Bandai Namco have released the initial announcement trailer for Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation 3, a free-to-play team action game and a sequel to 2018’s Battle Operation 2. The trailer is very, very pretty, showing off Gundam units clashing in large-scale battles and infantry fighting beneath the colossal mechas’ feet (kinda like Titanfall, in having both human and mecha players in the same match). I’m sadly not yet enough of a true Gundam fan to recognise many of these units on sight other than the RX-78-2, but there’s a real variety shown off here.
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While there’s no release date specified in the trailer, Bandai Namco have confirmed that there will be a network test in Japan through November 20th-22nd, with an open network test planned for the future (thanks, Gematsu).
Following the fate of Gundam Evolution, a 2022 attempt at a hero shooter featuring Gundam units, it’s nice to see another shot at taking the Gundam series into a team format. Evolution suffered from the all-too-common trappings of heavy microtransaction inclusion, with several playable Gundam units with unique abilities only available through paying real cash. It was rightly criticised for this, and since Bandai Namco seemed to have had high hopes for the revenue it could make from said microtransactions, the lack of money made meant it shut down just a year later.
Contrastingly, from what I can see, Gundam Battle Operation 2 was received fairly well on its release. While little is actually known about the third game at this point, let’s hope it has a better chance than the series’ last big release. I will quickly note that the trailer does close with a “*Some content may require purchase” note, so it’ll likely have some form of microtransaction in itself — hopefully not to the same degree as Evolution. And, while we’re on the topic of Gundam, there’s also 2027’s Gundam Rogue Orbit, a drastically different game that seems closer to a Devil May Cry-esque action title (though, unlike Battle Operation 3, will begin life as a timed exclusive to PS5). Now, if we could get a Gundam game that plays something like Armored Core, and god willing a proper PC release, I would be a very happy girl.
