Subsequent yr, Sanrio’s lovable forged of characters will transfer past your iPhones and iPads. Hiya Kitty Island Journey, the comfortable neighborhood vibes sport that debuted in July 2023 on Apple Arcade, is lastly increasing in 2025 to Nintendo Change, and PC as a timed unique earlier than coming to the PS4 and PS5.
Notably absent is the Xbox. However even releasing the sport past Apple Arcade is a welcome change for Sanrio followers outdoors Apple’s ecosystem. Hiya Kitty Island Journey is the form of chill, low-stakes expertise roaming round a serene isle doing enjoyable duties that dovetails effectively with Sanrio’s lovable forged.
Followers have saved enjoying the sport, with over 40,000 individuals in its official discord, mentioned Chelsea Howe, chief product officer at Sunblink. She credit the characters and the sport’s uniqueness — letting you create your individual Sanrio-styled character, journey in dynamically completely different areas, embellish your house, craft and create — with its recognition.
“I believe we all the time get preliminary shock [at the game.] If it’s a Sanrio fan, they’ve by no means seen a sport like this,” mentioned Howe. “They’ve by no means seen a chance the place they will actually get to know the characters and join with the characters, expertise the backstories of characters.”
However Sunblink has additionally saved followers pleased with common content material expansions. Hiya Kitty Island Journey launched with over 30 hours of content material for gamers, and studio Sunblink has saved followers engaged by including content material on an everyday cadence — updates each three weeks, new options in a giant replace each six weeks — that is grown the sport to round 80 hours now.
At first blush, Hiya Kitty Island Journey seems to be loads like the comfortable sport king that preceded it, Animal Crossing New Horizons. The video games have an analogous island setting and neighborhood vibes. However Hiya Kitty Island Journey has distinguishing parts that shock followers, Howe says, like its open world side. There are biomes and island options like ruins to discover, which comprise underground puzzle and logic rooms. And as an alternative of paying down a debt to a sketchy racoon landlord, the primary mechanic is leveling up your friendships with the Hiya Kitty herself, Chococat, Cinnamoroll and different Sanrio characters.
“It was actually necessary for us to deliberately merge the open world facets with the comfortable life sim facets and proceed to stroll that line regardless of the Animal Crossing comparisons,” Howe mentioned.
One other approach it is completely different than Animal Crossing New Horizons: You should not tweak your console’s clock to trick your sport into pondering it is earlier or later, which followers referred to as “time touring.”
“Do not do it. You probably did it in Animal Crossing. Do not do it on this sport,” laughs Howe. That is not a promise of punishment — for those who time journey, you may miss out on real-time occasions, probably locking you out of recent content material. Sure, the identical content material that Sunblink provides each few weeks.
That features in-game occasions linked to holidays, like Valentine’s Day, which all gamers will expertise on the similar time. Now that the sport is coming to different platforms past Apple units, Sunblink faces the additional problem to replace a number of platforms without delay. It’s going to do that by rolling out the Apple Arcade model updates on the identical cadence whereas bundling a number of in greater updates for consoles and PC.
Howe says Sunblink listens to its followers and has added options or made tweaks primarily based on what they’ve steered. Generally this has meant introducing options which are much like these in Animal Crossing, and different instances it is eradicating offending options. As an example, the sport has no stock caps: “That was the primary factor that was an enormous frustration for me personally in Animal Crossing and for lots for others,” Howe mentioned.
One other added characteristic is the TikTok-friendly capability to edit your character’s house cabin on the island. If buddies are watching, they will ship emoji and provides different stay suggestions whilst you’re adorning. “If certainly one of your excessive degree motivations is self-expression, and if you need it to be a social expertise, the extra you may allow collaborative self-expression the higher,” Howe mentioned.
All of this non-combative, friendship and nurture-focused play is coming to consoles and PC for an undisclosed worth, however Sunblink has carried over one other characteristic from Apple Arcade: no microtransactions. As an alternative, there’s a mixture of free and paid updates, which Sunblink believes will resonate higher with the fan base. “It is positively all about ensuring that it feels prefer it’s well worth the worth that you simply’re offering,” Howe mentioned.
Cozy sport followers may have an alternative choice when Hiya Kitty Island Journey involves a number of platforms subsequent yr, and Howe emphasised that gamers will dictate how lengthy the sport retains going.
“We see this as the beginning, not the top. It is a stay sport. We have not less than two years of roadmap forward of us,” Howe mentioned. “So long as individuals are having fun with it and loving it and enjoying it, we intend to maintain on sustaining it.”
