Halloween is fast approaching, and two popular video games have taken advantage of the month of October, launching holiday events in the past two days. Yesterday, the medieval sword fighting game For Honor launched its Halloween-themed game modes and customization with “Fangs of the Otherworld”. While today, Madden 20 started its “Most Feared” set of cards in Madden Ultimate Team.
In For Honor, there is a new game mode called “Spooky Slashers”, where players can “slay the frightening demons lurking throughout the map.” And then there’s Halloween-themed loot where users can have their warriors wear bat or wolf masks and jack-o’-lantern type effects.
For Honor is also likely to also do winter themes as the calendar turns in December and January.
In Madden 20, while Ultimate Team mode is clearly all about making money, with declining quality for consumers over the years, the “Most Feared” cards at least look awesome.
Few more of #MostFeared part 1! #Madden20 pic.twitter.com/vKDsyj7dQ3
— Madden Ultimate Team (@EASPORTS_MUT) October 17, 2019
If you’re not into virtual card collecting with subpar gameplay, Madden’s holiday themes aren’t for you. But at least EA puts the effort into Halloween MUT content, which cannot be said for most video games.
Call of Duty previously did a holiday theme with the remastered edition of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. But overall, the vast majority of games ignore the holidays, which is probably a bad idea considering many people are fanatics for the holidays in October, November, and December.
Utilizing the holidays like Halloween (and then Thanksgiving next month and Christmas the month after that) should be something that all video game creators look to do. In the case of both For Honor and Madden 20, the Halloween games are limited-time events, so it’s getting people that might not play the game frequently to join back up and potentially stay past the event. And for loyal users that play the game daily or weekly, it must be a nice changeup to get something new and fresh with in-game holiday themes reflecting what’s going on in the real world.
