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Rumor: Layoffs at Gazillion Entertainment | Marvel Heroes 2015 | MMORPG.com
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Rumor: Layoffs at Gazillion Entertainment | Marvel Heroes 2015 | MMORPG.com
Michael Parks, currently with Kongregate, is reporting on his Twitter account that a round of layoffs has gone down at his former employer Gazillion Entertainment, developers of Marvel Heroes 2015.
Comments
I think they're also running out of popular heros to sell. Tons of people brought the first 12 pack of heros for the year, and many brought the 2nd, but I saw lots of people not caring for the 3rd. By now they're starting to dip into the less popular heros.
Another source of revenue for them is team-ups. But you really only need like, 3 of those to cover every situation you'd want. They never came out with the team-up synergies so there's no reason to get any more than that unless you really like a certain team-up hero.
The last source of revenue I can think of is costumes and pets. Which are... well, costumes and pets. Honestly I keep seeing people asking for F2Ps that only sell cosmetics in their cash shop but the only one I've ever seen pull that off successfully is Path of Exile, and they have a lot lower overhead than Marvel Heroes I imagine. Costumes make up a good chunk of revenue from what I heard (what I heard could be wrong, mind you) but I highly doubt it's enough to keep the game afloat by itself.
Oh, and there's storage space but that's another "buy what you need once, never have to pay money again" thing.
Honestly not sure what they could sell from here on in order to make money. Housing comes to mind (that's what Path of Exile did. Pet sales surely soared when people brought TONS of pets to spam their houses with) but the developers said they don't plan on that since it doesn't fit with the whole hero thing. Bad decision/viewpoint IMHO since... well, again, not sure what else they could sell in order to make money.
There's like.... only two double boss fights, IIRC. One of which is farmed heavily at end game (Doom) but the other of which is mostly ignored unless you want a runeword recipe really badly (even then, once you get Loki's recipe, you're pretty much done with him).
1) The game is pretty shallow if you want to stick with one hero.
2) They rely on hero, costume, and team up sales. But the best heroes and most of the best costumes are already out now. And yet they are still keeping the prices the same for heroes I don't give a crap about. In my opinion they have enough heroes and need to find something else to monetize, such as actual content expansions. I'll pay for good new content but I'm not likely to pay for much else they offer. I surprisingly decided to spend cash on team ups at 50% off but that was actually pointless.
3) They spent too many resources on raids and new heroes and not enough on improving itemization and replayabilty. D3 has caught and passed them on itemization and was always ahead on the competitive side.
4) Boss specific loot sounds good but gets super tedious.
5) They simply aren't generous enough to new players and the prices are out of whack.
6) The actual combat was never as good as D3 but that was OK as long as they stayed ahead in other areas. They've fallen behind drastically and I have a feeling their leader boards will be rather shallow as well. Competitive seasons would breath some life into the game but it's frankly not balanced well enough for people to care.
Funny that once the whales stop the dev stops.
Of course, it's also no secret that catering to whales hurts your game's lifespan (search for R2Game's GE china business presentation on the matter). So F2P is basically a Catch-22, really (for the players, that is. It's quite profitable for the developers... at least in the short term).
It's true but the free to play gamers are able to shrug such things off for various reasons. So while they hate cash shops and any advantage a "whale" has over them...they are shortening their life spans in said game.
Too bad for fans of this game, it will definitely leave them with less chance for expansion and improved game play experience. However, maybe we could eventually get a good Marvel MMO out of it's slow down.
Help support an artist and gamer who has lost his tools to create and play: http://www.gofundme.com/u63nzcgk
This is basically what scaling does as well,you fight a level 10 version then a level 40 version,it gets real boring repeating the same thing over and over even at different levels.
FFXIV does the same thing with it's avatar fights ,i really despise how lame game development has become over the last 5 years.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
They'll also be competing with several upcoming ARPGs like Lost Ark and Lineage Eternal, in addition to a much improved D3 and the consistent POE.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
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