[Column] General: Will FireFall Rise or Fall?

SBFord

This past year has been a hard one on game makers and publishers the world over. In some startling news, it has been revealed that Red 5's owner is in financial straits. What does this mean for Firefall? We offer a few thoughts in today's Free Zone column. Read on and then continue the discussion in the comments.

Witness this site's hype rating of about 8.2, it's safe to say that there's a good amount of interest in FireFall. As a result, last week's news that The9 reported a rather significant loss for the last six months of 2012 definitely caught my attention. Readers who watch the industry may recall that the Chinese publisher acquired a majority position in Red 5 Studios just over three years ago, apparently paying about $20 million. Accordingly, I can't help but wonder if the situation that produces the latest financials will impact the upcoming game in some way. 

Read more of Richard Aihoshi's The Free Zone: Will FireFall Rise or Fall?

Squishydew

The game just isn't that good.. Definitely doesn't have longlevity.

Tried to love it, and i did for a week or so, but thats it.

 

I don't see this game changing enough to make it a hit worth playing over anything else, I'd rather play defiance at the moment then firefall, and defiance is average at best.

Karahandras

Can't really say I'm suprised by this.  Don't really think red5 know what to do with the game(other than use the word esport as much as possible).  It's been in cb for something like 2 years now I heard and all they've really seemed to have done in that time is change thier minds about the core game 3 times, essentially wasting all the time effort and money that went into the previous versions. 

Rednecksith

It's going to fail hard, because Red5 keeps overhauling everything every couple of months. The dev process over there so far is incredibly wasteful of both time and resources, inexcusably so at times.

They redesign the game due to 'player feedback'. They then spend months fixing the things they broke with said redesign, as well as fine-tuning. They then, after having spent months (and presumably quite a bit of money) working on the game, go ahead and completely redesign it again. Repeat ad nauseum.

Unless management over there starts to tighten up, I don't see this game ever being officially 'released'. It'll probably remain in open beta until the end of the year, then close down (if it even makes it that far).

Battlerock

Maybe EA will buy it

Derros

It's always seemed to me, that the devs really never knew what to focus on with Firefall, the PvE, Crafting, or PvP.  Sometimes you just cant have it all. 

Fusion

Originally posted by Derros
It's always seemed to me, that the devs really never knew what to focus on with Firefall, the PvE, Crafting, or PvP.  Sometimes you just cant have it all. 

I concur, they just seemed to never have a real direction where to take the game.

EndDream

I love everything about it on paper. I even enjoyed playing it. But I look at the icon and say to myself "I don't really feel like playing". It's odd, but there it is...

DJMantiss

Firefall has some good points, but too many bad ones to attract an audience. Couple that with the developers seemingly ADHD on what they want to focus ona nd do with the game and you end up with a lot of little half-arsed ideas. Which don't translate well to either a world for PvE or the right elements to make it an eSport.

Nephaerius

There's simply not enough content at all.  Player characters handle well and move fluidly.  Flying around and fighting is a blast.  It's fun for all of 30 minutes.  By that point you've experienced every piece of content there is because the game is severely lacking in that department.

mCalvert

I didnt spend much time in the beta because I felt like the game was shallow. Nothing to really drive me forward.

Razeekster

The reason why so much money was lost is extremely obvious! Red 5 Studios has wasted a huge amount of cash on hyping this game up, and not only that they hired a proffesional comic artist to draw a comic for the game too. Why is that even needed? Put that money into the game instead! Not only that but they bought a huge-ass vehicle-type thing to go to PAX or some similar event. Their problem is that they don't know how to manage money. They obviously need a better accountant.

DamonVile

Originally posted by Rednecksith

It's going to fail hard, because Red5 keeps overhauling everything every couple of months. The dev process over there so far is incredibly wasteful of both time and resources, inexcusably so at times.

They redesign the game due to 'player feedback'. They then spend months fixing the things they broke with said redesign, as well as fine-tuning. They then, after having spent months (and presumably quite a bit of money) working on the game, go ahead and completely redesign it again. Repeat ad nauseum.

