Latest news with #AnimalCrossing
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
Millions are flocking to grow virtual gardens in viral 'Roblox' game created by teen
Whether it serves as a chill escape from the onslaught of the real world or simply a way to beat vacation doldrums, a viral Roblox game about gardening has become the surprise hit of the summer. Grow a Garden, created by a 16-year-old in a few days, has shattered records for the most concurrent players of any game in history, beating out video games that take years and millions of dollars to develop. And there's no one to shoot, fight or race. If your last attempt at cultivating vegetables was FarmVille in 2010, don't worry — your tomatoes will grow even if you never water them. Grow a Garden is as simple as its name suggests — players can fill a plot of land with plants and animals, harvest and sell, trade or steal each others' bounty. The game is low stress, with an aesthetic reminiscent of Minecraft and a soundtrack of soothing classical tunes such as Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca playing in the background. Its popularity has further cemented Roblox' place not just in the gaming world but in popular culture — for better or for worse, it's where the kids hang out. 'The word I keep hearing used over and over to describe this particular game is that it's chill, which is just such a nice alternative. I get a lot of sort of that Animal Crossing vibe from it. You know, like you can check in, you can check your gardens, you can get some new seeds, you can plant them,' said Becky Bozdech, editorial director at the nonprofit Common Sense Media. 'I have an 11-year-old son who (plays it) and he says to him the big difference is that a lot of games have a big giant objective that you have to do, but in Grow a Garden, you can just kind of hang out and do what you want.' Coincidence or not, Grow a Garden soared to popularity around the same time that Take-Two Interactive announced it would delay the launch of its wildly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 until next year. In late June, the gardening game logged 21.6 million concurrent players, surpassing Fortnite's previous record of 15.2 million according to Roblox. Analysts who follow Roblox's stock say Grow a Garden is helping boost the company's revenue and will push the company's quarterly earnings numbers above Wall Street's expectations. While it's not clear if the GTA audience flocked to this simple gardening game to pass the time until then, the timing reignited the age-old debate about who gamers are and what titles are taken seriously by the video game establishment. It happened with Candy Crush, with puzzle games, with Animal Crossing. Are people who play cozy games true gamers? Or is the title reserved for the folks who shoot enemies in Call of Duty or drive around creating mayhem in GTA? 'There's a huge percentage of gamers that play Roblox and the actual industry just views it as like this esoterically immature platform of weird gameplay habits,' said Janzen Madsen, the New Zealand-based CEO and founder of Splitting Point studios, which acquired the game from its teenage creator. 'Well, I actually think in five years this is what player expectation is gonna be. And because you guys haven't embraced it, like you're not gonna know how to make games.' To start growing your garden, you'll need a Roblox account. The game will start you out with an empty plot and some money — sheckles — and a starter seed. From there, you can plant seeds, harvest and sell your crops and buy more seeds, animals or tools for your garden. While it is possible to play the game without spending real-world money, it will take longer. Once you sell enough crops, you earn money to buy more expensive seeds beyond basic carrots and blueberries. 'For me, I just, I really want to get all the rarest stuff. I'm a completionist, so I want everything and that's what's fun for me,' said Leah Ashe, a YouTuber who plays Grow a Garden and other popular games to an audience of 5.3 million. 'It's really cool because you can come together because the seed shop is global, so everybody's shop is the exact same. So you can work with other people and be like, 'Oh my gosh, the sugar apple is in stock. Get online!' The seed shop updates every five minutes, so there's always something pulling you back into the game.' For Roblox, which has faced a backlash for not doing enough to protect kids on its gaming service, Grow a Garden has served as something of a reprieve — along with new safety measures such as chat restrictions and privacy tools. New players get help from more established peers who send them gifts and let them know when rare seeds become available in the seed shop. Bozdech said that 'if you have the right supervision and guidance,' Roblox can be a positive experience for kids, allowing them to create their own designs or practice coding, for instance. 'Something like Grow a Garden, particularly, is a nice opportunity maybe for parents and kids to play together,' she said. And perhaps the slow cultivating of a magical garden can benefit parents too. 'It's hitting a nerve, you know?' Bozdech said. "People need an escape from the world, I think we all do.'
