Poptropica announced last month that a selection of old islands would be returning, not on their own game site but through Steam, the video game distribution platform. We’ve since learned that the Steam bundle releases this month, and now, we have an exact date, islands, and more!
A Steam page has been discovered by Poptropicans poking around, confirming a major fan theory about the upcoming returning islands and revealing some new info as well. 👀 (Thanks for the tip, zett & Oof!)
According to the page, there will be 17 islands in the Steam bundle: Mythology (classic), Shrink Ray, Poptropolis Games, Monster Carnival, Time Tangled, Mystery of the Map, Virus Hunter, 24 Carrot, Galactic Hot Dogs, Mocktropica, Escape From Pelican Rock, Reality TV: Wild Safari, Timmy Failure, and including the four full episodic islands of Survival, PoptropiCon, Arabian Nights, and Mission Atlantis. 🏝
All of these islands are on the newer end of the spectrum of old islands and built with AS3, confirming the frontrunning fan theory for such islands based on previous hints from the Pop Creators. Although 17 islands is more than the original 13 promised, the extra four are not exactly “returning” islands as they already exist in the current game: 24 Carrot, Time Tangled, Escape From Pelican Rock, and Timmy Failure.
We hadn’t matched any of the Creators’ hints with the returning, but somewhat unpopular Reality TV: Wild Safari. Meanwhile, another short AS3 island did not make the list despite an earlier promise for its return: Monkey Wrench. 🙈 Still, Poptropica hasn’t ruled out the possibility for more islands to be added to Steam in the future.
On top of all that, many of the returning islands were once playable on the Poptropica mobile app for free, before they were erased at the beginning of this year to match the app with the desktop game.
The bundle releases in less than two weeks on Wed, May 25, so get ready to download with a free Steam account, 2 GB of available space, and cash to spare! While the Steam site doesn’t mention a price yet, the Pop Creators have shared that the Steam bundle will not be free. 💸
Although some Poptropicans have already been enjoying these islands for free with Flashpoint, the post-Flash fan-run preservation project, the Steam bundle offers a few differentiating features. One of the islands, likely Monster Carnival, is expected to come with a new twist. The Steam bundle will also be playable on Mac computers (except M1 Macs — for now?) in addition to Windows PCs.
An internet connection is also mentioned on the page, despite the Steam game being a download. However, perhaps it may work like the app, where you can download islands to play offline, then reconnect online for multiplayer features. Update: A tweet from Poptropica confirms that the game will be online as it could not work offline.
The Steam game also includes the build-your-own-world Realms and other features from the original game: costumes, clubhouse, pets, store, and common rooms. ✨
Now that we’ve got this rundown of what to expect for the upcoming Steam bundle, how are you feeling on this scale of 0–10 Poptro-pain? 🤯
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🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺 
The return of 13 islands does tempt me to buy this, I must admit. However, if I can use Flashpoint, then why bother paying for Realms and “multiplayer features”? That would be pointless.
This does leave me with a question though: Is Poptropica aware that the Flashpoint curation of their game exists? If they are, do they plan on having it removed from Flashpoint?
Ultimately, if people can use Flashpoint, I don’t see this Steam bundle being all that successful. This bundle is obviously aimed toward the somewhat older Poptropica community, most of whom have moved on from the game completely. Those of us who want to play the old islands, and, I mean, even islands older than the AS3 islands, have Flashpoint to rely on for that.
Flashpoint has been talked about often enough in the Pop fandom that it’s probably fair to guess the Pop Creators know about it. As for whether they’ll do anything about it, they haven’t shown any signs so far.
Also, Flashpoint Pop isn’t available for Mac, so there is that appeal for the Steam version. 🙂
With the current Poptropica Creators at the mantle, one cannot hold a definite position on what actions the Creators might take regarding the Flashpoint curation of their game.
The general audience who uses the macOS as their operating system of choice numbers much fewer than those using Windows. If most of this bundle’s sales are aimed toward Mac users, I still don’t see Poptropica reaping much profit from the sales. I don’t quite see this being a successful endeavour in terms of making a profit.
I agree with Slanted Fish, I’m leaning toward buying the Steam package since Flashpoint doesn’t work on my laptop, depending on how expensive it ends up being.
If the creators do know about Flashpoint, I’m hoping they’ll leave it alone. I’d be devastated if the creators shut it down before I’d saved up enough money for a Windows computer. But, considering how they updated the app and got rid of a bunch of islands on there, it’s not impossible they decide to fix the Flashpoint glitch.
On the other hand, the Steam package is including a bunch of islands that was deleted from the app, so maybe, just maybe, if the creators delete Flashpoint, they’ll revive some of the old islands on there and convert them to the modern game.
So basically, I don’t really know what to think. We’ll just have to wait and see when the Steam package comes out.
The Creators wouldn’t be able to “delete” the Flashpoint curation of the game. They would simply ask for its removal from BlueMaxima’s Flashpoint.
If you think the bundle is a convenient option for you, then go for it!
Oh, thank goodness the creators wouldn’t be able to delete it themselves. Yeah, I’ll like to check out the Steam package until I figure out a way to get a Windows computer.
On a related note, has anyone heard any news of Realms since it was announced to return? The creators haven’t said much about it, but I’m wondering what it will be like. Realms has changed a lot over its lifetime, so I wonder which version will be returning.
The release date for Poptropica on steam is going to release almost on my birthday. Does anyone know yet how much it’s going to cost for the steam bundle yet?
Happy almost birthday! No word yet on the price, but some have been guessing maybe US$5–10. We’ll see!
One thing to note is that the Steam version will be an online game according to https://twitter.com/Poptropica/status/1525226312155033600. As for Monkey Wrench Island not being on the list, I imagine that assuming Monkey Wrench Island is returning, it wouldn’t be worth mentioning on the list since it’s a short little island solely meant to show the player how to play the game (and to explain the history of the blimp). Though if Monkey Wrench Island isn’t actually returning, I wonder if there’s a way to port the version from the mobile app over to the desktop version somehow.
Thanks, I’ve added the tweet into the post. 🙂 Monkey Wrench Island is no longer on the updated app, which matches the desktop game.
Wait..is it a theory that the steam bundle will cost money or is it confirmed?
It’s confirmed, but the price has not been announced yet.
This makes me feel like they don’t understand what we really want. They said old islands were returning and kept mentioning childhood… I know a majority of our childhoods were spent with the pre-as3 islands- I did not spend my childhood taking 5 minutes out of my day to complete Wild Safari, it just makes me sad seeing them advertise this like it’s actually helping us relive our childhood, so I won’t be buying this since it’s not for me. I feel like only a small portion of people will actually feel nostalgic for these islands. I’ll be interested when they actually return good islands like astro-knights or spy island… Until then, thank goodness for Flashpoint.
By now they must have heard the many voices in the fandom (including ours) about wanting the oldest of old islands back, so my guess is it’s less about not knowing and more about not having the capacity for doing. Given the challenges of conversion (AS3 islands are taking long enough to port to Haxe, the desktop game; let alone AS2 for the older islands), this seems to be the best they can do (for now?). It’s definitely not ideal, and the nostalgia-baiting in the promos seem to set people up for disappointment, but it’s still something.