Developers Starry Studio have claimed to have over 10 million pre-registrations for their debut game, Once Human. However, Starry Studios appears to be a branch of NetEase, who have been operating in the game development industry since 1997.
So why does this game have so many players ready to go? And when, exactly, does it launch? Let’s look into it.
Once Human Launch Times
Once Human launches on July 9, 2024, at 9pm PST. That means much of the world will get it in the early hours of the morning. Check to see when it launches in your time zone.
- PST: 9pm
- BST: 5am, 10 July
- UTC: 4am, 10 July
- AEST: 2pm, 10 July
Why so much hype?
Once Human was the most popular game at the latest Summer Steam Fest, with it’s demo getting the most plays. Sadly, I missed out, opting to play titles such as Level Zero: Extraction instead. So what is Once Human?
It’s a free-to-play open-world survival game. If that rings a bell, we have several of those already, and most of them are quite popular. DayZ, Rust, etc. However, what makes this game quite unique are the giant, one-of-a-kind monsters. Yeah, giant monsters that you’ll likely need a team to take down.
There’s a level progression system and base building as well. And at this point, need I say more?
It’s been a while since we got a new one of these, and it seems like there’s certainly a gap to fill in the market. It’s new, fresh, exciting, and… janky.
I don’t know, I’ve watched some gameplay on YouTube, and the movement looks kind of odd. Certainly slow, if anything. There are also several frame rate issues that were revealed on the demo. However, it certainly looks interesting, and those for a love of DayZ, Rust or any other permadeath base-building slog will likely at least want to try it out.
But even so, how does it have 10 million prospective players? That sounds impossible!
Why it has 10 million pre-registrations
It’s simple, actually. It’s coming to mobile. That’s why this game has enjoyed so much traction. Not everyone has a PC capable of playing modern games, but just about everyone has a phone. Imagine playing DayZ on your mobile?
That’s kind of what this game promises, and that could be fun. However, I’ll certainly be giving it a try on PC, and who knows, it might even get me off The First Descendant for a while.
Wishlisting the game on Steam also counts as a pre-registration, and with just short of 125,000 followers on Steam, the game could see quite a successful launch day. We’ll just have to wait and see.
