What you need to know
- Towerborne is an upcoming side-scrolling online co-op beat-’em-up from Stoic, known for The Banner Saga.
- Towerborne will be published by Xbox and is planned (for now) exclusively for Xbox Series X|S and PC.
- Stoic announced today at Gamescom that Towerborne will initially be released on Steam Early Access on September 10, 2024. The Xbox Game Preview will follow at a later date.
- Towerborne will be released as a fully free-to-play title sometime in 2025.
Towerborne is an upcoming Xbox/PC game being developed by Stoic, known for The Banner Saga.
Towerborne takes its cues from side-scrolling beat-’em-ups like Castle Crashers, Streets of Rage, and Golden Axe, but adds a modern twist. Towerborne is also an online loot game at its core, allowing players to loot a variety of weapon types, upgrades, and gear to build their unique fighter.
At Gamescom 2024, we were treated to a new trailer for Towerborne, and also more information about when players can expect to get their hands on it. And it might be sooner rather than later. At least somehow.
Why does Towerborne choose Early Access?
Stoic announced today that Towerborne will initially be released on Steam Early Access on September 10th, with the Xbox Game Preview following some time later.
“It starts with our founders – players who chose themselves to be the first to help us shape the entire game,” noted Trisha Stouffer, CEO of Stoic. “After Steam Early Access, next with Xbox Game Preview, and finally free-to-play with the full release, the gates are so wide open to everyone that it’s harder to distinguish between noise and actionable feedback. So our goal with Early Access is to position ourselves to make the game stable and playable before we release it to a wider audience.”
Stoic points out that the studio is hoping to build on the success of The Banner Saga on Kickstarter with a Steam Early Access Founders Pack, hoping that players who are particularly passionate about the game will step in and provide feedback to help shape the game.
Game Director Daniel McLaren stressed that the Founders Pack and Early Access phase will be about improving the game for the general release later in 2025. “The Founder’s Pack allows us to do two things in particular: first, it allows us to slowly identify where there are problems and quickly bring attention to those areas. Second, it invites a group of people who are really invested in the game and believe in Stoic. They want to be involved in shaping the future of Towerborne.”
Xbox emphasized in a blog post on Xbox Wire that they support Stoic’s approach. Kristofor Mellroth, Executive Producer at Xbox Games Studios Publishing, said: “We all have the same goal – to make a game that people love for a long time. From the beginning, we knew our approach to Towerborne would be a little different. By being very targeted at the beginning and then expanding to a larger audience, the team can continue to improve and refine the most complex systems to make them as fun as possible.”
What is Towerborne?
Towerborne is a side-scrolling beat-’em-up designed with accessibility and short gameplay loops in mind. The engaging combat takes inspiration from the weighty, impactful weapon variety of games like Monster Hunter and even From Software’s Soulsborne games, but is designed for players of all skill levels and time commitments. Towerborne also borrows heavily from games like Diablo 4 with its loot systems, giving players a huge canvas to develop their own playstyle.
“You don’t have to invest hundreds of hours every month to keep up with everyone else,” Said Stoic co-founder Arnie Jorgensen. “Play as much as you want, go away and play other games and then come back. It’s important to know that everyone plays differently. You can play for five or ten minutes and still feel like you’ve accomplished something great, or you can play for five hours.”
In fact, in my own Towerborne preview from yesterday, I was immediately drawn into that familiar “one more mission” gameplay loop that Stoic is going for here. The missions you can choose from range from short and reactive to harder and more challenging. It’s not uncommon to choose between a quick 10-minute nightmare dungeon in Diablo IV or three friends for hour-long sessions of defeating bosses and the like.
Towerborne will be released on Steam Early Access on September 10th and will be completely free to play in 2025
Microsoft hasn’t used the Steam Early Access approach much, but it’s true that Steam has very mature systems in place to deliver this kind of experience. However, the Microsoft Store doesn’t, and it also has a small audience compared to Steam, so Valve’s dominant PC platform is the obvious choice if the goal is to gather feedback.
The free-to-play aspect is perhaps a little more concerning. The blog post didn’t mention whether Stoic’s approach would dodge the “pay-to-win” accusations. Free-to-play games are definitely more “accessible” until you hit the paywall. How will the free-to-play aspects of Towerborne work? Will I be able to buy powerful weapons instead of having to earn them? Will I be restricted in time if I don’t pay? What’s the benefit of having Xbox Game Pass in addition to Towerborne now that it’s free? And so on.
Unfortunately, there are more questions than answers here. But what remains is that Towerborne is already fantastic fun. Steam Early Access will only improve that.