San Francisco Chronicle
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Millions are flocking to grow virtual gardens in viral Roblox game created by teenager
Whether it serves as a chill escape from the onslaught of the real world or simply a way to beat vacation doldrums, a viral Roblox game about gardening has become the surprise hit of the summer. Grow a Garden, created by a 16-year-old in a few days, has shattered records for the most concurrent players of any game in history, beating out video games that take years and millions of dollars to develop. And there's no one to shoot, fight or race. If your last attempt at cultivating vegetables was FarmVille in 2010, don't worry — your tomatoes will grow even if you never water them. Grow a Garden is as simple as its name suggests — players can fill a plot of land with plants and animals, harvest and sell, trade or steal each others' bounty. The game is low stress, with an aesthetic reminiscent of Minecraft and a soundtrack of soothing classical tunes such as Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca playing in the background. Its popularity has further cemented Roblox' place not just in the gaming world but in popular culture — for better or for worse, it's where the kids hang out. 'The word I keep hearing used over and over to describe this particular game is that it's chill, which is just such a nice alternative. I get a lot of sort of that Animal Crossing vibe from it. You know, like you can check in, you can check your gardens, you can get some new seeds, you can plant them,' said Becky Bozdech, editorial director at the nonprofit Common Sense Media. 'I have an 11-year-old son who (plays it) and he says to him the big difference is that a lot of games have a big giant objective that you have to do, but in Grow a Garden, you can just kind of hang out and do what you want.' Coincidence or not, Grow a Garden soared to popularity around the same time that Take-Two Interactive announced it would delay the launch of its wildly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 until next year. In late June, the gardening game logged 21.6 million concurrent players, surpassing Fortnite's previous record of 15.2 million according to Roblox. Analysts who follow Roblox's stock say Grow a Garden is helping boost the company's revenue and will push the company's quarterly earnings numbers above Wall Street's expectations. While it's not clear if the GTA audience flocked to this simple gardening game to pass the time until then, the timing reignited the age-old debate about who gamers are and what titles are taken seriously by the video game establishment. It happened with Candy Crush, with puzzle games, with Animal Crossing. Are people who play cozy games true gamers? Or is the title reserved for the folks who shoot enemies in Call of Duty or drive around creating mayhem in GTA? 'There's a huge percentage of gamers that play Roblox and the actual industry just views it as like this esoterically immature platform of weird gameplay habits,' said Janzen Madsen, the New Zealand-based CEO and founder of Splitting Point studios, which acquired the game from its teenage creator. 'Well, I actually think in five years this is what player expectation is gonna be. And because you guys haven't embraced it, like you're not gonna know how to make games.' To start growing your garden, you'll need a Roblox account. The game will start you out with an empty plot and some money — sheckles — and a starter seed. From there, you can plant seeds, harvest and sell your crops and buy more seeds, animals or tools for your garden. While it is possible to play the game without spending real-world money, it will take longer. Once you sell enough crops, you earn money to buy more expensive seeds beyond basic carrots and blueberries. 'For me, I just, I really want to get all the rarest stuff. I'm a completionist, so I want everything and that's what's fun for me,' said Leah Ashe, a YouTuber who plays Grow a Garden and other popular games to an audience of 5.3 million. 'It's really cool because you can come together because the seed shop is global, so everybody's shop is the exact same. So you can work with other people and be like, 'Oh my gosh, the sugar apple is in stock. Get online!' The seed shop updates every five minutes, so there's always something pulling you back into the game.' For Roblox, which has faced a backlash for not doing enough to protect kids on its gaming service, Grow a Garden has served as something of a reprieve — along with new safety measures such as chat restrictions and privacy tools. New players get help from more established peers who send them gifts and let them know when rare seeds become available in the seed shop. 'Something like Grow a Garden, particularly, is a nice opportunity maybe for parents and kids to play together,' she said. And perhaps the slow cultivating of a magical garden can benefit parents too. 'It's hitting a nerve, you know?' Bozdech said. "People need an escape from the world, I think we all do.'
