Hello Zookeepers!

Our developers continue to be hard at work reviewing your feedback and using it to make improvements and fixes to the issues raised so far. Here's all you need to know about the latest update!

• Fixed a crash when making a new franchise game
  
• Fixed a crash when going in to the orbit camera of an escaped animal
  
• Fixed an economy issue resulting in instant multi-million dollar zoos - sorry!
  
• Fixed a poor juvenile Bengal Tiger distorting when playing with an enrichment box
  
• Improved some issues with enrichment feeder capacities leading to other feeders not being filled by the keeper
  
• Fixed animal birth and death notifications
  
• Further animal breeding balancing
  
• Keepers who are already going to prepare food will continue to do so when tired, before visiting the staff room
  
• Balanced the failure rate of power facilities
  
• Fixed issue with path widths not changing when set to ft
  
• Fixed issue with Hippos getting stuck whilst swimming
  
• Fixed save state on contraceptive button in the compare mates UI
  
• Fixed a crash when double clicking train camera
  
• Fixed an issue with the Bengal Tiger objective when adjusting barrier height to 4M
  
• Fixed franchise zoos not being able to be closed
  
• Various crash fixes

We are currently investigating the following:

General

• Frame rate improvements ongoing
  
• Autocompleting a transport ride can lead to stalls, we advise against using this option currently
  
• Entrance prices are being reset
  
• Infrequent crash seen when deleting a habitat

Scenario related

• You can block your progress completing the scenario by releasing animals to the wild too early
  
• Hint - Call keepers to your habitat if animal welfare is low

Save related

• A delay when saving a zoo can make it appear that it isn’t saving when it is, please be patient

Animal related

• Animal disease is turned off for Beta
  
• Sometimes animals can be boxed, but the option to unbox is unavailable. You can get round this by moving the animal to storage and placing back in a habitat.
  
• Animals sometimes jump through barriers

Staff related

• Staff are not automatically placed back on research if they have to re-energise at the Staff Centre
  
• Staff can get stuck walking. This can be fixed by moving them.

UI related

• Path and Terrain UI will not open if you have opened them twice in a row beforehand. If you open other UI and try again this fixes the issue.

Thank you for your continued feedback. We will keep you informed of any new updates or changes in the Beta!

Hello Zookeepers!

Thank you for all your awesome feedback on Planet Zoo so far. We have our first update for the Beta available now which will resolve a number of crash issues that have been reported to us. We will continue to investigate the feedback and reports you have shared with us and will keep you updated with any news!

Fixes

• Fixed a crash when clicking on a boxed animal in traversable heat map mode
  
• Fixed a crash whilst loading a saved game from Scenario 1
  
• Fixed a crash that occurs shortly after enabling contraceptives on a female with "Offspring Imminent"
  
• Fixed crash after African Male Buffalo jumps into water
  
• Fixed a crash when deleting a workshop that is in use by staff
  
• Fixed a crash when firing Vet/Mechanic whilst researching
  
• Fixed the Hippopotamus occasionally getting stuck while swimming
  
• Fixed a crash when deleting a large number of items
  
• Fixed a crash when selecting the second ride camera button
  
• Fixed a crash when selecting 'Compare Mates' after adopting an objective animal during scenario 1
  
• Fixed a crash when placing down a conservation education board
  
• Balancing on birth rates - Ongoing
  
• General crash and stability bug fixes

Keep the feedback coming!

Hello Zookeepers!

Our Planet Zoo Beta is now live for you to enjoy!



The Planet Zoo Beta is available to everyone who has pre-ordered the Planet Zoo Deluxe Edition and runs from 24 September until 5PM BST on 8 October! If you haven't bought the Deluxe Edition just yet; don't worry, you can still pre-order here and join before it ends!


What's available?
Our Beta is not the full Planet Zoo experience, but rather a focused selection of game content to let you have a taste of what's to come! If you'd like to know exactly what will and what will not be available during the Planet Zoo Beta, please read our post here.


