Foamstars Releases 6th February as a PS Plus Essential Game

Wise move as there's way more chance of people playing it now.

That's nice - the previews were actually quite enthusiastic about it

So in other words they realised it was gong to be a sales flop

I doubt I'll try it as I don't play much of anything online anymore, but this is a smart move to try to get at least a decent amount of players in and hooked early on so it has a chance to succeed. It doesn't mean it has anything to do with quality.

That's cool. only fun multiplayer currently that could compete with cancelled knockout city.

Really surprised they didn't do this with helldivers2 since it would have created a huge community behind it.

Probably the best way to give this game some legs. Still hope square Enix will continue to focus on what they do best.

Nice! I actually am looking forward to trying it myself. The only problem will be finding the time more than anything. The beginning of this year is actually insane!

Support for one year? Yeah this isn't looking good tbh, although I did enjoy the beta so I will try and make the most of that one year.

Good idea launching it on PS+. Good luck to the game and I hope those who are interested have fun.

I just noticed that while it was announced for PS and PC, the trailer says it's exclusive to PlayStation for 6 months

So does this basically confirm Stellar Blade as an April/May release?

Putting this on PS Plus day 1 is actually a great move for a live-service MP title (it would not be for a game like Spider-Man 2, looking at you Xbox fans). Definitely will be checking it out, previews have actually been very positive, unlike for Suicide Squad, which is just depressing.

@Athrum I'd be okay with that. Though, I was pegging Stellar Blade for like August or September. I'm still hoping Death Stranding 2 gets announced for this year.

@Athrum How have you come to that conclusion based on a Foamstars release date?

Since this is limited to PS+ and will be $30 after does that mean there are no microtransactions and all follow up content will be added at no extra charge like Splatoon has done all 3 games, well except the added single player DLC content for those who wanted more single player experiences, or is it going to be $30-to-start plus filled w/ microtransaction skins like Chocobo Racing?

@themightyant Similar to Destruction Allstars more like

@LiamCroft The listing of the early 2024 releases in the playstation blog is storted by date, with Foamstars and Stellar Blade in the middle of known releases but with only the 2024 release date. Since Foamstarts has the correct date for where it is positioned in the list (February), this would put Stellar Blade releasing before Destiny 2 Final Shape (April/May)

@Athrum That's definitely just a coincidence I'm afraid.

I'm SOOOO hyped for this game! It was loads of fun playing with my friends during the beta. Idk when I'm getting the time in February between this, Granblue Fantasy Relink and FF7 Rebirth but I'll definitely find some time for Foamstars

Wait, they already put a shelf life on the damn thing? Wow.

Gives it a better chance of success in the long run, at least.

My Plus subscription ran out on the 9th, but I'm planning to grab a month in a few days. This happens to be releasing during that month, so I may at least give it a try.

Can't wait to try this splatoon ripoff made by SE.

Pass...I still won't even add this to my library, lol. They knew this game would fail if they didn't do this.

Wise to launch on Plus Essential, to be fair I'll give it a go. If the game plays well and is entertaining from launch it could gain a decent following.

Looks interesting cause I think Splatoon is excellent, but I hate how "Support from Square Enix will last for one year" sounds too much as well as being completely over "seasonal exclusive content and skins". Hope ppl have fun with it though!

I'm not sure how much momentum they can build charging for an online game that will then require a Plus subscription to play. But at any rate I'll be glad to try it out. I've been wanting a non-nintendo splatoon for a long time.

@Athrum I'd agree with your assessment. Unless Liam knows something we do not, I also think this listing probably spells out the same information. I expect to be enjoying Stellar Blade by summer, and if rumoured State of Play expectations are true, I expect the announcement to be there this month (or early February).

I don't get why all multiplayer-centric games don't go the free to play route. The point is to get as many people playing as possible and removing the initial barrier of entry ensures that you have higher odds of generating a big audience.

@LiamCroft Can you explain what they mean by "Support for One Year"? So, after a year they will just stop supporting the game?

@rjejr This game has a free and premium battle pass so you can play the free tier or pay for the premium tier and get more stuff

@pharos_haven It sounds like they've committed to supporting the game with new content and updates after launch for one year, and then they'll assess any further efforts based on the success of the game.

@ATaco because they cost (dev time, servers, power, etc) way more than what mt can make, take fighting games as example. People said f2p was the way to go, multiversus came out with big numbers ... and then died the same year. FG NEED the sales from people who will only play 2 months to exist. And just like that other games.

The beta was fun, looking forward to diving back in.

Didn't they confirm that they used AI in some capacity in the development? For some of the art according to VGC.

Wise move to let this game live at least a few days. I won't touch it even by 3 foot long stick, but for those who like MP games it is nice.

I thought this was a dumb game when it was announced. Me and a friend played the beta just for the laughs but then ended up actually having a lot of fun with it. I'm excited to play the full game!

this is the type of game that i can see being free after a few months anyways. no publisher has any business charging for competitive service games if they want a chance at success. if this is one of the reasons ps+ got a price hike, i'm not impressed. game iteself looks like a "poor man's splatoon" but could be passable fun for non-switch owners.

@pharos_haven Thanks. I can't see a lot of people paying $30 for this only to then spend more on a Premium pass but people spend ridiculous amounts of money on CoD and Destiny 2 every year so what do I know.

@rjejr I will play it because I have plus and then see what the BP looks like and how much they are asking

I assume this is a live-service game with a battlepass ect, shouldn't it just be F2P to get the most amount of people possible playing it even after a month?
Even Rocket League, which popularized the whole getting super-big with PS+ thing has gone properly F2P.