Winnipeg Free Press
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Millions are flocking to grow virtual gardens in viral Roblox game created by teenager
Whether it serves as a chill escape from the onslaught of the real world or simply a way to beat vacation doldrums, a viral Roblox game about gardening has become the surprise hit of the summer. Grow a Garden, created by a 16-year-old in a few days, has shattered records for the most concurrent players of any game in history, beating out video games that take years and millions of dollars to develop. And there's no one to shoot, fight or race. If your last attempt at cultivating vegetables was FarmVille in 2010, don't worry — your tomatoes will grow even if you never water them. Grow a Garden is as simple as its name suggests — players can fill a plot of land with plants and animals, harvest and sell, trade or steal each others' bounty. The game is low stress, with an aesthetic reminiscent of Minecraft and a soundtrack of soothing classical tunes such as Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca playing in the background. Its popularity has further cemented Roblox' place not just in the gaming world but in popular culture — for better or for worse, it's where the kids hang out. 'The word I keep hearing used over and over to describe this particular game is that it's chill, which is just such a nice alternative. I get a lot of sort of that Animal Crossing vibe from it. You know, like you can check in, you can check your gardens, you can get some new seeds, you can plant them,' said Becky Bozdech, editorial director at the nonprofit Common Sense Media. 'I have an 11-year-old son who (plays it) and he says to him the big difference is that a lot of games have a big giant objective that you have to do, but in Grow a Garden, you can just kind of hang out and do what you want.' Coincidence or not, Grow a Garden soared to popularity around the same time that Take-Two Interactive announced it would delay the launch of its wildly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 until next year. In late June, the gardening game logged 21.6 million concurrent players, surpassing Fortnite's previous record of 15.2 million according to Roblox. Analysts who follow Roblox's stock say Grow a Garden is helping boost the company's revenue and will push the company's quarterly earnings numbers above Wall Street's expectations. While it's not clear if the GTA audience flocked to this simple gardening game to pass the time until then, the timing reignited the age-old debate about who gamers are and what titles are taken seriously by the video game establishment. It happened with Candy Crush, with puzzle games, with Animal Crossing. Are people who play cozy games true gamers? Or is the title reserved for the folks who shoot enemies in Call of Duty or drive around creating mayhem in GTA? 'There's a huge percentage of gamers that play Roblox and the actual industry just views it as like this esoterically immature platform of weird gameplay habits,' said Janzen Madsen, the New Zealand-based CEO and founder of Splitting Point studios, which acquired the game from its teenage creator. 'Well, I actually think in five years this is what player expectation is gonna be. And because you guys haven't embraced it, like you're not gonna know how to make games.' To start growing your garden, you'll need a Roblox account. The game will start you out with an empty plot and some money — sheckles — and a starter seed. From there, you can plant seeds, harvest and sell your crops and buy more seeds, animals or tools for your garden. While it is possible to play the game without spending real-world money, it will take longer. Once you sell enough crops, you earn money to buy more expensive seeds beyond basic carrots and blueberries. 'For me, I just, I really want to get all the rarest stuff. I'm a completionist, so I want everything and that's what's fun for me,' said Leah Ashe, a YouTuber who plays Grow a Garden and other popular games to an audience of 5.3 million. 'It's really cool because you can come together because the seed shop is global, so everybody's shop is the exact same. So you can work with other people and be like, 'Oh my gosh, the sugar apple is in stock. Get online!' The seed shop updates every five minutes, so there's always something pulling you back into the game.' For Roblox, which has faced a backlash for not doing enough to protect kids on its gaming service, Grow a Garden has served as something of a reprieve — along with new safety measures such as chat restrictions and privacy tools. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. New players get help from more established peers who send them gifts and let them know when rare seeds become available in the seed shop. Bozdech said that 'if you have the right supervision and guidance,' Roblox can be a positive experience for kids, allowing them to create their own designs or practice coding, for instance. 'Something like Grow a Garden, particularly, is a nice opportunity maybe for parents and kids to play together,' she said. And perhaps the slow cultivating of a magical garden can benefit parents too. 'It's hitting a nerve, you know?' Bozdech said. 'People need an escape from the world, I think we all do.'
