Spring dlc Speculation 2023

Hard call: Update announcement on Tuesday, livestream on Thursday, DLC announcement on Friday.

This is incredibly likely. The last two DLC have been announced with 11 days between announce and release. And an announcement on Friday would be right in line with that.

That said, they may be switching up the strategy this year... Which is something they've done over the games lifecycle. In 2020 there was usually ~1 week between announce and release. In 2021 the animal packs had 11-12 days between and the scenery packs had a full week (7 days). And in 2022 each pack type had significantly more time (11-14 days). So who knows what they'll do this time around! It could also depend upon the extent of the update and the DLC itself... They may announce a bit earlier to give the update and new features some time to shine.

I'm going to be optimistic and say they announce a new bigger feature on Monday, give us more info about the rest of the update on Tuesday and announce a special stream for Wednesday. With a DLC reveal on Thursday.

Only Frontier knows what's actually going to happen, but that's my take at the moment. And it's probably too optimistic to come true. LOL
 
This is incredibly likely. The last two DLC have been announced with 11 days between announce and release. And an announcement on Friday would be right in line with that.

That said, they may be switching up the strategy this year... Which is something they've done over the games lifecycle. In 2020 there was usually ~1 week between announce and release. In 2021 the animal packs had 11-12 days between and the scenery packs had a full week (7 days). And in 2022 each pack type had significantly more time (11-14 days). So who knows what they'll do this time around! It could also depend upon the extent of the update and the DLC itself... They may announce a bit earlier to give the update and new features some time to shine.

I'm going to be optimistic and say they announce a new bigger feature on Monday, give us more info about the rest of the update on Tuesday and announce a special stream for Wednesday. With a DLC reveal on Thursday.

Only Frontier knows what's actually going to happen, but that's my take at the moment. And it's probably too optimistic to come true. LOL
Dont they tease the free update features a couple days before the stream?
They have hinting a bit towards whats in the dlc in the past, like the bathing/capybara
 
Hard call: Update announcement on Tuesday, livestream on Thursday, DLC announcement on Friday.
I really think it's we'll get the update announcement and the special stream on the same day. Since the start of the special streams in the fall of 2021, only two that can recall were not this way (Wetlands and Conservation). I am expecting a Thursday/Friday announcement. Frontier does like to switch things up, so I am not holding to that too strongly. It just seems most likely.
 
I would absolutely love to be in the Frontier office around release time. It would be fun to know what was coming and when, and watch the community guess and freak out. I’m sure it’s stressful and exciting for the team - they must be looking forward to seeing us enjoy the new content.

I agree that it’s probably going to be a Tuesday/Thursday/Friday schedule this week. Hyped!

I’m super curious about the new update too! I hope we get lots of new stuff this time around :).
 
Dont they tease the free update features a couple days before the stream?
They have hinting a bit towards whats in the dlc in the past, like the bathing/capybara
The update announcement has been the day before they announce the DLC for a long while with minor exceptions: The Conservation pack was announced the day before the update was announced (announcements were still 1 day apart) and the SEA and Australia packs were announced 2 days after their respective updates. The South America pack was announced ~5 days after update 1.2 but I think that's too far back to really "count" at this point.

Worth noting that there have been rare instances where they teased a feature ahead of the full update too. Custom Billboards were announced ~5 days before update 1.5 and the SEA pack. Height maps were teased ~7 days ahead of update 1.7 and the North America animal pack. Given that these were the first two animal packs, I'm wondering if they were feeling nervous about fan response to a lack of scenery pieces so they were trying to hype up the free features to balance it out. Because that hasn't happened since.

In reality, it's probably mostly about the way it works on social media, getting people talking about it, etc. So this 1 day between update and announcement is clearly working and it's fair to assume that we'll probably get the update and special stream on the same day. It's not 100%, but it's certainly a very high probability, I think!

So I need to take back my own guess that we'll be getting a feature update ahead of the full update breakdown. But still think Monday is possible. So I'm going to stick with that even though I think the Tuesday-Friday schedule is more likely, haha.

I would absolutely love to be in the Frontier office around release time. It would be fun to know what was coming and when, and watch the community guess and freak out. I’m sure it’s stressful and exciting for the team - they must be looking forward to seeing us enjoy the new content.

I agree that it’s probably going to be a Tuesday/Thursday/Friday schedule this week. Hyped!

I’m super curious about the new update too! I hope we get lots of new stuff this time around :).
I've often wondered if they read threads like this and comment about how "off" we all are with our guesses, haha. Wonder if we'll ever get insight into that (e.g., after development ends). Probably not, but I'd love to know what the energy is like at this point in the cycle.

I'm looking forward to learning more about the updates too! There's always something in there that gets me hyped. I don't always wind up using it (height maps, anyone?) but seeing what they've done to increase the flexibility, make the game more user-friendly, enhance or add in-game systems is always a big part of the fun - as is speculating how these things might actually work in-game!
 