Bug Reports
You may encounter the odd bug or issue from time to time, as this is not the final game build of Planet Zoo. If you experience any problems, please report via our Issue Tracker so that our teams can investigate as soon as possible! We're also really interested in your gameplay experiences and feedback, so please share any thoughts via our brand new, dedicated Beta Feedback forum. You'll be helping us a lot by leaving us your constructive comments, as we aim to bring you the most fun, final experience on 5 November!

Known Issues
The build you are about to enjoy is a Beta game build, so it’s not the final version of the game that you will be playing on 5 November. This means there may be a few issues or bugs you encounter which we’d like you to report to us via the Issue Tracker here.

We are also aware of some potential framerate issues you might encounter. Our developers are working incredibly hard to optimise the game’s performance, but you may experience some issues at the start of the Beta. Please know that we are working on this and we’ll keep you updated on further improvements. Again, this is not indicative of the final build in November.

As you will be playing the Beta build of the game, there are a few Known Issues you may run in to. You don't need to highlight these to us as we're already on the case!

General

• Frame rate improvements are ongoing
  
• A delay when saving a zoo can make it appear that it isn’t saving when it is, please be patient!
  
• Several crashes we are aware of:
  
  • Crash when deleting a workshop that is in use by staff
    
  • Crash when selecting the traversal heat map on a boxed animal
    
  • Crash when comparing Warthogs after Scenario 1 objective to adopt them
    
  • Rare crash seen when deleting a habitat
    
  • Crash when double clicking Steam Train camera

Scenario/Career Mode

• You can block your progress completing the scenario by releasing animals to the wild too early
  
• Occasionally hippos get stuck swimming in the water.
  
• Moving them to the trade centre and placing them back into the hippo habitat will resolve the issue
  
• There is no hint pop-up for the heat maps in the bottom left corner
  
• Juvenile Warthogs in pre-built habitat can be seen as escaped if interacting with the mud bath

Franchise Mode

• Avatars don’t currently visit Franchises.
  
• Unable to close a zoo under a Franchise.
  
• Animal history does not update when starting a new Franchise, so you can get duplicates from previous Franchises
  
• Franchise management tab work in progress

Animals

• Animal disease is turned off for Beta
  
• Occasionally Animals can fall through the ground and are then boxed; you will need to unbox them
  
• Sometimes animals can be boxed, but the option to unbox is unavailable. You can get round this by moving the animal to storage and placing back in a habitat.
  
• Animals sometimes jump through barriers
  
• Animals will not be able to interact with feeding stations placed close to the habitat gate (including enrichment feeders)
  
• Animal Animation issues when displaying certain behaviours like stretched muzzle on walking animation or floating enrichment grab animation.
  
• Big cat jumping animations are being refined
  
• Climbing animations are being refined
  
• Navigation on slopes as well as general navigation is being refined

People

• If Staff or Guests get stuck walking, moving them manually will solve that.
  
• Some Staff or Guest reactions to management issues are ongoing, for example upset at ticket pricing.

Building

• Inconsistent costs when raising barrier height

UI related

• Path and Terrain UI will not open if you have opened them twice in a row beforehand. If you open other UI and try again this fixes the issue.
  
• Several outstanding issues in the Animal Market
  
• Shop finances appear green even if they are losing money
  
• Cannot change ticket price from the zoo management menu
  
• Various Help Buttons aren’t connected to their help
  
• Guest UI's "Group Finances" spending categories are inaccurate

You are free to stream and share content of your Planet Zoo Beta experience, and we look forward to seeing the magnificent zoos you create! Be sure to keep checking our forums and social pages for some exciting Beta activities you can participate in - there's some great prizes to win as well!

We hope you enjoy it,

the Planet Zoo team.

Hello Zookeepers!

We are officially one week away from the Planet Zoo Beta, and we've just released a brand new trailer to celebrate:
https://youtu.be/HANxaztC4M8
As you all know, the Planet Zoo Beta runs from 24 September to 8 October 2019 for those who have purchased the Planet Zoo Deluxe Edition. Today we want to give you some additional information so you know what to expect, what activities you can take part in, and where to go if you get stuck.

When is it available to play?
We aim to have the Planet Zoo Beta live by 4PM BST on 24 September, and it is expected to run until 5PM BST on 8 October.

