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BioWare's Success with Anthem is Key to Its Future as Release Slips to 2019 - Anthem - MMORPG.com
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
BioWare's Success with Anthem is Key to Its Future as Release Slips to 2019 - Anthem - MMORPG.com
Anthem News - With Anthem already slipping to "early 2019" from a projected late 2018 release, the anxiety level of BioWare is increasing. Most of the company's developers in both Austin and Edmonton are focused on creating a multiplayer game that will revive the studio's reputation. According to an insider's anonymous statements to Kotaku, developers are worried "the company's future is inextricably tied to this game".
Comments
Seeing how it is published by EA, chances are its story will be shit and it will beat me over the face with loot boxes.
Pass on that shit.
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
any AAA publisher beat you over the face with lootboxes theese days, EA is as good as any ..
It's going to be a multiplayer focused game, you can forget about deep choice based story right now.
Considering the current state of both EA and a lot of games in general, my vote is that Anthem will have about a 3-hour "campaign", with the rest of the game being entirely multiplayer, and anything even remotely difficult will require a group. I am still somewhat excited for it, but cautiously so. If this turns into another D2, it honestly wouldn't surprise me one bit. Different company, sure, but I can easily see this having small maps and repetitive group encounters.
Then I want you to wash my car, EA. Provide me that service, and I'll pay you. You can also sweep and mop my floors, I'll throw you a 20 for that.
If the service amounts to another attempt to pass lootbox progression by us consumers? You can get bent.
Games are a product. Not a service. Customer support for your game product is a service.
That's about the one statement that would get me to seriously consider Anthem... basically if it has loot-boxes* (and the chances are it will) there is really no point in even starting to play (well, unless the story is amazing).
* And yes, this includes 'only cosmetic' loot-boxes, because not only are loot-boxes an inherently bad system (especially when monetized), but as Destiny 2 shows, locking the majority of your cosmetics (or at the very least the good ones) behind loot-boxes makes for a very unrewarding gameplay experience.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
With no loot boxes and no subscription (think Wildstar, ESO, SWTOR etc.) the box price will need to cover all the development costs, marketing costs, running costs and provide a profit.
Will you expect follow on content? As DLC? If so how much should the DLC cost? How frequent?
I most likely agree with your overall position but your anogly doesnt work. Washing your car and sweeping your floors is a ONE time service. If you want it monthly that requires upkeep in service cost.
And its funny that you end with "Games are a product not a service" Yet you then mention customer support, which has been sited by many game companies including Blizzard as the #1 cost "MMO style" games face post launch. Thats More than development and marketing by a large margin.
So for a game like Cuphead sure, that is a product. But you can not call Overwatch or PUBG just a product, they are services and players WANT them that way.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
It depends on what the final product offers, but as a standard I would say 60 USD box price... and no doubt there will be 70-80 USD 'special' editions.
As for on-going content, running costs, etc. that is covered by additional content releases (and on-going sales). Again, the cost depends on the content, but 15-25 USD every 3-6 months would be reasonable for significant content. An expansion could also be offered every 18-24 months for 40-60 USD.
And before we get onto 'too expensive'; remember, this is software, only the first copy actually costs X millions to make; making additional copies costs next to nothing; i.e. more copies sold past the breakeven point = vastly more profit (which also applies to additional content).
And that is not even mentioning the free marketing from word of mouth, positive reviews, twitch, etc. ... Or how much easier it is to sell a game (and continue to sell it, including extra content) if you have a good rep and people enjoy your game(s). ... Or all the costs saved in having an established IP, game-engine, etc. (as opposed to having to start from scratch).
Or at least that's my way of thinking...
TLDR; I'm happy to spend money on games that I enjoy (as I did with WoW through TBC, continue to do with FFXIV, and have done with numerous single players games that offered reasonable DLC, expansions and / or collectors editions) ... but all these mediocre games asking for $$ for a small chance at a fancy hat (and calling that a 'service') can get f***ed.