Gaming trends come in waves. Recently, we’ve had modern military shooters, $1 iPhone games, and then free-to-play mobile games with in-app purchases. The popular trend right now is free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) titles. As with any gaming craze, Zynga is making moves to capitalize on it.
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“Our main goal with Solstice Arena is to take gameplay we love from a genre we love and transform it in such a way that allowed anyone — hardcore fans and casual players — to experience the thrill of multiplayer online battle arena gaming right from their mobile devices,” a Team Solstice spokesperson wrote on the game’s website. “We hope [some will] see a high-fidelity, well-balanced MOBA. To [others], we want Solstice Arena to simply be an awesome fighting game with great graphics.”
Solstice Arena will enter closed beta soon. Players can sign up on the game’s official website for a chance to get access to that testing.
Like Dota 2 and League of Legends, Solstice takes place in a fantasy world where heroes collaborate to take on teams of other heroes. Zynga is positioning Solstice Arena to generate revenue with in-game purchases that enable players to customize their characters, but Team Solstice is stressing that the title won’t have any pay-to-win bonuses.
“Solstice Arena is free-to-play and fair to play,” reads the Team Solstice blog. “Above all, we want to preserve the core progression of MOBA competition.”
Zynga isn’t the first company to bring a MOBA to mobile devices. Gameloft released Heroes of Order & Chaos on Android and iOS in 2012.
Team Solstice was previously known as developer A Bit Lucky. Zynga acquired that studio in September specifically based on what it saw in this title.
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While Riot and Valve battle each other for dominance of the lucrative MOBA market on PC, Zynga is taking a blue-sea approach by releasing that style of game in a market with far less competition.