Videoverse, a 2023 visual novel set inside a fictional video game console’s built-in community app, is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on Nov. 14. It’s arrival on Switch is especially notable given that the game is heavily inspired by Nintendo’s now-defunct Miiverse app.
Developed by One Night Stand creator Lucy Blundell, Videoverse is a coming of age story set in 2003. It follows Emmett, a young gamer who joins a social app built into the Kinmoku Shark, a Dreamcast-like video game console that has its own video chat feature and community message boards. It was something of a hidden gem when it launched in 2023. While it wasn’t widely reviewed at the time, it earned enough buzz to land the #12 spot on Metacritic’s list of the best reviewed games of that year.
Two years after its Windows PC release, the game will hit all major consoles in November. The port, published by Ratalaika Games, will include all post-launch content from the PC version, including its art gallery. It will also receive a full Japanese translation.
Videoverse should feel right at home on Nintendo Switch. The game’s fictional app is closely modeled after the 3DS and Wii U’s Miiverse, an app that allowed players to post drawings and interact with one another. Videoverse‘s five-hour story recreates that experience, putting players inside a nostalgic app where characters post fan art of games like “Feudal Fantasy.” The story unfolds both in the comment section of those posts and through video chats on the fictional console’s camera.
If you’ve yet to play it, now’s an especially fitting time to try it out — and not just because it will be playable on a console with a real video chat feature. The story deals with the impending release of the next Kinmoku (a stand-in for Nintendo) console. The app falls into disrepair as resources shift to the next big thing, leaving its users grieving as their social community crumbles. It hits some notes that will be familiar to anyone who has found themselves displaced by recent changes to real social media sites, like Twitter (now X) and TikTok.
Videoverse hits Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on Nov. 14. It is available now on Windows PC.