Whilst we cannot support pre-loading the Beta at this time, the download size will be a relatively small 10GB. Hopefully that should let you jump into the game quickly!

What's available to play?
The Planet Zoo Beta will feature the following:

• Scenario 1 of Career Mode (no additional Scenarios as we do not want to spoil the story ahead of launch!)
  
• This features the first part of the tutorial within the Temperate biome, several objectives, and has free play after the objectives are completed.
  
• Franchise Mode
  
• This features a full economy within the Savannah biome and will not contain any narrative or objectives, so you will start with an empty map and develop your zoo(s) from there.
  
• The Animal Market will be available (online play only).
  
• Please note you can only have one Franchise per player, but your Franchise can feature multiple zoos.
  
• A host of previously announced animals, as well as some new species!
  
• Various Staff types and Buildings;
  
• Various Themes and Rides;
  
• Research Options and the in-game Zoopedia;
  
• Habitat Blueprints;
  
• We've made an upgrade to the blueprints you may know from Planet Coaster! When you select your blueprint, it will now also include any terrain you've put around it!
  
• And a massive host of enrichment, habitat, building, scenery, and foliage pieces!
  
• The Planet Zoo Steam Workshop will be activated during the Beta, which means you can upload and share any in-game blueprints you create! However, please note that we cannot guarantee to support Beta blueprints upon launch, as we may need to wipe your blueprints if we discover something post-Beta that invalidates them.

The Beta will be localised in all available in-game languages.

What's NOT available to play?

• Sandbox Mode (however, you can replay both maps as often as you like, with the available in-game mechanics and economies).
  
• Saved Games; you can save your progress at any time during the Beta, but all saved games will be invalidated upon launch.
  
• None of the Deluxe Animals (Komodo Dragon, Pygmy Hippopotamus, Thomson's Gazelle) as well as some other already announced animals; Planet Zoo Beta focuses on a wide selection of animals, with the rest being available upon launch.
  
• Full Career Mode (you only have access to Scenario 1).

Fun Activities to Join

Of course we're not letting you play by yourself; we'll be right there with you! Here's a few activities we've organised to keep you entertained.

• Creative Forum Competition // on 25 September we will kick off our first creative building competition on our forums. You'll have the full two weeks to participate and have the opportunity to win some excellent prizes!
  
• Beta Community Goal // a special challenge running from 26 September 12PM BST until 3 October 12PM BST. Whilst there is no unlock reward at the end, taking part in this community challenge will give you a good idea of what's to come upon launch.
  
• Twitchcon Streams // whilst the team is away at Twitchcon between 27 - 29 September, some of your favourite content creators will be streaming the Beta live from the show floor! So even if you can't play yourself, you'll be able to be in their chat and ask questions. We will post the schedule as soon as it's finalised.
  
• World Animal Day // 4 October is World Animal Day, and we've got some exciting things planned for you! Be sure to check in on our social channels for a bunch of fabulous reveals and celebrations!
  
• Wild About Wildlife - Special Streams // On 5 and 6 October from 4PM to 7PM we will be streaming the game live from our Frontier office. Join your community team and some developer guests for an interactive let's play of the Beta content, and a chance to chat to the people who created the game. More info in the October Streaming Schedule (soon)!
  
• Giveaways! // Of course there will be several opportunities throughout these two weeks for you to win amazing prizes! Aside from the above, there will be social competitions, livestream giveaways, and exclusive newsletter prizes.

This all sounds great, but...
Yes, we know - we're still working with a special Beta build of the game, and this is the first time lots of players gets their hands on Planet Zoo; what could go wrong?!

In case you do run into trouble, anything from game crashes to bugs, we urge you to log all your findings via the Issue Tracker. This way we can keep an eye on what's going on with everyone's games and jump in with critical fixes where needed. Of course we are also available on the official forums and via our Customer Support team, but you can help us react quickly by reporting diligently. We will have to prioritise issues when they come in, so do bear with us during Beta time - but of course our main goal is for everyone to have an amazing Planet Zoo experience, so thank you in advance for all of your valuable feedback.

We hope you're looking forward to playing Planet Zoo really soon!

