As the full gameplay reveal for Farming Simulator 22 draws ever nearer, developer Giants has released some key new details to continue tiding fans over. The new simulator will introduce three new crops to the series for the very first time: grapes, olives, and sorghum.
These never-before-seen crops will provide additional ways to conduct virtual fieldwork. Grapes are the first vine-based crop to be in the series, allowing for the new opportunity to plant vineyards in a Farming Simulator game. Giants states that “special equipment” will be needed to keep the grapes “fertilized, and the ground loosened and mulched.”
This does seem to indicate that perhaps a new category of machinery will also be introduced. Just like in real life, the grapes in FS22 are seasonal, only being able to be planted and harvested from the late spring rolling into the summer. Olives play by similar rules to grapes in terms of planting and harvesting periods and will also require specific machinery. The weirdly named sorghum is growing in importance across the world thanks to its nutritional value and ability to grow in drier climates. Unlike the other two new crops, it thankfully doesn’t appear to require any special machinery.
From crop to currency
All three of these new crop types are able to play a part in the recently announced gameplay mechanic for Farming Simulator 22: production facilities. These facilities, such as grain mills, will allow players to extract new products from harvested crops.
For example, grapes can be used to make wine, but, since this sim has to keep its E rating, it’s going to be used to make in-game grape juice instead. Olives can be turned into olive oil, and sorghum can be turned into something much more familiar: flour. These new products can then be distributed to selling points, thus creating an additional stream of revenue.
While we still haven’t seen any gameplay of Farming Simulator 22 just yet, the studio has released a new cinematic trailer which once again shows off the new season mechanic at work, as well as the new crops:
Farming Simulator 22 will finally be fully revealed during FarmCon, which will take place in only a few weeks starting July 21 to 22. The full game will hit stores on November 22.
