Honestly? There is not much to say about March. Our release calender was filled but not overwhelming. So we got the usual mix of new releases. Like the ones entering (Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone) or leaving (Time to Morp) Early Access. The retro-inspired (The Phanom, Kemono Heroes) ones as well as re-releases of old classics (Castle of Shikigami III). The surefire hits (Split Fiction) and the ones that were expected to be hits but didn't quite make the landing (Rise of the Ronin on PC). And of course tons and tons of indie release (Party Club, Astroloot).

We are lucky to have our Database Manager to write these monthly reports. Otherwise, we would have no time to do it. We are after all way too busy to "catch all those mons." No, we are not talking about Pokémon. That's for little babies! *contemptuous sniffle* We only play real games here at Co-Optimus! Like Monster Hunter: Wilds, the long-awaited 27th entry in the series that finally hit store shelves yesterday.

In January, we hit another milestone for our database: We now have 15,000 entries for active co-op games. "Active" means that the game is still technically playable in co-op in some form and hasn't been fully become inoperable by a server shutdown. To give you a bit of additional perspective on that number, back in 2020, we were at around 6,000 entries. So our Database Master definitely has been busy the last few years - and we'll make sure he continues to keep busy! *whip crack*

The Game Awards - which featured quite a few co-op titles this year - be damned: the biggest highlight of December for most of us was Path of Exile 2 entering Early Access. Even in this early state, it seems to successfully scratch that itch the lukewarm reception of Diablo IV left behind. Hopefully it can keep up the momentum until release.

When we look at our release calender, its fascinating to note that even in this digital age without any retail restrictions, there's still one day in the week most of the games are released: Thursday. What's more, almost everyone agrees that Saturday and Sunday are off limits for new releases.

While October saw a great amount of survival horror titles released (not only, but especially) on the Steam store, the actual new hot thing™ in the co-op meta seems to be shop games. You know, those titles like Old Market Simulator where you have to manage a supermarket together with friends and make all those customers happy. Luckily, this month also saw a ton of other, perhaps more desirable releases - for example, Ys X: Nordics, the newest entry in the long-running JRPG series.

Looking at the release calender for September, it has become clear to us that we and our friends somehow need more time to play games. Way more time. It's just not enough to carve out a couple of hours in the evening/night on the weekends to enjoy all that co-op goodness. So if you vote for us in whatever election is coming up, we hereby pledge

August started slow in terms of new co-op releases - very slow. For a hot minute, we feared we would have nothing to play and would need to go out into the summer heat and enjoy life or something. Luckily, publishers and developers came to the rescue releasing long awaited titles like World of Goo 2 (sadly only the Switch-version has co-op), Cat Quest III, and another (excellent) re-release of DOOM and DOOM II. Meanwhile, Petroglyph's newest RTS, 9-Bit Armies: A Bit Too Far left Steam Early Access together with Core Keeper, a "mining sandbox adventure." Additionally, Gunpla-fans can once again enjoy virtually building and battling their Gundam thanks to the release of Gundam Breaker 4.

At least to the surprise of us, 7 Days to Die finally reached version number 1.0 in July. After twelve years of public development, the open-world zombie survival mix is finished - at least on paper. Even after reaching the milestone, the devs don't show any sign of stopping after all. Meanwhile, our review is now over seven years old. Maybe it's time for an update? 

Holy mackerel, what a month! It felt like every publisher and developer on Earth announced a new co-op title, resulting in 235 new entries to our database. Still, looking back at the last four years since our Database Master joined us, June 2024 was actually on par with previous years. His overwhelming feeling of "there's too much stuff!!!!" was just based on the literally hundreds of games he had to wade through in order to find all that co-op goodness. So many showcases happened during Summer Games Fest 2024, and then directly afterwards, Steam Next Fest June 2024 started. It was definitely an insane month for us gamers.

Another 106 entries were added to our database this month. We now feature over 14,000 (active) co-op games, and this number will certainly continue to climb. That's most likely more than anyone can play in a lifetime, but I'm sure we are all trying our best. So before Geoff Keighley bombards us with another three hours of ads and announcements next week, let's take a quick look back at May.

What's up with the gaming industry ? Seems like most of the hyped up releases in the last year hit the streets and got immediately dumped in the "Mixed" (at best) reviews category for everyone to soon forget. We won't name any names, but it is sad to see - especially for co-op titles that depend so much on an active player base.