In an unexpected announcement this morning, No Man's Sky developer Hello Games unveiled its latest project, The Last Campfire, is coming out tomorrow. The Last Campfire looks like a marked departure from No Man's Sky, a survival game set in the unending, procedurally generated vastness of space. No Man's Sky received a notoriously harsh reception upon its release, something that Hello Games may be seeking to avoid with its more low-key launch for The Last Campfire.
The team’s new project was revealed at The Game Awards nearly two years ago, but Hello Games was relatively quiet on the game’s details in the year following. That silence ended in 2020 as the adventure title first resurfaced at Nintendo’s Indie World Showcase in March, then made appearance after appearance in this summer’s diverse series of gaming events. One of the most in-depth looks at The Last Campfire came in April, when lead designer Steven Burgess talked viewers through a five-minute preview.
Today, PlayStation revealed that The Last Campfire is coming out August 27th, in a gameplay trailer with commentary from Hello Games founder Sean Murray. The game's reveal emphasizes that, while The Last Campfire might look simple and quaint on the surface, it will delve into deep themes like loss and empathy. Murray describes the world of The Last Campfire as simultaneously charming and dark. The main character, Ember, may look a little like a child’s toy, but the developer paints the creature as a lost individual who, while wandering, discovers others that the players can choose to help - or not - along the way. The game will ship with an explore mode for players who would rather stick to experiencing the world than overcoming its challenges.
While this announcement was understandably PlayStation-centric, The Last Campfire will also be coming to Xbox One, Switch, and PC as well. It's important to note for PC that, though Steam does have a page for the title, the game will be a timed Epic exclusive. The Epic Games Store's exclusivity deals continue to be a controversial subject. The Ooblets developers, for example, were bombarded with threats after announcing their deal with the company. However, the protests do not seem to have dented the success of Epic exclusive games; in fact, Epic exclusive Borderlands 3 reportedly sold more than 5 million copies in its first week.
Hello Games intended to release its new project this summer, so, with the season quickly passing, the game’s release date isn’t wildly shocking. It is perplexing that the developers chose to announce the release in a blog post the day before launch and not reach out to Gamescom's Opening Night Live host Geoff Keighley for an on-stage reveal tomorrow. It’s possible that some technicality behind the scenes prevented this, but - however its release was announced - The Last Campfire looks like an intriguing game to play this weekend.
The Last Campfire will be available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on August 27th, 2020.
Source: PlayStation