Valheim Sits on a Gold Mine Best Saved for After Early…

Summary

Valheim, a co-op survival game by Iron Gate Studio, soared to success with over 5 million PC copies sold and record-breaking player counts.
The game is currently only available on Xbox consoles and PCs, but fans eagerly await its potential release on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation.
Iron Gate Studio may consider bringing Valheim to these consoles post-early access to ensure players receive the complete Viking survival experience.

Valheim is arguably one of the biggest indie success stories of the last few years. The title, created by independent Swedish developer Iron Gate Studio, is a procedurally-generated co-op survival game in which players explore a Viking-inspired fantasy world filled with diverse biomes and dangers lurking at every corner. In order to survive in this harsh, untamed wilderness, gamers have to collect valuable resources, build resilient bases, craft various weapons, and fight challenging enemies, including large-scale boss fights. Valheim is so rich in content, which is quite impressive considering the fact that it was made by a team of five people and is still in early access.

When Valheim was initially released in early 2021 on PC, it immediately rose to the top of both sales and player count charts worldwide. Just a few weeks after it was launched in early access, the game reached a record-breaking peak of over 500,000 concurrent players on Steam, making it one of the most-played titles on Valve's popular storefront at the time. Valheim also sold over 5 million copies on PC in a single month. Furthermore, the game received glowing reviews from both critics and players, garnering a 94% Very Positive user rating on Steam. As one can easily tell from all these impressive statistics, Valheim has been a breakout hit for Iron Gate Studio, but the developer could increase the title's popularity even further by bringing it to consoles, specifically the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5.

Iron Gate Studio Should Bring Valheim to Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5

Valheim is Currently Only on Xbox Consoles and PCs

Console versions of Valheim have already been released, but only on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. These two ports were announced by Microsoft and publisher Coffee Stain Studios during the 2022 Xbox Games Showcase Extended. Unlike the original PC release of the game, the Xbox versions were created not by Iron Gate Studio, but by the German game developer Fishlabs instead, in collaboration with the external support studio Piktiv.

After a few months following its unveiling, Valheim finally landed on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on March 14, 2023. These versions of the game not only came with full crossplay support right out of the box, but they also launched day-and-date on Game Pass. In spite of its release on Xbox consoles, though, Valheim has yet to be announced for PS4, PS5, or Nintendo Switch.

Perhaps the reason why Valheim isn't on PlayStation and Nintendo platforms yet is that neither of them supports early-access games that often. While in-development titles have launched on PS5 and/or Switch before, such as Disney Speedstorm, Palia, and TemTem, the number of work-in-progress games on the two consoles is considerably more limited compared to Xbox. This may have to do with the fact that, unlike Sony and Nintendo, Microsoft offers its own Game Preview program, allowing developers to bring their games to the Xbox platform prior to their official release. Because of this, launching early-access games on Xbox platforms is probably a lot easier than releasing them on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles.

Valheim Should Come to Nintendo and PlayStation Alongside Its 1.0 Launch

If Iron Gate Studio does decide to bring Valheim to PS4, PS5, and Switch in the future, then maybe it should wait until after the title has left early access to port it over to those platforms. Sure, this does likely mean that PlayStation and Nintendo fans may have to wait until 2025 or even 2026 to play the critically acclaimed Viking survival game on their preferred platforms, but at the very least, they'd have access to the complete Valheim experience.

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