Disney Dreamlight Valley is quietly one of the more successful live service games on PS5 and PS4 right now, and the release’s first anniversary livestream has revealed a lot to look forward to – even if some fans continue to be miffed by the release’s business model. For those out of the loop, developer Gameloft had previously announced the title would go free-to-play following its Early Access period, but it’s instead opted to maintain its premium pricing.
Of course, that’s despite the title having a pretty pricey content model, which includes paid cosmetic unlocks as part of the Star Path and an in-game currency known as Moonstones. While it’s possible to accumulate small denominations of said virtual money through mere gameplay, it does require daily engagement, which is obviously the model most free-to-play mobile games engage with.
On the plus side, you can redeem a couple of free items as part of the game’s anniversary livestream using the codes embedded below. All you need to do is boot the game and enter the following redemption codes on the Help section of the Settings menu:
- DDVBALLOON
- DDVHEADBAND
So, what’s on the way, then? Well, as part of the massive 5th December update, you can expect Nightmare Before Christmas protagonist Jack Skellington to join your Valley, alongside a new winter-themed Star Path featuring arctic outfits inspired by various Disney princesses. Perhaps the main addition, however, is an oft-requested one in ValleyVerse – an online multiplayer mode which will allow you to visit your friends’ villages, trade items, and shop at their Scrooge McDuck stores. That should help with the local economy, eh?
Moving forward into 2024, the game will add a new world inspired by Monsters Inc, with Mike and Sulley becoming new permanent residents to the Valley. And later in the year, Tiana from The Princess and the Frog will arrive.
Perhaps the biggest thing, though, is the addition of an entire, optional $29.99 expansion pack named A Rift in Time, which will be divided into three chapters. This will effectively add an entire new island to the game: Eternity Isle. Due out on 5th December, alongside the anniversary update for the core game, you’ll meet three new characters, including EVE, Rapunzel, and Gaston. You’ll be able to invite all three characters back to your main village, but the new area will feature a bunch of fresh quests involving Aladdin villain Jafar, and a new tool which will let you extract objects from portals. The add-on will also incorporate new ingredients, recipes, and items which you can build to automate various in-game tasks, as well as a brand new board game-inspired minigame.
The expansion will come with 5,000 Moonstones, and these usually cost about $19.99 on their own, so there’s inherent value here. We’re not sure how we feel about the addition of an entirely new island, though – surely that will break the cohesiveness of the Valley players have already been building! Either way, this is the direction Gameloft has decided to go in, and even if there are still concerns about the cost of it all, it’s fair to say there’s a lot of new content on the way.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 9
@DonkeyFantasy Glad you're feeling optimistic about the updates, then!
Honestly, this one always felt a bit backwards to me. F2P, but the beta/early access was paid with the cash shop in full effect?
Switching from F2P to a normal purchase, but keeping all the cash shop microtransactions in place, AND paid expansions? AND maintaining the F2P progression model?
Ick. I know Mr Mouse doesn't eye the particulars as long as he gets his cut, but this is about as bad as the Battlefront 2 fiasco a few years back.
MULAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!! THEY'RE FINALLY ADDING MULAN!!!!! ^__^😭😭😭😭😭
Gameloft gonna Gameloft.
Can’t wait for the update and I don’t mind spending money on the expansion. I’ve played over 400 hours of this game so far for £45, which is way more value than spending £45 on something like Alan Wake 2, which can be platinumed in 15-25 hours.
A few people are complaining about having to pay for the expansion because they bought the base foundation pack for early access. But the Forgotten Storyline is completed. The expansion is a brand new map (same size as the original map) with new characters and story. That £18 ($22) isn’t going to fund the game indefinitely. That’s why we’re getting paid expansions.
Paid expansions twice a year is far better than making the game F2P and being charged for every character separately.
For anyone thinking about getting this amazing game, here is a pro tip: just play the campaign. When you do, you unlock all the base biomes, and then you unlock high-end seeds like Pumpkin, and then you are a DDV Millionaire. You can afford anything in Scrooge's large store, which rotates from THOUSANDS of cosmetics/items daily. So you don't need to spend real money and can focus on the metric ton of campaigns and side quests in the game. If you absolutely have to have micro-transactions, there is a tiny cosmetic store in the game, that offers 4 items which rotate every 5 days. There is a battle pass which can be ignored, or spend the $10 for the cosmetics included if they are worth it.
I have alway felt this is a great single player game with a ton of content. At 150 hours, I continue to feel zero pressure to buy anything, and I still have tons of quests yet to do, as well as my usual farming, fishing, building, mining, decorating, etc. I am completely not surprised they are not going free to play, it's just not what the game turned out to be. But you do have to really play the game to get that I think.
I also kept wondering when the iOS version was coming. Well now we know, the big news left out from above is that DDV is coming to Apple Arcade (iPhone/iPad), full game and expansion but with no micro transactions, no store, and no battle pass (!)
Anyway lots of cool stuff coming (like multiplayer) and the video was great...passionate player base + passionate developers is always an amazing mix.
I've played this for months, first on GamePass and now on Steam Deck, and never spent a dime outside of the sale price I paid for the game. There's plenty to do and it's a fun, chill time. I don't know why everyone is so down on it, but I'm looking forward to the updates.
The writing has been on the wall for a while that they no longer intended to make good on the free-to-play promise. Good on anyone who has paid and had fun, but I'll enjoy the free-to-not-play experience myself.
I'd like to see a lawsuit to discourage this type of bait-and-switch practice. It doesn't matter how much fun the game is... The "early access" to what was supposed to become a free-to-play game clearly isn't in the room with us.
I'm sure the available and upcoming content is worth the cost without spending more on cosmetics, but they should have had the wherewithal to forego any mention of free-to-play from the start. They let the promised (eventual) free-to-play release hang in the undetermined future for several months of regular updates, and now this...
It's "just a game," but this is bad business and they need to own up to that.
I am more than happy to purchase expansions for this great game and I am pleased it won’t be ftp. Me and my son have sunk in 600 hours over a year and not spent a penny…I consider that great value so spending £30 on the 2nd season is a no brainer. If DDV was released as a standalone game and a year later ‘ A Rift in Time’ was released as a DDV 2 no one would bat an eye. We all know ftp models become a ruthless shake down as developers try to make profit and players end up feeling exploited.
DDV Is a fantastic game with AAA content and deserves to succeed and already has a massive community and fanbase..dream on valley people ❤️
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