling game.

@BTB20 yes it is honey

F2P, no thanks. I don’t want my daughter pestered by micro-transactions whilst playing a game - I want her to enjoy the full experience. I ended up subscribing to Apple Arcade just to avoid ads and micro-transactions; it makes for a much more relaxing gaming environment

@CodyMKW Are you trolling? Why are you getting likes for this? Literally everyone knows that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the Switch's best selling game, "honey".

@BTB20 Are you trolling? Umm no I'm just stating pure facts Animal Crossing is best selling game

@CodyMKW animal crossing is not the switch’s best selling game, and best selling doesn’t mean good speed and shield are one of the best selling and there the definition of mediocre

@Waluigi-fan animal crossing is the best selling switch game so your wrong buddy🙂