Tom's Guide
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
Massive Lego sale live from $7 at Amazon — here's the top 15 deals I'd buy now on Star Wars, Marvel, flowers and more
Let's go, Lego! Amazon is offering Lego deals from $7 and it's an awesome chance to add to your collection during back-to-school sales. Now's the time to soak up the summer sun and build some beautiful bricky masterpieces! For starters, this Lego Roses set is on sale for $8 at Amazon. Not only is this simple build a pretty addition to your home decor, it also makes for a great gift for a loved one. Or, if minifigs are your fave, you can grab this Lego Minifigures Series 27 6-Pack on sale for $25 at Amazon. This will get you six mystery Lego minifigures dressed up in fun costumes — just note you may get repeats. Keep scrolling to see all my favorite Lego deals! For more savings, see our Amazon promo codes page, and check out the back-to-school Adidas deals I'd shop from $11 at Amazon. Do you love creepy-crawlies? If so, this Lego set is pretty much a must. It has pieces to build either a spider, scorpion or snake in a cool black, red and yellow color scheme. There's even a string web included to hang the spider from. These Lego Roses really brighten up a living space, and they make for an excellent gift. The Lego flowers set comes with 120 pieces and is relatively simple to build. Bonus: these roses will never wilt! Know an Animal Crossing fan with a birthday coming up? There's pretty much no better gift out there than this Julian's Birthday Party set. Complete with a cake, balloons, party hats, and presents, it's an awesome buy at just $9. This 3-in-1 kit for kids 7 and up lets you build a parrot perched on a branch with a movable head, wings, and tail; a frog with posable legs, and a fish with movable fins and seabed. The parrot measures 8.5 in. high, 4 in. long and 4.5 in. wide. The Lego Creator 3 in 1 Cute Bunny set is listed in Lego's bestsellers section, so act fast! This set lets you build either a rabbit, llama or seal in a soft tan color scheme. All three animal models are poseable, too. Another super cute Lego Animal Crossing set is now on sale. This one gets you a cute garden shop setup with a caravan and car! There are also minifigures of Leif and Poppy. The 27th series of Lego's minifig blind boxes is here, and now you can get a set of six minifigures for a discount! You could find anything from Cupid to a Cat Lover inside each box. Just note that you could get repeats. This deal gets you a set of six mini F1 race cars, complete with logos and turning wheels. Just note that they're sold in a blind box format, so you may get repeats. If Donkey Kong Bananza is your favorite Nintendo Switch 2 game (us too!) you'll definitely need to grab this Donkey Kong Lego set. Since this set is Mario Kart themed, it comes with an awesome DK Jumbo kart to race around in! This Lego Classic Large Creative Brick Box if you want the freedom to build anything you can imagine. It contains a bumper set of 790 pieces in a selection of 33 different colors, and includes special pieces like doors, wheels, and eyes to create houses, vehicles and animals. What's better than plants? Tiny Lego plants! This botanicals set contains a variety of brick greenery, including cacti and colorful flowers. Each one comes in its own pot. Recreate Iron Man's lab with this Lego Hall of Armor set. You get a trio of Iron Man suit minifigures — MK1, MK43 and MK6 Iron Man — as well as Pepper Pots and Aldrich Killian. There are also display cases to show off the suits. Nothing feels better than adding a new spaceship to your Lego Star Wars collection! This Rebel U-Wing Starfighter comes with 594 pieces and makes for an impressive display piece. It comes with four minifigures, including Cassian Andor. Cinderella, you will go to the ball. This Lego set comes with a beautiful castle and a carriage to ride away in! Best of all, you don't have to finish building it before midnight. Right now you can shop LEGO Star Wars deals on Amazon, including this mid-size Millennium Falcon starship that celebrates the 25th anniversary of the LEGO Star Wars franchise. This 921-piece set is great for memorabilia collectors. This Lego set has seen a nice 29% discount, bringing its price under $100. That means it's now a must-have for Lion King fans! The head moves for some fun posing opportunities, and this set is billed as a challenging but relaxing build for grown-up Lego fans.
