The COVID-19 lockdowns weren’t all bad news. The pandemic might have forced studios and developers to delay games by months if not years, but some projects benefited from the situation.
Case in point, Fall Guys.
Fall Guys was one of the breakout successes of the early days of the pandemic, with players eager to join in on the fun and festive atmosphere of the brightly colored game. Due to its popularity, Epic Games decided to buy Mediatonic and Fall Guys has kept on keeping on ever since. Nearly two years into its lifecycle and it appears that Epic is ready to put the game’s content into hyperdrive.
According to the live stream, Fall Guys is going free-to-play on June 21 as it makes its debut on the Epic Games Store as well as the Xbox family of consoles and the Nintendo Switch. If you’re wondering, yes, Fall Guys will support cross-play and cross-progression at launch. If nothing else, this should guarantee Fall Guys a second surge of players coming from other platforms aside from the PS4 and PS5 as well as Steam.
Once Fall Guys jumps ship to the Epic Games Store, the game will no longer be available on Steam. Don’t worry, those who already own Fall Guys from Steam will continue receiving updates.
The free-to-play Switch of Fall Guys also marks a fresh start for the game. Mediatonic will reset the seasons, introduce a new in-game currency, as well as make “major updates” to the game’s progression system. Fittingly enough, Mediatonic and Epic named the first season of Fall Guys, Free for All, as they seek to attract new audiences and bring players back in droves by introducing a massive new arena full of locations and events.
As is always the case with these free-to-play transitions, Mediatonic will reward its existing players with a “Legacy Pack” that contains what is hopefully a set of exclusive cosmetics as well as the first Season Pass.
Speaking of Epic Games, the North Carolina-based video game company recently got a massive investment from Sony and the company behind The Lego Group. The cash infusion comes on the heels of the official release of Unreal Engine 5.
