Earlier this month, Nintendo announced a playtest for something new in development. At the time, details were nonexistent, but applications were open exclusively to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pass subscribers. Nintendo reached its desired number of testers immediately, and the playtest is currently slated to begin on Wednesday, October 23rd. While the company has yet to reveal any kind of information about the playtest, leakers have already shared a bunch of details online. Apparently, this is a new massively multiplayer game in development from Nintendo. In the game, players must work together to place beacons that heal and purify the land, in order to develop it.
Images of the playtest details were shared on X/Twitter by user @ZikadaPrime and can be found in the post embedded below.
Videos by ComicBook.com
As the world gets developed, players will uncover new areas, which will have new enemies to encounter, and new resources that can be found. The character designs (which could be a placeholder) seem to be based on cavemen, but it’s hard to say based on the limited number of images. The screenshots also show that the game will have some kind of a hub called the Dev Core. In this area, players will be able to level up their characters, get items that can be used on the planet, and interact with other players.
At this time, additional details are extremely limited, but it’s possible we could learn more once the actual playtest gets underway later this week. We don’t know when Nintendo plans on releasing this game to the public, or how it will be offered. It’s possible that the game will be released as a full-priced Switch game, or it could be some kind of freebie offered to Expansion Pack tier subscribers. That wouldn’t be totally out of the question, as we’ve seen free online games like F-Zero 99 offered to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers over the years. Now that information is already leaking online, hopefully Nintendo will use the opportunity to lay out its plans to the general public.
No one has actually had an opportunity to play this new MMO game yet, so it’s far too early to tell how people feel about it. However, some Nintendo Switch Online subscribers are expressing some disappointment on social media; many were hoping that this playtest would revolve around a new feature for the service, or even a new classic gaming app, like the ones we’ve seen for NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy, GBA, and Sega Genesis. Some actually thought Nintendo might be testing out GameCube games for the service. At the moment, Nintendo seems pretty content with focusing instead on remasters and ports of GameCube games, rather than a dedicated app, so fans that want to play those games are just going to have to settle for that!
Are you excited to check out this new game from Nintendo? Were you hoping for something else from this playtest? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter atย @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky atย @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram atย @Dachampgaming!
