Once Human Q&A – ‘The Launch Was Successful Beyond Our Imagination’

At Gamescom 2024, I had the chance to speak to Derek Qiu, Head of Overseas Operations for Once Human, the 'New Weird' free-to-play survival game published by NetEase and developed by Starry Studio. The game launched on PC on July 10 and immediately registered strong player numbers.

Qiu discussed the upcoming features and updates, answered some questions from the Once Human community, and confirmed that the mobile and console launches are on the way. The plan is to merge everything into a single unified community thanks to cross-play.

Related Story Once Human, the ‘New Weird’ Survival Game, is Out Now and Already in Steam’s Top 10

Tell me about the recent launch. How is it going so far?

It's beyond our imagination and expectation. It's been over one month after the launch, and we have reached $110 million. Most importantly, I think the record we achieved cannot be achieved without gamer support, so often, we also ranked number 5 globally in the most played games on Steam. Last week, we reached number 2 in the revenue ranking, so the launch is actually really beyond our expectations.

I think you already published an update. What's next in your Once Human roadmap?

We are going to publish another PvP scenario, which will come in September. This one will be a refreshing gaming experience for the PvP players, and then in October, we will have another PvE scenario, which is still in progress. But we will have new Tyrants, and new monsters. In the long-term pipeline we will also go on mobile and on consoles. We haven't published our official announcement on those yet, but it will be published very soon.

Will the game have crossplay?

That's going to be crossplay enabled, yes.

With everything, even mobile?

Yes, it's gonna be a very big community.

I have also been watching some of the feedback from the Once Human community. Many people would like simplified currencies, as they believe they are confusing.

What do you mean by simplified currencies?

Consolidating currencies, so