HopFrog’s offbeat survival crafting adventure Forager initially launched on PC in the spring of last year, but it wasn’t until it arrived on the Nintendo Switch a few months later that it finally caught my attention. It looked like a colorful and cartoony take on Stardew Valley, a game I was obsessed with at the time, mixed in with a dash of something like Minecraft or Terraria. All of that was blended with a heavy pinch of plain old weirdness. As much as I loved the look of Forager, I never ended up pulling the trigger on the Switch version, and in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but think that it would be the perfect type of game for mobile.
Well I wasn’t the only one thinking that apparently, as back on the game’s one-year anniversary in April, HopFrog announced that a mobile version was in the cards, and although no release date was mentioned, another update in June specified that the mobile version would feature all of the content updates released for other versions thus far, so we would be getting the full-fledged Forager experience on our mobile devices… whenever that may be.
After impatiently waiting for a few more months, just a few weeks back it was revealed that Forager would finally be arriving on mobile on September 24th. A quick check of the old calendar tells me that September 24th is tomorrow. Well, what would have been a glorious day has been soured by last-minute news that the mobile version of Forager is now delayed until 2021. That seems… odd, right? Literally the day before you’re set to launch a game, probably more like a matter of hours, and all of a sudden the game must be delayed until next year? What the heck problem showed up that caused this to happen out of nowhere without anyone being aware of it until now?
Yes, part of me is just irritated that a game I was looking forward to has been pushed back, but also there’s just something weird about this type of eleventh hour decision. I mean, if it needs a few extra days or a couple of weeks, that sort of thing seems reasonable. But 2021 is more than 3 months out, and there’s no specification on WHEN in 2021 the game is planned for now. We could end up waiting a very, very long time for Forager on mobile. HOPEFULLY that’s not the case and we’ll see the game’s release in the very early part of 2021, but it’s still a major bummer and still an incredibly weird turn of events that I wasn’t expecting at all. I guess I’ll just play it on Xbox Game Pass?
That’s just so weird, and kinda unprofessional. Was really looking forward to that one. Had it marked in my calendar and everything.
Really didn’t expect it being delayed a few hours before release let alone 3 month without a stated reason.
Rhymes with duck! Was really looking forward to this.
Curious, what is your source for this awful news?
Gaming journalism at its finest! Heads up articles sharing insider knowledge on the mobile gaming industry are why I visit TouchArcade regularly. And Jared Nelson is obviously an important cog in the machine that is TouchArcade. Thanks to the team!
Good God, calm down, take a deep breath, and uphold the absolute bare minimum of journalistic standards. Ensure that wild claims are backed by sources that can be checked. Check your sources thoroughly instead of blindly believing a very fallible 3rd party account. And when countless people working firsthand on the content in question contradict the 3rd party's completely baseless claim, maybe you should look into that. I shouldn't have to explain these basic concepts to you.
...This just keeps getting better and better. The reddit post you linked lead back to an article on this website written by you, which is also filled with lies to cover for your ego. God forbid you admit fault.
"Originally Launching Tomorrow" It never was.
"'Forager’ on Mobile is Now Delayed" It's not. You blindly believed an incorrent thirdhand account and did zero due diligence.
"Until 2021" Also pulled out of your ass.
3 lies in a single title. Kotaku would be proud.
"it was revealed that Forager would finally be arriving on mobile on September 24th." claims TouchArcade's Mikhail Madnani without citing a single source for his claim.
PROTIP: when a company gets caught with their pants down, it's not in their best interests to link back to their own non-sourced claims that were proven false.
Bonus tip: if I say "the world will end tomorrow," that doesn't mean "It's been REVEALED that the world will finally end on tomorrow's date because one random guy said so." One person's non-sourced claim =/= "revealed that X will transpire." Is it really that hard to swallow your pride and admit fault, rather than portraying lies as if they were 'facts that had been revealed'?
"Well, what would have been a glorious day has been soured by last-minute news that the mobile version of Forager is now delayed" Source: your ass. It was never delayed; you just refuse to admit fault and are now doubling down on your misinformation.
"until 2021." Source: your ass.
"Literally the day before you’re set to launch a game, probably more like a matter
of hours," Source: your ass. Community managers, mobile testers, and many other team members working on the game refuted these lies countless times for the past several weeks.
"and all of a sudden the game must be delayed until next year?" Source: your ass.
"What the heck problem showed up that caused this to happen out of nowhere" It was never the case that Hopfrog announced a release date. Nothing "happened" but the norm: ongoing development. Put your ego aside and admit fault instead of pretending there's some grand, behind-the-scenes conspiracy and doubling down on spreading misinformation.
"without anyone being aware of it until now?" Everyone was aware of it but you,
Mikhail, et al. All it took was <60 seconds of research to debunk your lies. Apparently that's asking too much of game urinalists. Swallow your pride and admit fault instead of doubling down on your lies.
"Yes, part of me is just irritated that a game I was looking forward to has
been pushed back" It was never pushed back; you just refuse to admit
fault and are now doubling down on your misinformation.
"but also there’s just something weird about this type of eleventh hour decision." It was never the case that Hopfrog announced a release date. There's no 'weird, eleventh hour decision': there's simply the normal ongoing development. Put your ego aside and admit fault instead of pretending there's some grand, behind-the-scenes conspiracy and doubling down on spreading misinformation.
"But 2021 is more than 3 months out, and there’s no specification on WHEN in 2021 the game is planned for now." Source that Forager's coming out on mobile in
2021: your ass.
Yet again, you pass up an opportunity to cite your claim. If you have an allergy to citing the sources behind your eyebrow-raising claims, you really shouldn't be working in journalism - not even bottom-of-the-barrel gaming journalism.
"it’s still a major bummer and still an incredibly weird turn of events" There's no 'incredibly weird turn of events': there's simply the normal ongoing development. Put your ego aside and admit fault instead of pretending there's some grand, behind-the-scenes conspiracy and doubling down on spreading misinformation.
"that I wasn’t expecting at all." Which could easily have been avoided had you or
Mikhail or your respective editors - oh, who am I kidding; you two clearly don't have any editors to fact-check your spurious articles, nor any accountability for that matter - done a single minute of research.
Apparently that's asking too much of game urinalists.
Wow. This is… wow. I mean imagine reacting like this to a video game release date. You really should seek help, I mean that sincerely.
I will try to break this down as simply as possible for you. The PR company for Humble (you know the publisher of Forager) emailed us at the beginning of the month with the mobile version release date. In an official PR email. From the company that Humble literally hired to do things like send release dates out to press outlets. Nothing was pulled out of our ass, and nothing was taken from some random third party. That same PR company are the ones who told us the game is delayed until 2021. Again, the PR company is literally the official mouthpiece for Humble. This is literally how information about video games is disseminated to press on a daily basis, for thousands of games a year. It's the way it's been done for decades. Do you think Todd Howard is personally emailing a bunch of websites to tell them when the new Elder Scrolls game is launching?
WHY did this PR company have a release date set, and WHY was the mobile dev team (which is not Hopfrog, by the way) not aware of it? I have no idea. That is for the PR company and Humble to figure out in private, and I can almost guarantee somebody is now out of a job over this. It sucks.
One last time. I have the OFFICIAL email announcing the release date, and I have the OFFICIAL email announcing the delay. That Humble's own PR company botched all of that is NOT our fault. I am very capable of admitting fault and in fact do it all the damn time. If we had fudged something up on our end I would gladly say so, but that's just not the case this time.
That’s what I’m talking’ ‘bout!