Hello awesome Zookeepers!

The Planet Zoo Beta is coming on 24 September, and everyone who pre-orders the Deluxe Edition will be able to take part! As well as access to the Beta (running from 24 September to 8 October 2019), the Planet Zoo Deluxe Edition also includes three exclusive animals: the Pygmy Hippopotamus, Thomson’s Gazelle, and the Komodo Dragon!

The Pygmy Hippopotamus is only half as tall as the Common Hippopotamus, and is native to the forests and swamps of West Africa.



Living in the Serengeti regions of Tanzania and Kenya in Africa, Thomson’s Gazelle prefers to live in dry grassland - although it can also be found in woodland.



The Komodo Dragon is the largest living species of lizard. They can grow up to 3 metres long and weigh over 300 pounds, as these dominant predators will eat almost anything.



These three animals all come with their own set of habitat and enrichment needs you’ll need to fulfill to ensure they are happy and cared for in their habitats. They are exclusive to the Deluxe Edition of Planet Zoo so be sure to pre-order your copy today!

See you next week!

Hello everyone,

It's official! Planet Zoo will be launching on 5 November, 2019! For those of you who didn't catch the PC Gaming Show, you can watch the brand new, in-game reveal trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiu_BE7d2sA

Planet Zoo is available to pre-order now for $44.99 (€44.99, £34.99) and Planet Zoo: Deluxe Edition is available for $54.99 (€54.99, £42.99). Both are available on the Steam online store.

The Deluxe Edition includes Planet Zoo game, plus bonus content:

• Pre-launch Beta access
  
• Three unique animals: Komodo Dragon, Pygmy Hippopotamus, Thomson's Gazelle
  
• High-quality wallpapers
  
• Original Soundtrack by JJ Ipsen

Players who pre-order the Deluxe Edition can join the pre-launch Beta later this year, and add the Deluxe-exclusive animals to their zoos at launch.

If you haven't already, make sure you join the Zookeeper Zone newsletter, follow Planet Zoo on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe to Planet Zoo on YouTube to be one of the first to know all the latest news!

Our Planet Zoo website features all the latest information, trailers and screenshots, so make sure to check there often.

We're so thrilled to have you all on this journey with us, but we've still got a lot to come; later this week you'll be treated to our full E3 gameplay demo! Stay tuned on our social channels and forums to ensure you don't miss it.

Talk soon!

Welcome to Planet Zoo, future zookeepers!

https://youtu.be/naQ0acqONwg

We’re incredibly excited for you to be here with us as we announce our newest game: Planet Zoo. Build a world for wildlife with the most authentic animals in videogame history, deep management, and boundless creativity.

Planet Zoo gives you the chance to create and run a truly modern zoo, giving centre stage to animals who think and feel like real-life creatures, with unique behaviours, needs and characteristics. Nurture and care for your animals as you expand your zoo into a masterpiece, full of stunning wildlife living in the homes you’ve lovingly crafted, as well as lots of excitable guests ready to be awed by them.

As the next game in the Planet series, you have the freedom to let your creativity run wild, build the zoo of your dreams, and create the perfect habitats for your animals.



We can’t wait to share more with you, so be sure to follow Planet Zoo on our social channels for more information about your animals:

Twitter @PlanetZooGame
Facebook @PlanetZooGame
Instagram @PlanetZooGame
YouTube @PlanetZooGame
Twitch @FrontierDevelopments

For all of the budding zookeepers out there, you can also sign up to the Zookeeper Zone; a weekly newsletter where you'll be the first to know about all of the latest animal reveals, exciting new gameplay features and gain access to exclusive competitions! Alternatively, if you're looking for more of an overview of what's been happening in Planet Zoo, you can sign up to our monthly newsletter instead!

We're going to be showing you lots of the wonderful things you can do in Planet Zoo over the next few months, starting with a very special Frontier Xtra livestream where you can meet some of the team behind the game, and learn a little more about what's in store for you at your zoos; join us live at 16:00PM UTC on Twitch! In the meantime, don't forget to say hello to your community team if you haven't already!

Welcome to your new world of wildlife, welcome to Planet Zoo!