Disney Dreamlight Valley Showcase Reveals: New Characters Jack Skellington and Tiana, What Comes in Paid Expansion ‘A Rift in Time,’ and an Apple Arcade Edition

Jennifer Maas
·5 min read

Disney Dreamlight Valley held its first-ever showcase presentation Wednesday ahead of the Gameloft game’s move out of its year-long “early access” phase into a global launch, unveiling plans for the life-simulation through late 2024 in two roadmaps: one for paid expansion content and one for free upgrades included with the cost of the base game.

The streamed event came on the heels of last week’s reveal that Gameloft had scrapped plans to make the game free-to-play once it left its beta testing and instead set pricing tiers and an additional cost for the game’s first expansion, “A Rift in Time.” A number of updates about the future of Disney Dreamlight Valley were given, including the game’s upcoming launch on Apple’s subscription gaming platform Apple Arcade.

More from Variety

Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition will debut on Apple’s service Dec. 5, the first day that Disney Dreamlight Valley leaves early access and launches globally, and will include the base game and the “A Rift in Time” expansion, but have no access to Disney Dreamlight Valley’s Starpath or Premium Shop features.

According to the developers, the “A Rift in Time” expansion (which costs $29.99 and requires the base game to play) will take players to outside the Valley to new location Eternity Isle, where the new main antagonist is “Aladdin” villain Jafar. The expansion will be rolled out in three parts, with new storylines becoming available to those who purchase the expansion pass at launch, in spring 2024 and next summer.

While the paid expansion was the star of the showcase, developers shared several details about the future of the base game and the free updates that users will receive, including that the Dec. 5 update that will bring new character Jack Skellington from “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” to Dreamlight Valley, and that in late winter 2024 you will enter a “Monsters, Inc.” realm to find Pixar’s Mike Waszowski and Sully, and inthe summer you will gain Tiana from “The Princess and the Frog.”

The long-awaited multiplayer feature, included with the Dec. 5 update to the base game, was demonstrated during the showcase, with confirmation that the “ValleyVerse,” as its been dubbed, will allow players to not just come to each other’s valleys, but also exchange items and shop in each other’s in-game valley stores run by Scrooge McDuck.

The expansion will include three new biomes and three new characters: Ancient’s Landing, where you’ll find Eve from “Wall-E,” The Glittering Dunes, where Gaston from “Beauty and the Beast” is located, and The Wild Tangle, where Rapunzel from “Tangled” is waiting for you. According to Disney Dreamlight Valley’s lead level designer Calixta Girard, “the player will be able to explore one of the most memorable locations seen in a Disney movie” in Ancient’s Landing, which in preview footage looks a lot like a scene out of the 2001 animated cult classic “Atlantis: The Lost Empire.”

Each of these biomes will offer new critters (capybaras, cobras and monkeys) and foraging and gardening items (strawberries, “fantasy fig” and cinnamon,” and the unlock the ability to make new recipes (poutine, latkes, biryani and arepas.)

The “Rift in Time” expansion will offer players their first new royal tool since Disney Dreamlight Valley debuted in September 2022, the Hourglass, which developers say will allow players to “sense hidden treasure” in Eternity Isle, as well as Dreamlight Valley and the realms inside Dreamlight Valley’s castle.

Players with the expansion will be able to bring characters and items from Eternity Isle back to Dreamlight Valley, including new items called “ancient machines” that will help automate tasks such as watering a garden and cooking.

Additionally, “A Rift in Time” will give users the ability to play in-game board games.

Disney Dreamlight Valley’s original Founder’s packs ran $29.99 for the Standard edition, $49.99 for the Deluxe and $69.99 for the Ultimate, with the higher tiers including in-game exclusive items and additional Moonstones. Founder’s packs will be discontinued on Dec. 4.

As of Dec. 5 global launch, Disney Dreamlight Valley will offer multiple paid tiers, with the higher levels including the core game, plus additional features. On its own, the base game, which includes no exclusive content and no access to new story-progressing expansion packs, will cost $39.99.

The other options are the “Cozy Edition” of the game, which is the previously announced physical copy version of the game that opened for pre-orders in August and became available Oct. 27, for $49.99; and the “Gold Edition,” a digital version of the game, for $69.99.

Both of those versions include the core game, plus exclusive in-game items. Only the Gold Edition will give players access to the expansion pack “A Rift in Time.”

Per Disney Dreamlight Valley, “all unique cosmetic items included in the upcoming Gold Edition will be given free of charge” to any existing Disney Dreamlight Valley players who purchased the Founder’s Pack (the current paid version of the game offered during early access at multiple tier levels) and those who do so before it is retired Dec. 4. All Founder’s players will also receive 2,500 Moonstones. However, that offer does not include access to the “A Rift in Time” expansion pack, which will still cost existing players $29.99 to play.

Disney will reveal its latest quarterly earnings report Nov. 8.

Best of Variety

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.