Fall Guys is a Knockout as Game Aims for Mobile Release in China
This year has given summer fling new meaning with the rise of Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, the zany team game of incredibly kinetic beans. PS4, Twitch, and Steam saw the launch of this minimalist battle royale game in early August where it immediately gained more than 1.5 million players and counting, becoming the most successful release for its publisher Devolver Digital and developer Mediatonic.
Now, rumors about a mobile expansion are coming to fruition. Although the Fall Guys Twitter has warned in the past to beware of mobile knock-offs and scams, it seems the game will be getting an official mobile platform available to players in the foreseeable future.
Surprise Success
On Steam, Fall Guys has sold more than 7 million copies. Playstation has tweeted that Fall Guys is the most downloaded game of all time on Playstation Plus, although Sony won’t confirm the number of copies sold. For a countdown-round style multiplayer game where the in-game purchases are a collection of outfits for your jelly-bean challenger, this kind of popularity couldn’t have been predicted. Or, that’s what the developers thought, anyway.
Mediatonic creative director, Jeff Tanton, shared initial doubts about the project. “When you launch a mass multiplayer game, one of the things is you just don’t know how many people are going to show up. And you can’t start a game because you need at least 60 people,” he said, referencing the number of players you need to start a round in the game. “It seems ridiculous now when you look at the numbers we’ve got.”
The sheer amount of players is keeping them on their toes now, however, with the peak player amount clocking in at 150,791 on PC and averaging at around 96,000 through Steam. This has created some issues with server capabilities, but the Fall Guys team is doing its best to keep up with the demand.
Exclusive Rights for Bilibili
Players around the world would love to see Fall Guys in the app market, but as it stands the games company Bilibili has secured mobile publishing rights for the game in China only. There’s no word on when audiences can look forward to the release of a mobile game, but Bilibili’s website already has mentions of Jelly Bean: Ultimate Knockout.
“We can confirm Bilibili has secured publishing rights to a mobile version in China,” Bill Croft, co-founder of Mediatonic, said in a statement. “As you can imagine, we’ve had a lot of questions about platforms since launch, and of course we’d love to release on more platforms in the future but for now we’re focusing our efforts on PC and PS4.”
The simplistic gameplay is perfect for smartphone play and for many players, a mobile app seems well overdue. While Fall Guys is just now getting their app negotiations off the ground, much of the entertainment industry is moving to mobile. Fortnite has attempted to make the move and is challenging in-app currency rules enforced by market giants. Meanwhile, industry favorites like online slots games and cryptocurrency casinos like those listed at smashingtip.com, work around app market rules by making their sites browser compatible. Either way, mobile devices have become a legitimate contender in the entertainment business.
Big Love for the Little Guys
With plenty of other battle royale games making waves right now, what transpired to make Fall Guys one of the biggest indie video game launches of all time? This colorful jelly bean bopper managed to become the second-most-popular game on Twitch, surpassing Fortnite for viewer count and- leaving Call of Duty: Warzone and CS:GO in the dust.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout_20200806050928
Each round starts you with 60 other players, all trying to make it through a variety of obstacles and mini-games while you avoid getting squished or flung to make it to the finish line. It takes just as much fun as it does luck to make it to the next round (although there are some techniques that might help).
Some Steam reviewers say the fast gameplay and lack of control over skill don’t leave much to be desired in the way of replay value, but for people who love the game, those don’t seem to be issues. On the contrary, the feel-good chaos and interactive intensity of Fall Guys is what keeps them coming back for more. People who love Fall Guys love having a good time with their friends, and right now that’s all a lot of us really need.