Jackbox Games has confirmed that some highly-requested features will be coming to The Jackbox Party Pack 9. You'll finally be able to kick players from games in the new installment, and there are a couple of other big new quality-of-life updates coming as well.
What new features are coming to The Jackbox Party Pack 9?
Generally speaking, Jackbox Games seems pretty up on listening to its player base. This is the studio that let players export Tee K.O creations to Animal Crossing, after all, so it stands to reason that the studio wants to make sure its players are having a good time. That's certainly an attitude that Jackbox is displaying in a new blog post showing off Jackbox Party Pack 9 features, anyway.
The first and most important new feature is the ability to kick players from games and lobbies. It'll work as an extension of the moderation features introduced in The Jackbox Party Pack 7; moderators will be able to approve or reject game submissions and will also be able to kick players if they're being disruptive or inappropriate.
Kicking players will deny them access to that game room in future, which is why Jackbox recommends you also require Twitch logins from your players. This means players' Twitch IDs will be automatically prevented from rejoining games if you're streaming, which is ideal if you're hosting a family-friendly stream. Mods can only kick players once a game has reached its minimum player count, and kicked players will remain visible in games, they just won't be able to contribute.
Two more major quality-of-life features are being added as part of Jackbox Party Pack 9. First up, you'll be able to use your phone to sign in via QR code, so no more entering the Jackbox URL into your browser. The new game will also pause for a few minutes if a host disconnects in order to allow them to reconnect, meaning you won't lose game data even if your host drops.
What is The Jackbox Party Pack 9?
If you've never played any of the Jackbox Party Pack games, allow me to explain. They're basically gameshow-style minigame collections for you and your friends to play together. Some games, like Fibbage, Quiplash, and Drawful, recur across collections, while others are one-offs, meaning you'll probably want to pick up all of the collections if you want access to everything.
The Jackbox Party Pack games are available on various platforms, although you can pick all of them up on PC. They're all available on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, and several of them can also be found on Nintendo Switch and mobile devices. We don't yet have a release date for Jackbox Party Pack 9, although the game is due to land sometime this fall. Stay tuned for more info on that.
