Jump Force Game Possibly Labeled as a Live Service

The anime fandom is at an all-time and game developers are becoming keenly aware of this. Mash-up 3D brawlers like J-Stars Victory VS, while not nearly as popular as the Dragon Ball Xenoverse series or Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series, have found a modicum of success over the years. Enough success to warrant a game similar to the 2015 fighting game in the form of Jump Force. Thanks to an interview with Unikrn, producer Koji Nakamura provide some details about the game, specifically whether it’ll be competitively balanced, what the inspiration for the project was, and more. Unfortunately, it also seems Nakamura hinted at Jump Force being “a living game.”

In a response to whether Jump Force will be “a living game that will constantly be updated with new characters and such,” Mr. Nakamura made it clear that he and his team wants “players to be able to play the game for an extended period of time for the long run.”

I can’t give you too much detail on post-release plans yet, but our hope for the fans is that fans feel great about playing the game. We want to promote longevity, as well. We want players to be able to play the game for an extended period of time for the long run. To promote longevity and a longer lifespan, we’re preparing a lot of content to bring you over time. We can’t say what they are yet, but we will announce them closer to the game’s release.

This doesn’t explicitly confirm whether Jump Force will be a live-service product, but it seems developer Spike Chunsoft and publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment want players to return to their game frequently, as it continuously receives updates, character additions, further DLC, and possibly more.

It was recently announced that Bleach characters Ichigo, Rukia, and Aizen would all be playable, but Death Note characters – specifically Light Yagami and Ryuk, as L didn’t make an appearance – won’t be playable. During E3 2018, we had the chance to check out Jump Force with an exclusive hands-on preview. We wrote that “at this early stage in development, Jump Force is not much more than a tech demo. But it has certainly made waves bringing together all sorts of popular manga characters under one over-the-top fighting game.”

Jump Force is expected to land in North America sometime in 2019 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

[Source: Unikrn]