It’s been lovely to see Thatgamecompany bring the likes of Journey and Flower to PC, following their debuts on other platforms long before, and oh look here comes their latest too. Sky: Children Of The Light is now available free-to-play in early access on Steam, inviting everyone to explore a pretty world full of pretty sights and sounds in this “peaceful” MMO. Having installed it and started playing it myself, the important part is: yes, you can slide down hills in this one too.
There you are, a being fallen from the sky to restore a darkened kingdom on a series of adventures to jump, fly, swim, solve puzzles, and generally be pleasant. Like Journey, it’s more into vibes than challenge. And it’s an MMO, so you can join up with folks and get into social activities.
Sky debuted on iThings in 2019, later spreading to Android, Switch, then PlayStation 4. And now, PC. It first arrived on PC last year with a Steam Next Fest “demo” that was basically the full game with microtransactions disabled. Thatgamecompany then decided to keep the demo up and running until shortly before this official microtransaction-enabled early access launch. Part of the reason the PC version took a while, creative director Jenova Chen told us, was beefing up security against hackers who use bots to farm and sell currencies, and even jack into the game with bootleg builds charging money to unlock everything. He told Katharine that hackers are “making millions of dollars”, which I must say surprised me.
Sky: Children Of The Light is available now on Steam Early Access for Windows. It’s free-to-play, funded by selling cosmetics (£25 for a Journey costume?!) and a season pass which offers extra cosmetics.
The next season will start on Monday the 15th, introducing the ability to create your own little Nest/home.
I’ve heard that playing Sky in the long-term turns into grinding busywork to earn currencies to buy cosmetics, which I have no interest in, but ah sure I’ve installed it so I can have a single playthrough of the campaign. I’m okay with just stopping when I’m done. Thoughts on the game, veteran Lightchildren?
