Two new installments of D3 Publisher’s alien-action shooter have been announced for releases in 2020 and 2021. Earth Defense Force 6 is currently in development and set to release sometime in 2021, while Earth Defense Force: World Brothers is set to release in later 2020 on the Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch. At the time of writing, neither game has a confirmed release date and is expected to hit Japan before other regions.
Earth Defense Force 6 will be a sequel to 2017’s Earth Defense Force 5, which sees the fictional military organization battling extraterrestrial foes in the year 2022. Earth Defense Force: World Brothers is set in a pixelated, voxel version of Earth, in which players will be able to rescue and gather units to create their own Earth Defense Force to fight off the insect antagonists. The spin-off plans to include the weapons, classes, and enemies of the previous installments.
The class-based shooter has players assume the role of a soldier for the EDF, a global military responsible for fighting off alien invasions. Earth Defense Force grants players the option to fight off the foreign invaders as a Ranger, Wing Diver, Air Raider, or Fencer, as well as the ability to operate robust vehicles to assist in battle. The games offer a variety of advanced weapons and mighty machinery, such as the enormous Walking Fortress Balam, to help dissipate the alien threat.
The sci-fi third-person shooter series saw its initial release in Japan back in 2003. Since the series first arrived in North America in the form of 2006’s Earth Defense Force 2017, it has built an ardent cult following that grew with future releases on Xbox and Playstation consoles. There are now over nine Earth Defense Force titles that span main installments and spin-offs, which have even reached current-gen platforms including Steam.
What we currently know about Earth Defense Force 6 and World Brothers comes from their respective teaser websites that show the years of release along with in-game screenshots and images. It has not been confirmed if EDF 6 will be available for current and or future consoles, but the 2021 release date suggests we will definitely be seeing next-gen versions.