Metro
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Games Inbox: Is there a secret Nintendo Switch 2 Christmas game?
The Monday letters page thinks Battlefield 6 could be a big hit this autumn, as one reader hopes Final Fantasy 17 will be more like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ Summer to winter I see there's still a lot of talk about whether Nintendo has a 'secret' new Switch 2 game for this Christmas but I will be absolutely shocked if they do. We're probably getting a Nintendo Direct this week, that I can believe, but what are people expecting? Animal Crossing or a new Mario? I don't see it. The new Mario is never going to come out straight after Donkey Kong, it's much more likely going to be left for the new movie next year. And while they might tease Animal Crossing, they're not going to release it this year, no way. Why not? Because normal people don't buy new video game consoles in the middle of the summer. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza are Nintendo's big Christmas games. They may not be secrets, but they are just about the most mass market games they have and they don't even need anything else, especially not with Metroid Prime 4 and Pokémon Legends out this year. There might be some small game or port or something like that, but I am certain there won't be any more big new games until next year. Taylor Moon In the wings I think people are underestimating Battlefield 6 a bit. Battlefield was huge up until Battlefield 4 and if EA hadn't messed up it could have overtaken Call Of Duty as everyone's favourite military shooter. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. I don't know if Call Of Duty is in too deep now but you don't have to overthrow it to still be a massive hit. I like what I'm hearing about Battlefield 6 so far and I think it could be massive. Although it does depend what this year's Call Of Duty will be like, but if it's a dud then EA are right there able to take advantage of Activision's mistake. Lotto Pre-word of mouth Would just like to agree with the Reader's Feature about Star Wars Outlaws. It's a really great game and I feel it was victim to everyone assuming it would be bad and never bothering to find out whether it was or not. This sort of thing happens a lot, it seems to me, where a game (or movie) is killed by online word of mouth before anyone has actually played it. I'm not saying the game is an all-time classic but as only a moderate Star Wars fan I had a lot of fun with it and agree it's Ubisoft's best open world game in a long time. There're some neat little improvements to the formula going on and I can only hope they at least make it into other non-Star Wars games. I would absolutely recommend it, especially if you can find it cheap. Lomas Email your comments to: gamecentral@ Survival plan Survival crafting games aren't my usual fair but when there's a neat setting at the centre I've been drawn in and not been disappointed, having thought both Subnautica and Grounded were fantastic. Abiotic Factor's full release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC has just been made known to me as it's been added day one (for the 1.0 release) on both Game Pass and PS Plus Extra. The setting looks like my cup of tea and the mentions of Half-Life when reading up about it have pretty much put it to the top of my list for next game. Shame it comes out a week or so before Grounded 2 early access. I had intended to play that, but I really want to give Abiotic Factor a play so will probably wait for Grounded 2 1.0 to play that game. It's for one to six players. I'll probably play it solo but as is increasingly happening due to barriers between Sony and Microsoft being lowered its cross play, so don't have to worry about starting it on PlayStation (my preferred choice) and not being able to play with my Xbox owning family members. Simundo Budget limitations I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that keeps hoping a new Nintendo Direct will see a new Castlevania annoucement. There's no reason to hope for it except that it seems impossible that it won't happen at some point… but it never does. I understand that finding a developer for it is a difficult, but if MercurySteam aren't available there are plenty of other indie developers that I'm sure would do a good job of it. The main problem is whether Konami is willing to put up the budget to make a good one. Even the best developer can only work with the limits they've got