Hello everyone,
This is the Holoearth producer, Oooka.
Spring is finally upon us!

Today I would like to take the opportunity to talk about our efforts with Holoearth, and what is planned for 2024.

First of all, allow me to touch on the avatar creation system and simulation room test versions implemented at the end of last year.
Despite being test versions with simplified features, more people have played the current test version than we initially imagined. We truly appreciate all those who have participated in the playtest so far.
We are emboldened by the great amount of feedback we have received.
The development team is carefully considering the feedback and suggestions with a view to making improvements and refinements. This is in addition to what we are already working on, so please have patience while feedback is incorporated.

The video streaming feature that was tested during the New Year’s period as well as during hololive EXPO last month went well, and again thank you to all who participated in the video streaming tests.

These were restricted to simple video streaming for testing purposes, but thanks to this we were able to confirm a stable streaming feature and are thinking of interesting ways to utilize this system along with other features in the future.
Again, more people than expected joined us to test this feature. While it is currently a relatively simple streaming feature, we would consider continuing to implement it if there are enough requests.

That is all for recap, and now for the main topic: Holoearth development moving forward.

About Upcoming Updates

First of all, allow me to apologize to all for the delay that we announced for the version 0.7.0 update that was planned for April. While this news comes just before the update was expected, we made the decision to delay with a focus on ensuring the quality and feature stability is up to our standards, in order to provide the best avatar creation and customization experience that we can. We appreciate your understanding and patience.

The upcoming version 0.7.0 update is planned for May and is intended as the first step in further developing the lifestyle experience of Alternative City. In order to enjoy the continued growth and development of the city area and its attractions, we hope you view the area as the “current version” of Alternative City.

We are also planning the following update, version 0.8.0, for June this year.
Version 0.8.0 will expand upon the sandbox game playtest environment, including enemies and combat mechanics as well as some more survival mechanics.
From this point, the simulation room game cycle will evolve from a simple crafting game into a more complex survival and crafting game.

While I cannot say exactly when at this time, following the version 0.8.0 update, after various feature additions and adjustments the sandbox gameplay field is planned to be expanded into an open world experience.
At that point at last pathfinders will delve into the land of Holoearth – which pathfinders can prepare for by viewing the expanded simulation room as a training experience.

A version 0.9.0 update is also being planned for summer this year, so we will announce information as the date comes closer.

Outlook for the Rest of 2024 and Beyond

Until now Holoearth has been presented as three core pillars of content:
・Avatar creation system
・Sandbox game
・Lobby and now Alternative City

As the basis for Holoearth these three core systems are expected to be largely complete during 2024.
These core systems are designed for further development and expansion in the future. Even after the release of these systems, we will continue to dynamically add and expand features while monitoring the stability of the core systems.

Specifically, in addition to these three core systems we are planning to release until now undisclosed features that we have been working on, of which are four large items:
・One is game contents other than the sandbox game
・Another is a space that will act as the player’s own private area
And two more features that we will be ready to announce at a later time.

We initially discussed planning an official Holoearth release in 2024.
However, with a view to the long term and dynamically adding more functionality while also planning to continue to trial a number of new features, we ended up having much deliberation with regard to exactly how to define the end of beta and the start of official release.

In light of this, from 2024 we have decided not to go with an official release version and instead to maintain the development version (β) as we update.
The driver for our decision on this matter is that we would like to view this as a continued development phase and express our stance as having a bold and ambitious style of development in a transparent manner.

However, this does not mean we are doing away with defined updates and milestones. To this end, we are looking toward releasing a version 1.0.0 update (*similar to what is typically considered an official release) as a key milestone celebration once the core content has come together.
At the current moment in April, 2024, we are aiming for this version 1.0.0 to be ready in spring of 2025 and making the necessary adjustments and development efforts.
With version 1.0.0 in mind, I think it will offer a clearer picture of Holoearth as a whole as well as the features currently being developed – so we hope you are looking forward to it.

To wrap up, while version 1.0.0 will be the critical milestone, from the version 0.7.0 release in May we plan to continue releasing partial play content, avatar customization options, and other features at a quality equivalent to a fully released service.
I think everyone will be able to have plenty of fun during the year.

On that note, we will continue to add more features and content, and bring the growing, anime-style virtual world of Holoearth to life. All of us on the development team are exceedingly grateful for your continued support.

April, 2024
Yuuki Oooka, Producer, Holoearth