After a long development process, Ooblets is finally set to release into Early Access on the Epic Games Store and Xbox One on July 15. The news is certainly welcome by the many supports who backed the project when it first began, as the road to this point has not been easy.

For those who may not be familiar with the game, Ooblets givers players control of a farm where they can grow their friends and have them interact through daily life in several entertaining ways. In many ways, the core experience feels similar to Animal Crossing, where the way to play is largely up to each player.

This means that players can live their life by working the land and collecting new magical creatures and collectibles along the way, customizing their avatar’s clothes, hair, and home. There are several biomes to explore and many unique ooblets to find and befriend. Ooblets is starting off as a single-player experience, but the developer has stated that they are open to exploring new ideas in the future. Right now however, such a task would “basically double the time to make the game, so we’re not planning on it. Maybe we can do it in a sequel!”

We are glad to see the game finally reaching this playable state, because 2019 was a rough time for the developers following their announcement that Ooblets would be coming to PC as an Epic Games Store exclusive. The announcement was made around the time that Epic Games was signing up several games exclusively to their platform, and the reaction from some people online was toxic and vocal.

The situation was so bad that the developers needed to go out of their way to explain why the decision had been taken, which is somewhat odd for a developer to have to do. In the end, the decision was based on the financial side of the business model. Epic Games offered a far more equitable profit sharing scheme compared to Steam, and quite a bit of money up front that allowed for the game to continue in its development. That’s likely the reason we are seeing a release now instead of next quarter - and with more polish than would otherwise have been possible.

In any case, we are excited to try Ooblets for ourselves, and we are sure everyone will have a great time building their farm in their own unique vision!

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