EA, Hoyoverse, Playrix and More Reveal New Soft Launch Games Across Global Markets

Bit Odd, a fresh Finnish studio with veterans from Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, has debuted Field Day, a hybrid MOBA and extraction shooter. It’s currently in early access in Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, with plans to expand soon. Meanwhile, Blizzard is quietly developing Overwatch Rush, a mobile-exclusive top-down hero shooter set in the Overwatch universe. Though still early, the iOS version has already seen over 10,000 downloads in the Philippines, hinting at a growing interest ahead of Blizzard’s formal testing announcements.

In the casual and merge game space, several titles are moving through soft launch phases. Century Games’ Just Desserts combines merge mechanics with narrative storytelling and is available on Android in Australia, Canada, the Philippines, and the UK. Family Farm Merge offers a pastoral farming experience and has started picking up traction in the UK, France, Canada, and Germany during early testing. Farlight's Totally Mall: Merge & Gossip takes players back to the ’80s with a merge puzzle twist, while Reality Bay invites players to direct their own film set in a merge 2 format, soft launched in India, Brazil, and the UK.

EA’s Plants vs. Zombies 3: Evolved has already launched in the Philippines, UK, Malaysia, and Singapore, with the publisher promising updates on a wider rollout soon. Fingersoft’s Hill Climb Racing 3 is testing real-time multiplayer for the first time in the UK, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, marking a notable evolution for this physics-based racing series. Garena is experimenting with Garena Free City, a GTA-like title that’s moved beyond its initial soft launch in Argentina to register downloads in the Philippines, Algeria, and Egypt.

Hoyoverse, known for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, has opened pre-registration for Petit Planet, a cozy life simulation game following several beta rounds, though its release date remains unannounced. King and Mojang briefly soft launched Minecraft Blast, a new puzzle game, in Malaysia and Canada before pulling it back; Minecraft.net describes the project as still in very early stages. Capcom and Tencent continue beta testing Monster Hunter Outlanders with a global launch expected later this year, while Level Infinite is rolling out Gangstar Mirage City.

In more eclectic offerings, Miniclip’s Hoverboard Party, a Subway Surfers-themed party game, is soft launched in the UK, Italy, and Portugal, featuring mini-games like Cage Football and Snowball Fight. Miniclip’s Derby studio is also testing Pure Crime: Gangster Shooting, an open-world crime game, in the UK and Philippines. Paint Brawl, a Splatoon-like shooter recently rebranded to include Subway Surfers characters, is seeing downloads in the UK and Philippines. Rival Nations, a multiplayer war game, is in soft launch across several European countries including Hungary and France.

The list goes on with Moon Active’s Family Bay, a follow-up to Family Island, soft launching in India, Kazakhstan, and Poland; Hole Stars, a Voodoo Hole.io variant available in markets like India and the US; and Jelly Busters, which mixes pixel art with skateboarding jelly cubes, showing traction across Germany, the UK, and the US. Other notable soft launches include Playrix’s squad battler Questbound, Scopely’s WWE Generations: Eras Collide turn-based RPG, and Rovio’s Angry Birds Match World, a match 3 luck battle game in collaboration with French developer OhBiBi.

This broad array of tests across genres and markets shows how top mobile developers are fine-tuning diverse gameplay experiences and monetization strategies before committing to global launches. Players in these test regions get early access to innovative features and settings, while publishers collect valuable data to shape final versions. The soft launch phase remains an essential proving ground, especially as developers experiment with multiplayer modes, narrative merges, and cross-genre blends that might define mobile gaming’s next wave.

Key points from this round of soft launches include EA’s Plants vs. Zombies 3 live in four markets, Blizzard’s Overwatch Rush surpassing 10k iOS downloads in the Philippines, and Fingersoft’s Hill Climb Racing 3 introducing real-time multiplayer in Nordic and UK regions. Meanwhile, Hoyoverse has opened pre-registration for Petit Planet, marking a notable step for their expansion beyond Genshin and Honkai properties.