Difference between horse armor and f2p model in general is that one time purchases for the game work only for single player games. If you want a live service you must have stable revenue coming. Lootboxes in OW1 were very generous for old players because you would get so many of them for just playing the game that I built entire collection of every non-event skin in the game by the end of OW1. I bought OW in 2017. That’s what, 6 years of playing for 40$ which includes not only the game itself but also providing servers for me. If there are many people like me then we are only wasting Blizzard money at this point. Unlike the single player game which is played on user desktop only and doesn’t require architecture outside of your PC to function so one time purchase is fine.
Without people buying skins, battlepasses or whatever, every live service is non-sustainable in the long run which is why they are necessary for the longevity of any game of that type. From business perspective f2p players provide nothing of value except of filling the queues for p2p players. So they need to atract f2p like me with gameplay features and don’t be too stingy about their skins so p2p still play the game. If they make this p2w game by locking important features, most people will just quit because it’s not fun losing because you don’t have a hero or whatever.
I don’t think most people have a problem with a live service game having a regular revenue stream. I think the issue is the level of the revenue stream versus the content provided. They don’t appear to be in synch here.
Dunno, I find the game relatively fun to play and I don’t spend a buck on it. Can’t complain about the value if it’s free xD.
As for 50$ for a bundle it’s too much for me. If it’s too much/not worth it for others they shouldn’t buy it neither and vote with the wallet. Maybe they will lower the price then
I usually don’t mind throwing $$ at good skins, but to be frank, none of the k-pop skins have any real wow-factor. They all looked like new dresses super-imposed over the same old models. Had Blizzard actually made unique faces and hairstyles, then yes, I would have bought them in a heartbeat. “A pig with lipstick is still a pig.”
But what if you were a regular spender? Do you think you’d be happy with the quality and quantity of content coming out?
Yes, the game at its core is still fun. But is it at the right place for the regular income that comes in? Shouldn’t there be more features? Shouldn’t events be more rewarding? Should the release pace of maps and characters be faster? Should updates be more frequent? Shouldn’t the PVE get actual support?
There’s a lot of unanswered questions, which I suspect aren’t be answered because corporate is more concerned about profit margins than quality. The dev team is too focused on churning out support for the latest cosmetic theme as opposed to game development as a result.
Oh I agree, f2p players are just part of the product for their p2p customers. And they absolutely need to charge for stuff otherwise there will be no game.
I just feel their bundling and pricing strategy is cutting out chunks of their potential p2p player base. If their pricing was more transparent and items could be sold individually, they’d probably get a steadier stream of income over a longer period of time.
Kinda makes me nervous that they’re relying on a ‘get rich quick’ bundle scheme tbh, makes me think they don’t have faith their product having any sort of longevity.
Yep. They very much subscribe to the business plan of “stepping over a dollar to make a dime”. They focus on short term profits over growing long term business.
If I was a regular spender then I would judge the quality of the content I BUY not of the game overall. So you know - you buy skins, are the skins good? I would say yes. But if I were to buy their story missions I would say the quality is garbage and it’s a scam to pay so much for so little. You have great indie games for that amount of money which would give you 50 hours of pure fun.
I don’t think those problems are highly correlated but I may be ignorant on that part. Balance being bad or events being boring are not a money issue I think. Balance can be handled by a fairly small team, they just need to be good at their job. Events however generally require a lot of work if they are supposed to be more than one time play for 30 minutes and forget after. I don’t care about them personally because they were always low quality addons to the main game. Now if you were told me that they charge 40 bucks for something as bad as current PVE - yeah I would be upset. I just want a good value for my money spend directly, the state of the game as a whole should be separated discussion from monetization of the game. Because even when Blizzard was gaining a lot of money from OW1 lootbox system and 1 time purchase, they still managed the game poorly overall.
They actually are. The basis of a free to play game is that its development of future game features are supported by the puchase of cosmetics and some game features (characters, PVE in this case) by a portion of the player base. The more purchases, the more features that should be added to overall game.
The problem with Overwatch seems to be that the purchases to support future development are being made, but the level of development output doesn’t appear to correlate to the level of said purchases. Most of the purchases are being used to fund or support future purchasable content, or being retained solely for increased profits.
In short, the reinvestment of profits into the game appears to be off. That’s a potential issue down the line.
Sure. This just means that people aren’t happy with the game. I can complain about the balance even if I don’t pay for OW. That’s why I don’t think about it as being correlated. People are entilted to demand quality of the game as long they are here to play the game I think. It’s not like if on average Rein mains payed more they should balance the game to appeal to Rein players more, it wouldn’t be fair for f2p players
Not talking about balance per se, more about game features. Although balance is important, it shouldn’t be the only thing being funded. For example, where is the group finder? Where’s the promised so many years ago clan system? Where’s the tournament system? Where’s the forge style map maker?
Yeah, the quality of the game overall is very important and promises should be fulfilled always. All I’m saying is that even if skins were priced cheaper, it wouldn’t make those complains any less fair. 50$ skins or 5$ skins, people want quality game regardless.
their favorite streamer flats will be making a video soon to thank ALL THOSE who are buying the skins for the past year so he can keep getting the free battlepasses and skins from blizzard in order for them to keep making the new continual content of skins that they promised 4 years ago for the sequel they were making
