THE FINALS dev talks dynamism, season 5, and beyond

Since its release in December 2023, THE FINALS has received multiple updates with new features and quality-of-life improvements. In light of its upcoming anniversary, the developer shared its plans for the future of the never-ending game show.

Ahead of season five, I had the opportunity to talk with the creative director of THE FINALS, Gustav Tilleby, and animation director, Mikael Hogstrom, about the upcoming fifth season and take a look at what awaits us beyond.

One of the areas the developer is looking forward to working more in the upcoming year is dynamism. “Dynamism is one of the core features in this [game]. So destruction is part of that, and there’s still so much more that we want to expand on when it comes to deepening that feature. But we also want to expand on what dynamism is in general by adding new ways that you can interact with the environment, and there’s a lot of exciting stuff coming,” Tilleby said. We have seen new gadgets added to the game that contribute to dynamism and can change the way the game is played, like the Anti-Gravity Cube back in season two. Tilleby added that while the destruction in THE FINALS is impressive, there’s still much more the team can do.

On the same note, Hogstrom mentioned the upcoming Club feature in season five, which is THE FINALS take on clans. “You can be part of this 50-player club that lives inside of THE FINALS. So I think, for me, that’s a milestone to actually populate the game with players,” he said. Clubs promise to be the social hub of the game, where players can come together, play, complete contracts, and earn XP. “Right now, it’s much on the social aspect, not so much on the competitive aspect. So, we’re trying to focus on the social aspects of clubs right now. So it’s not gonna be a lot of, you know, leaderboards and these types of things in the first iteration that we were doing,” Hogstrom added.

Season five of THE FINALS takes contestants to Bernal, Mexico, with a new map, weapons, gadgets, and cosmetics. Mexican village Bernal is the new map that, according to the creative director, plays similarly to Monaco but has “more emphasis on rooftop gameplay,” making it familiar yet new. Alongside the new map, new weapons with unique mechanics and two gadgets play into the dynamism mentioned before. The Gravity Vortex and Lockbolt Launcher give more utility to teamplay and playing around the objective, which is something the developer wants to focus on in season five.

The main goal when it comes to adding new gadgets is to keep the game fresh. When talking to the developers about how, at some point, there might be too many gadgets or weapons in the game, Hogstrom said that right now, every season might have different goals when it comes to items, and once it has calmed down, maybe the team will do fewer items. Tilleby added that, at this point, it’s all about creating a variety of playstyles. “Once we’re there, we can start thinking about other approaches, like, do we want to do reworks, do we want to take something out of rotation, change it to something else, stuff like that, so we’ll see how we play it in the long term.”

In season three, THE FINALS introduced the World Tour—a game mode with rotating events that feed into the fantasy of the game show. In the current state of the game, World Tour feels like the center of THE FINALS, and I was curious about where the developer might take the mode next.

When asked about the future of the World Tour, Tilleby said the developer only scratched the surface with what it can create when it comes to interesting and fun ways to interact with the game, as this is where the developer can experiment and be more creative. “So I think we’ve started, you know, small, but we have big plans for it going forward. Again, it’s not wanting to reveal too much now. Maybe that’s a cop-out answer. I’m sorry about that. But all I can say is that, yeah, I promise that there’s, there’s lots more coming there in terms of the World Tour,” Tilleby added.

While some of the things the developer has planned might be months away, season five of THE FINALS kicks off on Dec. 12. Throughout the season, we can also expect a few more additions to celebrate the game’s anniversary, like the upcoming music player.