Katamari director's next game finally has a release date and it's soon

(Image credit: Funomena)

The next game from the director of Katamari Damacy finally has a release date. Wattam will arrive on PS4 and on PC via the Epic Games store on December 17, just over five years after it was first announced. Pre-order a copy of the game any time from now up to the release date and you'll also save some money with a special discount.

If you've played Katamari Damacy or Noby Noby Boy, Keita Takahashi's other big video games / virtual toys / interactive art projects, you probably already have an idea of the vibe you can expect from Wattam. It's a game about low-key fun with friends, pondering the natural life cycle from food to poop to toilet, and exploding. In more concrete terms, there are more than 100 characters to unlock, many of which reflect real-world objects like strawberries, facial features, and the green cube that is the mayor. Wait, your town doesn't have a green cube for a mayor? I'm sorry to hear that.

“I just wanted to make a videogame where the people in the game are all different, but somehow help and work together and get over the differences, and have fun," Takahashi told our sister site PC Gamer in a recent interview.

Wattam was first revealed to the world in December 2014. After that, it got canceled by Sony, then Takahashi started over again with publisher Annapurna Interactive. It's been a long, long time coming, and the wait will be longer if you're hoping to play the game on Steam; Annapurna has confirmed that Wattam will come to Steam eventually, but it won't say when yet.

Pre-ordering Wattam will get you a 15 percent discount off the full game: that's $16.99 instead of $19.99 (UK prices TBA).

Save even more money with our guide to Black Friday game deals.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.