The update announcement has been the day before they announce the DLC for a long while with minor exceptions: The Conservation pack was announced the day before the update was announced (announcements were still 1 day apart) and the SEA and Australia packs were announced 2 days after their respective updates. The South America pack was announced ~5 days after update 1.2 but I think that's too far back to really "count" at this point.

Worth noting that there have been rare instances where they teased a feature ahead of the full update too. Custom Billboards were announced ~5 days before update 1.5 and the SEA pack. Height maps were teased ~7 days ahead of update 1.7 and the North America animal pack. Given that these were the first two animal packs, I'm wondering if they were feeling nervous about fan response to a lack of scenery pieces so they were trying to hype up the free features to balance it out. Because that hasn't happened since.

In reality, it's probably mostly about the way it works on social media, getting people talking about it, etc. So this 1 day between update and announcement is clearly working and it's fair to assume that we'll probably get the update and special stream on the same day. It's not 100%, but it's certainly a very high probability, I think!

So I need to take back my own guess that we'll be getting a feature update ahead of the full update breakdown. But still think Monday is possible. So I'm going to stick with that even though I think the Tuesday-Friday schedule is more likely, haha.


I've often wondered if they read threads like this and comment about how "off" we all are with our guesses, haha. Wonder if we'll ever get insight into that (e.g., after development ends). Probably not, but I'd love to know what the energy is like at this point in the cycle.

I'm looking forward to learning more about the updates too! There's always something in there that gets me hyped. I don't always wind up using it (height maps, anyone?) but seeing what they've done to increase the flexibility, make the game more user-friendly, enhance or add in-game systems is always a big part of the fun - as is speculating how these things might actually work in-game!
Agreed, I'm still yet to use the bulldoze tool but I easily see how useful it could be if I ever need it.
 
I still expect JWE2 DLC to hit the announecement first. If there were no news this week regarding PZ and they dedicated the week to JWE2, it would not surprise me, though I hope I am wrong.
Do the games even share a playerbase? I didn't get that impression in a while now
 
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The special livestream is not usually mentioned on the weekly schedule. They add it later not to spoil the surprise.

Also, I hope the new DLC brings the animals that the people who post in the old announcement threads don't want as a punishment for them being bad. 😑
 
I don't know. Last week it was around 16:00 GMT
Not singling you out, just thought it was the best place to put this - Frontier's broken patterns before so they could literally drop news at any point. I do feel like update teaser will probably be this week, as well as probably the DLC, but it could also be next week. Possibly even the week after next though I think that would be the latest.

I just feel like chasing after a certain day of reveal can get disappointing day after day. Just IMO, but chasing after and speculating certain times of the day has always been exhausting to me. Not just for Planet Zoo but any game. Everyone's welcome to do as they wish of course, but just because it's not revealed at XX:00 doesn't mean it won't be coming a little later, and definitely doesn't mean it won't be another week. Speculating on a schedule a whole week back after a difference of a day doesn't make sense.
 
The only thing I'm feeling confident enough to predict is that at least one of the update features would 100% be a signal for a barnyard/domestics/petting zoo pack (namely, guest interactions with the llama).
 
The update announcement has been the day before they announce the DLC for a long while with minor exceptions: The Conservation pack was announced the day before the update was announced (announcements were still 1 day apart) and the SEA and Australia packs were announced 2 days after their respective updates. The South America pack was announced ~5 days after update 1.2 but I think that's too far back to really "count" at this point.

Worth noting that there have been rare instances where they teased a feature ahead of the full update too. Custom Billboards were announced ~5 days before update 1.5 and the SEA pack. Height maps were teased ~7 days ahead of update 1.7 and the North America animal pack. Given that these were the first two animal packs, I'm wondering if they were feeling nervous about fan response to a lack of scenery pieces so they were trying to hype up the free features to balance it out. Because that hasn't happened since.

In reality, it's probably mostly about the way it works on social media, getting people talking about it, etc. So this 1 day between update and announcement is clearly working and it's fair to assume that we'll probably get the update and special stream on the same day. It's not 100%, but it's certainly a very high probability, I think!

So I need to take back my own guess that we'll be getting a feature update ahead of the full update breakdown. But still think Monday is possible. So I'm going to stick with that even though I think the Tuesday-Friday schedule is more likely, haha.


I've often wondered if they read threads like this and comment about how "off" we all are with our guesses, haha. Wonder if we'll ever get insight into that (e.g., after development ends). Probably not, but I'd love to know what the energy is like at this point in the cycle.

I'm looking forward to learning more about the updates too! There's always something in there that gets me hyped. I don't always wind up using it (height maps, anyone?) but seeing what they've done to increase the flexibility, make the game more user-friendly, enhance or add in-game systems is always a big part of the fun - as is speculating how these things might actually work in-game!I
I am more curious about free update
 
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