This is the time of year when your favorite games pick up decorations, snow, and the occasional jolly old elf.
GamesBeat asked publishers and developers for a rundown of some of the holiday-related material their games are giving to players this year, and they buried us in an avalanche of responses. With items like heartless holiday cash grabs, scary Santas, and bosses that have strangely adopted seasonal attire, it seems the entire industry is getting into the holiday spirit.
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Above: The Sims 4 includes a number of holiday items, including ugly holiday sweaters for a variety of religions.
The Sims 4 gave its simulated-life-builder players the Holiday Celebration Pack this year, which has holiday-themed objects for their houses, decor, and clothing. Including, yes, those ugly holiday sweaters.
Above: That’s an ugly sweater. Guy it’s on ain’t no peach, either.
Not to be outdone, Sony Entertainment Online built ugly sweaters into the massively multiplayer hero RPG DC Universe Online — and even put them on snowmen players may attack in the MMO shooter PlanetSide 2 as part of the “Auraximas” celebration on Esamir. (Earn your “Snowblower” title today, folks.)
Bosses in the holiday spirit
Above: The Butcher looks festive in his holiday cheer, preparing to host a party … wait, why do those guests in the background have axes and swords?
World of Warcraft offers a variety of holiday-themed quests, items, recipes and the like in its Feast of Winter Veil, but players’ favorites are always the bosses who suddenly don their holiday gear — which players can then collect after they’re dead. Wow, MMO folk are mean.
For even more-dramatic holiday costumes, Blizzard Entertainment also dressed up its Heroes of the Storm online battle arena game characters in Winter Veil costumes and offered players the chance to ride around on a festive Reign-Deer. The game’s in beta testing now.
Putting the green in red and green
Above: Fork Parker does not endorse this holiday game, especially because you didn’t pay for it.
Devolver Digital’s fictional chief financial officer Fork Parker has long been a fixture in the company’s press releases, usually rubbing his hands together with glee over something he thinks will bring in cash by the bucketload.
Now he takes the gaming spotlight: Developer Dodge Roll, the company who made Enter the Gungeon, has turned him into a holiday-themed platformer game character in search of profit. We suspect Fork Parker’s Holiday Profit Hike is some kind of sick revenge plot — though whether it’s on Fork or on the holidays themselves is unclear.
“F— this noise,” the fake CFO said in a fake statement for a real Devolver press release. “Free is for Korean mobile games and after-dinner mints. This is an affront to everything I stand for and what I believe in.”
Holiday on the halfcourt
Above: Nothing like a yummy John Cena to go with your holidays. Card! I meant card!
The basketball game NBA 2K15 has downloadable Christmas Day NBA uniforms in game, including jerseys for every one of the 10 teams playing on December 25.
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And 2K Games’ mobile card-based wrestling title, the WWE SuperCard app, has holiday-themed backgrounds on its cards and splash screens.
Fae Yule, missing grandfathers, the 12 deadly days of Defiance, minion packs and more
The Rift massively multiplayer RPG is heavy into the holidays this year, celebrating Fae Yule from now through Jan. 7. Grandfather Frost is missing (so get going to find him, jeez), there’s a whole pack of minions for the season, and tons of items to collect (including pets, Planar Essences, seasonal Dimension Items and Costume Weapons).
Players can complete a weeky Faelight Sparkle quest and also earn extra dungeon rewards. Trion Worlds is giving out special-edition event cloaks, animated player portraits, a Merry Mink mount — you’re sure those aren’t mice with fat tails? — and seasonal loot galore. Including ugly sweaters. We detect a theme here.
Above: Those are some ugly sweaters on mice in Rift. Okay, on minks. (With wee mice noses.)
Trion also kicked off the Winter Maiden Festival in the sandbox MMO ArcheAge, with holiday hats, snowmen, and trees to decorate; Snowfest in voxel RPG Trove, with mystery boxes of recipes, snowballs, and mounts that players can get from Adventure World enemies and high-level Shadow Arenas; and the Solstice in online shooter Defiance, which seems to have a lot more to do with killing than holiday decorations, but perhaps killing in an especially festive way with your fancy radiation-damage Radiant Solstice weapons.
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Stop enough attacks by the dastardly Volge and you’ll be invited to collect yourself some gifts at Shondu’s Consolate. Pick up five of those gifts and you’ll receive a present with twelve legendary weapons with names like Partridge, Turtle Dove, French Hen, Calling Bird, Golden Ring, Laying Goose…
Play League of Legends, Animal Crossing, Pikmin, fantasy MMOs, or mobile games? Find those after the break.
You, Santa
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Above: Nintendo’s UK trailer for Animal Crossing: New Leaf’s holiday content
Nintendo’s cartoonish 3D-animated community sim for 3DS, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, relies heavily on seasonal content, so this is a pretty joyous time of year in your village. This holiday, your character will be in charge of delivering presents (complete with Santa suit), and you’ll see typical in-game decorative goodies including Christmas lights and snow.
A new holiday level for the tiny-alien puzzle-actioner Pikmin 3 called Fortress of Festivity also includes seasonal challenges, and is part of a downloadable Mission Mode content pack for that game.
