Fall Guys goes free-to-play with crossplay after Epic acquisition

[Daniel Sims]

What just happened? The hit multiplayer title Fall Guys is now free-to-play on consoles and PC, though new PC players will have to get it from the Epic Games Store. Those who purchased it on Steam will still receive updates.

A year after its developer's acquisition by Epic Games, the popular online obstacle course game Fall Guys is free-to-play. The game also launches on Xbox consoles and Nintendo Switch for the first time today, adding crossplay between those platforms, PlayStation, and PC. Although Epic and Mediatonic Games delisted the PC version from Steam, future updates will keep supporting current Steam players.

Fall Guys initially launched in August 2020 on Steam and PlayStation consoles, quickly reaching over 10 million downloads and ultimately gaining five BAFTA nominations. Last March, Epic Games acquired Mediatonic's parent company Tonic Games Group, thus the PC version's exclusivity to Epic's store.

The change to Fall Guys mirrors what happened with Rocket League. Epic bought Rocket League developer Psyonix in 2019 and made it free-to-play across consoles and PC the following year. It also delisted Rocket League from Steam but still delivers updates to existing Steam players. Both games have become more like Epic's in-house behemoth, Fortnite.

With the free-to-play update, Fall Guys gains new rounds, new obstacles, a new season pass, new challenges, and many other additional features. Anyone who played it before the relaunch will receive "legacy status" extras.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/95023-fall-guys-goes-free-play-crossplay-after-epic.html

 

[bviktor]

When will they make this playable with 4 local players? Such a missed opportunity

 

[George Keech]

When will they make this playable with 4 local players? Such a missed opportunity

no money in it would be my answer. So many great couch co-op games just gone.

Even on Xbox some games need a Microsoft account for couch co op

 

[dangh]

I really nejoyed the game when it came on PlayStation, as it seems to be fun, non - brawling game similar to Takeshi castle style adventure focusing on planning, proper jumping and so on. Unfortunatelly, grabbing and pusing option has been added as well as elements impossible to pass at cost of another players. And that is not fun anymore - If I want to play against people not envioronment I'd rather take War Tunder or Hell Let Loose.

 

[Dimitriid]

The interesting part is that to me, this game should have been a free-to-play title from the get go. When it comes to gameplay and design they adhere to the simple but endearing line of thinking.

However I understand why it wasn't free-to-play on launch to begin with and it isn't just about making money upfront though that certainly helps, but it's targeting a market resilient to gacha mechanics like PC and Console gamers. So it is a case of a price tag probably nets them overall less money than selling costumes and other such things in the long run but by actually giving it a price tag you immediately earn the attention of that "Hardcore gaming" crowd that actively looks down on casual games.

Because this game is casual just like games like Rocket League (Also now gone free-to-play iirc) is a more casual game and to an extend, PUBG and later Fortnite are as well to name big titles but smaller yet successful for their size titles like Valheim or any number of 'Crafting survival with zombies' games are the same in the sense that they're not putting out there AAA assets like narrative stories, many hours worth of voice acting or high fidelity visuals.

There's no fundamental gameplay differences between these and many of the mobile games except that they charge upfront instead of intrusive monetization tactics like overwhelming amounts of ads or the gacha mechanics.

 

[Aceseven]

I bought it day 1 when it released, been a fun game, never a wait to get in rounds, not many grabbers anymore, solid title

not a big fan of everything going free to play, from my experiences alot of those players are jerks, ffs the game was only 20 bucks.

 

[bexwhitt]

The interesting part is that to me, this game should have been a free-to-play title from the get go. When it comes to gameplay and design they adhere to the simple but endearing line of thinking.

However I understand why it wasn't free-to-play on launch to begin with and it isn't just about making money upfront though that certainly helps, but it's targeting a market resilient to gacha mechanics like PC and Console gamers. So it is a case of a price tag probably nets them overall less money than selling costumes and other such things in the long run but by actually giving it a price tag you immediately earn the attention of that "Hardcore gaming" crowd that actively looks down on casual games.

Because this game is casual just like games like Rocket League (Also now gone free-to-play iirc) is a more casual game and to an extend, PUBG and later Fortnite are as well to name big titles but smaller yet successful for their size titles like Valheim or any number of 'Crafting survival with zombies' games are the same in the sense that they're not putting out there AAA assets like narrative stories, many hours worth of voice acting or high fidelity visuals.

There's no fundamental gameplay differences between these and many of the mobile games except that they charge upfront instead of intrusive monetization tactics like overwhelming amounts of ads or the gacha mechanics.

Fall guy has zero pay to win mechanics, unlike the best clone that started on mobile stumble guys

 

[Dimitriid]

Fall guy has zero pay to win mechanics, unlike the best clone that started on mobile stumble guys

I never said it has or that it will at all, what are you on about? You think pay-to-win is a "fundamental gameplay difference"? Because I would still disagree with that: game mechanics do not change because you're given a way to circumvent them, limit them or both which runs the full gamma of gacha mechanics.

What I'm saying is that there's nothing really all that different from fall guys and mobile games in terms of gameplay and presentation. It means that fall guys on PC could be done with free-to-play mechanics, just not the same as those necessarily just cosmetic items or in-game objectives like Fortnite has been doing...On mobile too...Pretty successfully.

 

[bexwhitt]

I never said it has or that it will at all, what are you on about? You think pay-to-win is a "fundamental gameplay difference"? Because I would still disagree with that: game mechanics do not change because you're given a way to circumvent them, limit them or both which runs the full gamma of gacha mechanics.

What I'm saying is that there's nothing really all that different from fall guys and mobile games in terms of gameplay and presentation. It means that fall guys on PC could be done with free-to-play mechanics, just not the same as those necessarily just cosmetic items or in-game objectives like Fortnite has been doing...On mobile too...Pretty successfully.

It would need better programmers and servers than Mediatonic have to bring fall guys to mobile. I'm not sure it's possible.

 

[Dimitriid]

It would need better programmers and servers than Mediatonic have to bring fall guys to mobile. I'm not sure it's possible.

Yes that's likely and fair. But since the gacha have an ROI that's way faster than a PC game and a profit margin that's also many times higher (Again potentially) it could be easier to find more investors to improve those areas if needed. Or maybe not and maybe you're 100% right.

Ultimately I think gameplay is similar enough that it could have happened maybe slightly different routes and such.