Gameloft has revealed what they have planned next for Disney Dreamlight Valley.
As outlined in their latest update, players are nearing the end of the Rift in Time expansion, and planning to end Jafar’s latest schemes. In terms of new characters, Tiana from The Princess and The Frog, and her palace, will add a 1920s New Orleans flavor to the village. She comes this month, complete with her own star path. Timon and Pumbaa are also coming this October.
In terms of improvements, Gameloft has promised improvements to the Scrooge McDuck’s Store, with better recommendations and an improved layout. They also commit to big improvements to Furniture and Wardrobe menus, including “some of our most highly requested features to help you better sort through and manage your items.” They won’t tell us what those improvements are though, at least not yet.
Gameloft has also revealed a seeming megaton of a new feature. The next update will bring cross-platform multiplayer on PlayStation consoles. This means PlayStation users can join the party with players on other platforms, to visit their villages, share designs, and take on DreamSnaps challenges together.
Gameloft’s creative director Josh Labelle has a new interview with Polygon where they got to talk about this update. When asked about the game’s current player numbers, Josh said this:
“We have a healthy and stable player-base at the moment and see that many of our players continue to be excited to return to the game whenever we add a new character that they love.”
While Josh did not give any numbers or estimates, this is hopefully reassuring to players who weren’t sure what state Gameloft’s live service is after it did saw some serious player number drops after launch. Josh also revealed that Gameloft is now very sensitive to player feedback, and are continuously tweaking the game to keep players happy.
Now, Josh also revealed to Polygon that they are introducing new multiplayer modes, that are particularly designed so that players don’t have to be online at the same time, or playing together. This would definitely be an accommodation that could get some lapsed players to come back.
Disney Dreamlight Valley is the odd live service title that switched from free-to-play to having a fully paid retail release, as well as paid expansions. The switch disappointed some players, but it looks like Gameloft made the right call here. There seem to at least be enough paying customers to help keep Disney Dreamlight Valley a growing concern, something that they weren’t sure they could achieve if they stayed free-to-play. We hope to see them build this as a living platform in the future.
