There’s something to be said about the popularity of survival-crafting games. Though the trend was somewhat jump-started byMinecraftback in 2011, it has shown no signs of dying off. Most recently, the release and immediate popularity ofSons of the Foresthas proven this once again.
However, not every game in the genre succeeds throughout its lifespan.Valheim, though a loved game that sports a 91% positive review rate on Steam, still suffers from a poor update schedule that has left some fans upset.Sons of the Forestneeds to avoid this issue in order to maintain a positive relationship with its community.
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Valheim Updates Take Too Long
Sons of the ForestandValheimactually have somewhat similar histories of success. The two games were massively popular on release, garnering incredibly high player counts and plenty of attention from online content creators. The two are also in early access, which sets up the expectation that they will receive a decent amount of updates before their “completion.” This is also typically expected from games that accrue an incredible amount of popularity, as fans expect their money will be put to good use.Sons of the Forestupdate 2has shown Endnight Games wants to keep up this momentum.
Despite its massive popularity and plethora of content,Valheimhas had a problem with keeping up a consistent update schedule. Since its release in early 2021, it has had many patches, but not many big content updates. Its most recent content update was Mistlands in December 2022, but before that was the Hearth and Home update in September 2021. The lack of major content updates left fans feeling like there wasn’t enough being added to keep them entertained. IfSons of the Forestwants to maintain positive feelings, it’s going to need to do more thanValheim.
Part of the reason for the dissatisfaction inValheim’s update schedule is because of how survival games tend to function. Whenever an update is added to a survival game, that gives players something new to look forward to on both old and new worlds. Some players will log into their old worlds just to check out the content of the new update, while others will replay the entire game if the update is significant enough. Even thoughValheimis a game that fans seem to love according to reviews, its development pace led the game to becoming stale. Evena Steam record-breaker likeSons of the Forestcan fall victim to this trend.
Another issue thatValheimfaced is competition. The survival-crafting genre is both a very popular and populated one.Minecraft,Terraria, and nowSons of the Forestare just a few of the most popular competitors. If a game begins to stagnate in its updates, survival-crafting fans have plenty of other games to go to in the meantime. However, with too few updates, those fans might just end up staying at the ones with more consistent update schedules.Sons of the Forest, although unfinished, has the potential to become a real titan in the survival-crafting genre. However,Sons of the Forestneeds to avoid the mistakeValheimmade to keep it that way.
If its predecessor,The Forest, is anything to go by,Sons of the Forestwill likely one day leave early access and be considered a full release. However,Sons of the Forestneeds to learn fromValheimto avoid falling into an unfavorable position with its player base.
Sons of the Forestis available now in early access for PC.
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