The year is coming to an end and with it, our hopes and dreams that many games that we’ve all been anxiously awaiting will be released in 2017. Although most games don’t have a specific release date yet, we’ve gathered together some of the most highly anticipated games of 2018 that have been announced throughout the current year.
Brawl Stars
Some studios have a hard time making it past the success of their first one-hit-wonder app. Just take a look at King or Mojang, for example. However, Supercell hit a double whammy with both Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, and now Brawl Stars is their third attempt at stardom. Even though the game arrived on iOS in June, we’re still awaiting its arrival on Android. It’s closer to being a MOBA but without reaching the same degree of complexity. Only time will tell if it will be as big of a success once it’s finally released on Android.
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
Niantic was also touched by the gods after reaching for the sky with Pokemon GO (and before polishing the formula in Ingress). Since it appears that social games featuring geolocation work better with official licenses, the studio recently announced that they’re working with Warner Bros. on this game that will also follow the mechanics of its previous productions. In other words, we’ll all be wandering around aimlessly and feeling awkward, thinking everyone is watching us as we’re obsessively staring at our smartphones. Excellent.
Durango: Wild Lands
There are more MMOs than we can count, but Nexon is trying to stand out from the rest with a fresh approach. Durango is about heavenly islands, dinosaurs, and survival. It’s an enormous MMORPG where you have to search for resources to create new survival techniques while defending yourself from wild animals. Although the game has already offered a few beta versions open to the public, we’re still waiting for its official release.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
Here we have one of the most important announcements of the year in the world of videogames. The most played game for PCs in recent months is coming to smartphones thanks to an agreement between the studio Bluehole and the Asian giant Tencent. And the agreement is twofold, with an adaptation of the original game and another much wilder version with helicopters and boats. At the moment, the release will be limited to China but it’s expected to reach the rest of the world by the end of 2018. You can already pre-register on its official website.
The Walking Dead: Our World
Pokemon Go cast a long shadow. Proof of this is the announcement of this videogame based on The Walking Dead, specifically on the official license of the TV series on AMC. Killing zombies in your real-world environment via its geolocation service sounds like a good time. However it’s not exactly an original idea, as we’ve already seen it done before with Zombies Run! There’s still no official date set, but we can follow the latest news via the official website.
World of Final Fantasy: Meli-Melo
Square Enix is definitely capitalizing on its most successful saga with the creation of quite a few titles based in one way or another on Final Fantasy. World of Final Fantasy is a unique game that came out on Sony consoles a few months ago (and on PC a few weeks ago). This more casual version maintains the curious collection of big-headed characters taken from different installments, as well as the entertaining system of monsters and character stacking. At the moment, it’s set to come out this month in Japan, and as has happened with the majority of games from the studio for Android, it’s sure to reach the west eventually. And if your Final Fantasy addiction still isn’t satisfied, they’re also developing a pocket version of Final Fantasy XV.
Lineage M
Lineage 2 Revolution from Netmarble has been a real revolution since its release in the west, becoming one of the most profitable mobile games in Asia. But it’s not the only one that’s taken advantage of the license. NCSoft has its own mobile version of the saga that put food on their table for years, and this year it’s managed to make them a profit of 83 million dollars. It’s logical to assume that the game will move west, or at least that’s what we want to believe. Here you can sniff around its official website.
Marvel Strike Force
Disney is restructuring its mobile division and the studios in charge of the games using their license. The new title from Foxnet Games is very similar to others that use the franchise, like the extinct saga Marvel: Avengers Alliance. That is, it offers turn-based combats between Marvel icons with nice graphics and endless enemies to fight off. We Marvelites are already dying with excitement.
The Room: Old Sins
Allow us to digress for a quick second. Until now, all the games mentioned above have been Freemium, but The Room saga is a different matter. This would be the forth part of a saga that, although being paid, has millions of followers. Exhilarating puzzles and increasingly complicated logic-based minigames whose formula has been cloned over and over again. At the moment, it’s set to arrive January 25, 2018 to iOS to later be published on Android.
Black Desert Mobile
Black Desert Online has been one of the most successful MMORPGs for PC in recent years, with surprising graphics for the genre under the Unreal Engine 4. The Pearl Abyss studio have decided to expand their title to the portable universe and are already working on the version for iOS and Android. Take a look at the video and get ready to be amazed.