and you have to go back to the PS1 era to find a Castlevania with a decent sized budget. Ingot Fightin' IP I notice there's a lot of licensed beat 'em-ups and fighting games around at the moment, from that Invincible game to a new Marvel fighter and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Marvel scrolling beat 'em-ups. I approve of all of this, but I don't particularly like any of the franchises that are getting turned into the games. I'm curious what other people would like to see made into these type of games? I'm sure GC would be happy to see a Transformers game, which I feel could work as either, but somehow that's never been done before. A one-on-one fighter seems like it would be a no-brainer, considering everyone has their own special abilities and weapons and transformations. Or how about a Lord of the Rings beat 'em-up? I really liked the ones EA did when the movies first came out and I'd love something that was able to be a little more tongue in cheek with the franchise. I think the Tolkien family stop that from happening but that'd be my wish, and they did allow the Lego game. Or maybe a Roger Rabbit beat 'em-up? Something that had all sorts of old school animated cartoon characters in it, from Disney, Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, and so on. I bet companies would love to make those characters relevant again and I'd love to see that kind of thing. I'm going to stop now because I'm already upset that these things are never going to happen. Gable GC: There was a Beast Wars fighting game, but it was rubbish. Modern experiment I like the idea of CD Projekt making a beat 'em-up style game specifically because they're not very good at melee combat usually. I don't know if that'll end up being true, but it seems like a good idea. Considering they've done fantasy and sci-fi so far, I'd like to see them do something set in the current day too, as a change. The longer games take to make the less chance developers have to try new things, because they're always forced to go back to make sequels. Hopefully CD Projekt have enough money and feel this game would be a good experience that will help their others as well. Tyremate Expedition 34 I can't believe we're looking at the possibility where the people that made Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 really might be working on, or at least advising on, Final Fantasy 17. I am 100% behind them being involved but it seems incredible that Square Enix is so out of ideas that they need to rely on someone else that was already paying homage to their games. In case you haven't heard, the developer went and met with Square Enix for an exchange of ideas, or something like that, but it's pretty obvious what they were talking about. At a minimum they must've been discussing the idea of them working on some kind of spin-off but I'm certain the question of Final Fantasy 17 came up as well. I don't think anything has leaked out about it so far, so it can't be very far along, but I would absolutely love to see something that was more in line with the pre-Final Fantasy 7 games. Something turn-based and with a traditional fantasy setting, not sci-fi or the boring Game of Thrones knock-off that was the last game. Who knows how likely it is, but I feel there's now a real chance that Final Fantasy can be exciting again, and not ashamed of its own history. Egon Inbox also-rans Never mind Mario and Peach, what's the deal with Luigi and Daisy? I know her as Luigi's girlfriend but I don't actually remember any games where they're both in it, other than sports ones. Choser GC: We think it might have happened in a Japanese manga or something. We don't recall any game that makes it clear they have a relationship. Never mind Star Wars Outlaws 2, where is the third Star Wars Jedi game? Are we going to have to wait till next Star Wars Day for it to be announced? I think probably. Greeny More Trending Email your comments to: gamecentral@ The small print New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers' letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content. You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader's Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot. You can also leave your comments below and don't forget to follow us on Twitter. MORE: Games Inbox: Are gamers too entitled about video games? MORE: Games Inbox: Why has the Nintendo Switch 2 been so successful? MORE: Games Inbox: Will there ever be a new Mass Effect game?
