New gacha Chaos Zero Nightmare opens playtest sign ups September 2

Smilegate, the studio behind one of the gacha genre’s biggest games, Epic Seven, is back with a new game. Chaos Zero Nightmare was announced a while ago, and its pre-registration opened in July. Now, Smilegate has announced that the game will be getting a limited playtest, which opens September 2 and will close September 12.

The playtest itself will open September 18, 2 am UTC (7 pm PT, 10 pm ET) and only runs for a few days before closing on September 21 at 3 pm UTC. Presumably, you’ll need to head to Stove on those dates to attempt getting in, which is Smilegate’s own storefront and news hub, similar to Hoyoverse from MiHoYo for Genshin Impact.

Rogue-like elements and a card game? Sign me up

Chaos Zero Nightmare hasn’t been on my radar in particular, mostly because it’s scheduled for an October release. I can’t even plan out the next day, let alone October. However, checking in on it, I’m unsure how it wasn’t, because it looks great. A combination of tactical gameplay that’s driven by a card system, ala Slay the Spire.

It looks as though the game follows a traditional mission-based structure, but will also incorporate a rogue-like element. “Chaos Missions” will send you through a dungeon that has all the hallmarks of that style of game. Random options that will increase your power through the run, and an ever-increasing difficulty as you descend further.

Chaos Zero Nightmare

If you’re intrigued, pre-registration is happening right now. Signing up will net you two “Tear of God” and 50,000 units. I can’t tell you what they’re for yet, but I assume it’s all to do with that gacha, baby. According to Chaos Zero Nightmare’s site, it has hit the million pre-registration mark, but it’s tough to gauge just how true those numbers can be.

Smilegate’s other gacha, Epic Seven, has surpassed the $650 million mark in August 2023, so two years on, you can guesstimate that it’s probably well within the $750 million range.

It can be tricky to monitor gacha revenue, especially as it’s sometimes split between regional servers like China and Global. According to Gacha Revenue, which pulls its figures from monitor software SensorTower, in July, it pulled in over $3 million in revenue.