Above: Pikmin 3’s Fortress of Festivity involves more delicious desserts than devilish dungeons.
Snowdown Showdown
Above: League of Legends clockwork champion Orianna gets a cheerful (for her) holiday look.
Riot Games, the developers of popular online battle arena game League of Legends, doesn’t really expect players to stop attempting to destroy each other … they’re just helping them to do it festively. The Snowdown season running now through Jan. 6 includes winter-themed skins, winter-themed summonable helpers, a frosty new heads-up display, and unlockable icons.
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Snowdown’s Legend of the Poro King game mode pitches players against each other 5v5 on the Howling Abyss, and players can send each other in-game gifts of different mystery skins for their characters.
If tank warfare is more your thing, PC armored combat title Battleline: Steel Warfare has a Seasonal Supply Event running through Jan. 6, where both the battlefield and the game lobby have been decorated for the holiday, and festive bags of gold (ho ho ho) are the rewards for complete PvP battle seasons.
Making toys and driving back the Ice Queen
Above: There, that tiny person, right next to the Christmas tree in Might & Magic Heroes Online — is that a tiny ugly sweater?
The residents in many of Ubisoft’s online games are prepping for the holidays. Players of The Settlers Online cheer up children and frightened settlers with pony rides and toys and create decorations. Might & Magic Heroes Online is having a Christmas event with five seasonal troops, a Winter Deer Pet, and a full Christmas attire set, which we’re pretty sure also includes an ugly sweater.
And in perhaps the most scenic option yet, the Anno Online city-builder dusts your island with snow and decorations — and pits you against the evil Ice Queen and her plan to stop Christmas by freezing the world.
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Above: Pretty enough to live in, if you like the white fluffy stuff: the Anno Online city builder’s holiday skin.
Star light, star bright … give us the loot already
Above: Developers of fantasy MMOs like Dragon’s Prophet find the holidays irresistible.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn gets into the holiday spirit with the Starlight Celebration, which sends players on a crusade to spread the spirit of the season … and pick up some holiday-season food, furnishings, and clothing. (No sweaters, but you can get a fake mustache and a truly tacky hat.)
Fantasy MMO RuneScape is building a giant Christmas cracker with 250,000 pieces of paper earned by players for delivering a gift a day to NPCs. No, we can’t even make that sort of thing up. Once it’s built, they can pull it apart to share bonus experience point items and “mirthful jokes.”
The “Festive Cheer” event also includes a new boss monster, “Snowverload,” whom players defeat in a snowball fight, and snowboarding (complete with unlockable boards and reputation points).
Dragon’s Prophet is running the Silver Dragon Festival from now through Jan. 15. Those evil goblins and giants are rudely interrupting the land’s festival of food, wine, performances, and songs. But the Great Dragons aren’t fans of killing, so you’ll fight off your enemies with snowballs, snowmen, and the “snow gift of lift.”
And it wouldn’t be the holidays without venerable MMO EverQuest (and EverQuest II), where the Frostfell area awards quests like “Saving Santug” (in EQ) and “The Great Candy (Cane) Chase” (in EQII). Visit Santug Cluagg in EverQuest, or partake in craftables, daily presents, and merchant items in Frostfell Wonderland Village in EverQuest II.
Handheld holiday happenings
Above: Be very, very afraid: Warrior Kringle joins the World of Warriors RPG adventure for iOS and Android.
Mobile gamers, never fear. Developers are making sure they deliver pocket-sized holiday cheer.
Actioner Rayman Fiesta Run is decked out with holiday levels, a costume for Rayman, and seasonal challenges. The Bot Squad puzzle battler picks up a Christmas theme, levels, and challenges.
Above: Because when you think of holidays, you should think of Blood … Brothers.
In the popular mobile RPG Blood Brothers, the God of Steel event lets you battle other players and “fiendish snowmen” between now and Dec. 29. The World Battle Tournament, which ends Christmas Day, allows players to pillage the Frozen Castle and decorate an in-game tree for prizes.
GungHo Online’s Puzzle & Dragons has holiday decorations, presents, play bonuses, extra boss appearances, and a special holiday-themed dungeon with Hera, in Queen of Darkness Santa mode.
PocketGems iOS titles including Secret Passages, Tap Paradise Cove, Animal Voyage, Campus Life, Episode — Choose Your Story, and Night at the Museum all have weekly content updates with holiday themes.
Storm8 games Restaurant Story, Bakery Story, and Fantasy Forest Story have things like reindeer track floor tiles, holiday bakery recipes, and the Yule Mule.
Warrior Kringle, the “Festive Fighter,” joins the ranks of the World of Warriors RPG for a limited time. The gem-matching puzzle game Dr. Who: Legacy has new daily content, including holiday themes, as part of its Advent Calendar promotion now through Christmas.
On a more disturbing note, the Krampus, a twisted Santa ally-gone-rogue, is attempting to take control of Christmas on HellFire: The Summoning. Rally the elves and reindeer to fight him off! One can only imagine how many ugly sweaters he might have to distribute.