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Gamescom Highlights: Crunchyroll goes big with One Punch Man World

The title, based on the anime and manga series, is set to launch in late 2023

Gamescom Highlights: Crunchyroll goes big with One Punch Man World

Crunchyroll Games, Perfect World and A Plus have come together to create a massive demo-area and enormous booth at Gamescom 2023 for their upcoming title, One Punch Man World.

And, being just across from our number-one-ranked Top 50 Mobile Games Maker for 2023, MiHoYo, their new game was in a prime position to get as many eyes as possible on it.

Based on the hit anime series, this hero brawler is set to release in late 2023 and will feature a number of iconic characters from the One Punch Man universe.

The title will be launching on both mobile (including tablet) and PC simultaneously, with cross-progression integrated from the get-go and an ambition to maintain parity in graphical fidelity - in the cel-shaded “animesque” style - across all platforms.

One Punch Roll

We got the chance to get hands-on with a demo of the title on tablet, accompanied by one of the producers behind the title, Crunchyroll director of games Kyong Kim. At launch Crunchyroll will handle distribution of the mobile and PC game in three key English-speaking markets, the UK, Ireland and the United States.

Crunchyroll views this as a flagship title, something that will really put the company on the map after they first started bringing games to the West in 2018. Their aims are simple, “To capture a mainstream audience that plays on multiple platforms, with the implementation of cross-progression helping to drive that constant engagement with the title,” Kim explains.

From what we played, the game offers a wide breadth of features, including open world exploration (fittingly, as per Genshin Impact) as well as unlockable heroes, boosters and other key features. We noted that while there would be controller support added in future for mobile devices, that many of the game’s quick-time events worked remarkably well on touchscreen.

Part of their marketing blitz is the impressive area carved out in one of the most high-traffic areas of the show. It’s a prime example of why the live arena of Gamescom is important for getting in front of the crowds.

We’ve been covering not only Gamescom Day One, but both days of Devcom as we’ll be bringing you all the most important games and announcements from the show.


Staff Writer

Iwan is a Cardiff-based freelance writer, who joined the Pocket Gamer Biz site fresh-faced from University before moving to the Pocketgamer.com editorial team in November of 2023.