Unless management over there starts to tighten up, I don't see this game ever being officially 'released'. It'll probably remain in open beta until the end of the year, then close down (if it even makes it that far).

This really is their problem. I really like the game and want it to do well but I shake my head every time I see yet another redesign being put in.

I really liked the battle frames as they were in the pve patch, and thought they were easily launch ready. They had lots of issues but they worked. Their problem was there's nothing to do in the game. Rather than focus on content and get a game made....they messed around with pointless changes trying to fix something that was only bent not broken.

Theocritus

Originally posted by EndDream
I love everything about it on paper. I even enjoyed playing it. But I look at the icon and say to myself "I don't really feel like playing". It's odd, but there it is...

 Haha thats how I feel about 90% of the MMOs on the market.....

Panther2103

I really liked it. For about 3 days. It just gets really boring when there is absolutely nothing to do in the game because they keep changing it.

DaezAster

I was very excited about the game and played for about a week once i finally got into the beta, but everytime I log in it feels like I have to relearn the game. I'll wait for destiny or get defiance if I get the shooter itch, this game is now a memory for me and I think it will stay there. 

Ozmodan

Gameplay elements that keep people playing are missing from this game.   Pretty easy to guess what will happen.  Does not make any difference how good the developers are without a good design.  It is a lot like Defiance, another game that will be in trouble soon, nothing in it to keep people playing.

RemyVorender

Having beta'd the game throughout its development for the past couple of years, this soulless wonder is going nowhere fast.

 

Hell, the very first time I played it was at PAX East 3 -Y E A R S- ago. That's how long it's been in Beta folks. Lack of direction much?

Reklaw

I was really happy when I recieved a beta key.....

I really was like YAY!.........confused it with Wildstar

Then downloading the game and gained acces, at first I was like okay, looks pretty decent., then BAM I got smashed in the head by neon lightts, I felt like all sorts of bright neon colours attacked me. To be honost after that I never gave the game a real change. So have no idea if it might have settled allot or something to get used to, or perhaps it might have been just me not feeling it at the moment. It could also have been my expectations for Wildstar yet instead got Firefall. Dunno something just didn't click right away.

 

Scalpless

Firefall's major weakness right now is the lack of areas. It has decent enemy/quest variety after the last patch, but the whole thing is like one zone of GW2, but with a smaller content/m2 ratio.

Failtrain

They keep flipping back and forth between core mechanics for the game and none of them are that good. It just became worse and extremely complicated in areas it doesn't need to be at all. I've been in beta for a long time and want to see them succeed but that isn't looking like a possible outcome.

wormed

It'll fail. Do not waste your money on this game. Probably one of the worst managed garbage games to ever get any attention whatsoever. Terrible PvP, terrible PvE... they've got nothing worth anything. Open beta in July? Hahaha. Let this game die a miserable death, PLEASE.

Mardukk

Well there is no content. Kinda difficult to expect much when they can't or won't create content. Love the look of the game but that only goes so far.

skamper

The game does a horrible job pushing you forward

MindTrigger

Originally posted by Agoden

The game just isn't that good.. Definitely doesn't have longlevity.

Tried to love it, and i did for a week or so, but thats it.

 

I don't see this game changing enough to make it a hit worth playing over anything else, I'd rather play defiance at the moment then firefall, and defiance is average at best.

These games just don't give people a reason to stay long term at all.  Defiance will end up having the same problem.  There are games out there such as Tribes Ascend that is a non-MMO game that does this style of play much better, including some form of progression.

The trouble is, they need to have some MMORPG elements in these MMOFPS games before anyone is going to call them home.  Considering themeparks can't even keep people interested, I don't see how MMOFPS games with even less to offer are ever going to survive.

FlyByKnight

Well, you guys have gone and made the fan boys cry.  Incoming.

http://forums.firefallthegame.com/community/threads/horrible-comments-why.94283/