Bad Guitar just revealed the release date for upcoming F2P shooter FragPunk.
As revealed in the latest trailer in The Game Awards, the game is coming in March 6, 2025, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and Epic Game Store.
Bad Guitar also revealed that all cards will be free at launch, making it so that all players will be at a level playing field come launch.
FragPunk is the latest entrant in the competitive and increasingly cutthroat F2P shooter market. In this year alone we have seen the launches of Helldivers 2, FoamStars, XDefiant, and Concord. Of those three, XDefiant and FoamStars were announced to be shutting down, and Concord was already closed.
Helldivers 2 was hamstrung by Sony’s decision to remove the game on Steam from regions and countries that Sony did not enter yet with PSN, but Arrowhead Game Studios is still in the fight to regain ground and make their title sustainable.
Many older free-to-play shooters are struggling to stay relevant as well. Overwatch 2 and Destiny 2 are conspicuous in how they’ve earned bad reputations with fans, but they still have enough players willing to put up with it to keep playing.
And then there are the industry’s current giants, Fortnite, and also PUBG. While PUBG doesn’t get talked about as much, make no mistake that they are in far more stable ground than every incoming live service title that wants to make inroads in the market.
It’s easy to criticize Concord and Sony for its many mistakes, but that really creates a misleading picture of where the industry is at. The fact is, these games don’t need to make mistakes to lose fan interest, and subsequently to see drop-offs in player count. The Finals and XDefiant are noteworthy for not being able to sustain the interest they earned when it started.
Marvel Rivals seems to be positive sign that there’s still gamers looking for a new thrill, but FragPunk will have to come up with something to compete with a pitch as strong as the Marvel license.
Early word on the card based randomization system has been good, but we don’t know if gamers will stick around for it yet. But Bad Guitar’s choice to make all cards free is at least one correct decision that they won’t regret later.
With that in mind, we wish the best for Bad Guitar and their prospects this coming 2025.