Cool word up son

Free to play it should have been. Not my type of game but man I had hopes it had good ideas and it doesn't. Even if I don't play multiplayer shooters I seek out cool ideas in any games but it's bland besides it's pretty fair kid friendly concept it's the movesets and modes and mechanics I think that suck. Here are my suggestions for mode types.

Glover has ball forms. That's an N64 game. Biomutant a current game with animal morphing character creator for gas immmunitt while cool where is the animal traits and moveset morphing? For exploration.

Space Station Silicon Valley has animals with different abilities. An N64 game with different animal AI and attacks depending. They went on to make GTA.

Why do modern games suck at mechanics and good ideas and that's just singleplayer examples.

Here are my not that amazing but interesting foam focused game mode ideas.

The height of the foam is something, but a mode with shooting to open paths. Hidden maze of sorts.

Or just foam can build up towers and change the vertical height of things.

Maybe a building a foam castle for creativity even like you have with some minigames in a water in the clown's mouse kind of carnival games way or other mini game collections/party games have things to compete with height of a tower in a time limit. That's like 3 variations of things of mechanical use. Nope.

Do we have buttons and traps, foam weight due to some power up or liquid or item at all nope. Any chemical reaction level of cool things to vary mechanics. Nope. Give me some elephants toothpaste ideas even developers come on.

Do we have oil to like water act in a way with the foam. Nope. Again chemical reactions.

That's many ideas right there. It took me no time at all to think those up yet these developers are so bland and unimaginative then a foam party concept and barely anything cooler o expand on it.

Get creative you have foam of all things. USE IT. What does foam do, what fictional thing can they use foam or things that act like it for. Or a smoke machine even. Vents to blow away the foam in some levels, fan minions on each team.

These Devs suck at imagination and mechanical uses for foam come on. Sure they can do that in the future it's multiplayer its going to get updates but none of my ideas will appear in it (not because I think they are good either just suggestions out of thin area and not play tested) their too ambitious and not done in other games to take from so why would the developers think outside the box of what foam does.

I'm not saying my ideas are good I'm saying it's not hard to come up with silly ideas to make a game mode out of in multiplayer, gameplay makes your game stand out and fun not visuals and whatever done to death modes easily understood, boring and no one wants to play anymore, cosmetics and such don't last, gameplay aka the goal of a game is to play it to interact, to have physics, compelling visuals and level design, AI and more to the 'game world' not just repeating the same modes other games do and audiences that want familiarity. I don't dream up multiplayer game ideas I do singleplayer.

So tell me why I should care about a duck platform mode aka enough of your teams colour moving the platform to the team. Aka a mode in Splatoon 1 onwards but not territory based like Splatoon is.

Why not have a bath tub rocking back and forth or be a duck and neighbouring ships in 1 map. Being the size of an ant. Something creative and play into the child like imagination more but with more depth of a twist than I did of a pretty easy setup.

I love characters that are small and exploring a house or something as the size of an ant.

And blandness of game modes and barely anything useful of the foam for varied modes when I just said a bunch of ideas not in the game that are good use cases for them.

The game is bland and lacking but has a fair start of creativity but I mean. A water or liquid based game could come out with better ideas and make foam stars look balanced easily with more exciting mechanics and maps easily. Heck Splatoon still looks more exciting.

I enjoyed Splatoon 1, I understand the maps and modes in it. The reloading and traversal is fun. Squids and ink is a cool angle, the language is there, the world looks cool and hip. Foam stars has humanoids and basic foam mechanics so derivative it's a joke. No cool use of moveset at all. How disappointing.

Gameplay matters in multiplayer, map design especially for shooters. If the movesets suck and the maps and modes are generic why bother.

What a waste of a skin and repeated mode ideas. I get yes yes territory or Deathmatch that's fine but nothing that exciting when it took me no time at all to come up with basic ideas for modes and thinking oh it's foam.

I love Glover and it's ball forms idea. That's how simple it is for me to think about foam and similar ideas a N64 platformer has, an era where yeah you have a Glover character and this moveset different from Mario in Mario 64. No time at all.

Diofield had issue because it's too bland of risk taking of level design and bonuses or mission setups, a dragged out story and gameplay being boring after chapter 4. Square doesn't learn.

Disgaea and Valkyria Chronicles. Push obstacles or throwing characters or something in the levels besides charming characters, story and such, level design and tasks make sense.

Why is it Square (or the dev as they are the publisher after all) focuses on story, combat and bland level design and whatever trend to jump on but boring mechanics for this game.

It's disappointing. I expect better and I was never going to play it (I still thought it was cool till they showed how pathetic it is) but thought oh an interesting direction to take multiplayer, oh never mind.

It's just sad.

Nintendo goes yep we have squids, we have ink reloading, traversal. Square and it's developer goes nah let's be bland. Surfing is a cool animation but still boring humanoids and foam. A surfboard mode would be nice. Races, traps, foam height increasing mechanics. Like come on. Talk about bland and unimaginative much. Think outside the box more developers.

Will add to library same as all the others... Give it a fifty fifty chance of it being cancelled before I decide to download it.

I genuinely have little faith that this will do good. Nice that it is an essential title so we can give it a shot

@pharos_haven I'm currently playing too much Fortnite and Disney Speedstorm, w/o spending a penny b/c they're both pretty good w/ just letting you play, so I have no time for anything else.

If I still had PS+ I'd probably give it a go but since I bought Splatoon 3 at launch and only played it awhile before stopping I don't think I'd be too much into this. Have fun though, hopefully there will still be enough players for regular 4x4 matches after the initial buzz.

@SuntannedDuck2 Not really sure why you wrote an Oped

@pharos_haven I felt like it. I also just find it interesting to look at old and modern games and see what has changed, what lacks. What business model and design we get these days.

Saying good/bad is boring. Or sometimes saying nothing is a better idea yes. XD