Gameloft has revealed the launch date and monetization status of Disney Speedstorm.
They shared this message in a tweet:
“We are happy to announce that Disney Speedstorm will officially release on September 28th as a free-to-play experience on PC & consoles, completing its Early Access period.
Since the launch of Early Access, we’ve received invaluable feedback and support from our incredibly community of players, who have been instrumental to the improvements made during Early Access.
Moving to a free-to-play experience will also allow for more players to share in a fully robust competitive and co-op racing experience. We can’t wait to continue this journey together as we enter this exciting new phase. Stay tuned for more details!
Founder’s Packs remain available until Early Access closes, providing players with exclusive items now at a fantastic value of game content.
From the Disney Speedstorm Team.”
To be clear, Gameloft and Disney had intended for Disney Speedstorm to be free-to-play from the start.
Much like Disney Dreamlight Valley, Disney Speedstorm has received an Early Access Period, which allowed Gameloft to start selling the game to immediately address several issues, before launching it as a full product.
Interestingly enough, unlike Disney Dreamlight Valley, Gameloft has been more eager to get Disney Speedstorm out of Early Access. It will be about five months’ time between that Early Access period and its actual launch.
As it stands, there are 24 playable racers, across nine franchises, and they each subsequently have their own themed courses.
It’s obvious that Gameloft can put even more racers into the game before it goes onto launch, with what must be hundreds of IP to pick from. But, it is likely that Gameloft sees a faster dev cycle (no pun intended) for Disney Speedstorm to be popular and relevant, so they have to strike while the iron is hot.
It’s also a good sign for Disney Speedstorm and its fans. In contrast, for example, to Multiversus, Gameloft has already figured out the market for their game, and all signs indicate that they are closing to bringing everything together for a full release, for fans to play for the next few months, if not years.
In a market dominated by Mario Kart 8, Disney Speedstorm is set to make a multiplatform impact.
Disney Speedstorm is launching on September 28, 2023, to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.
