Anyone who has ever been part of a multiplayer game knows that quitters can completely ruin the experience. Be it a football/soccer match, a 1-on-1 fight or a squad-based shoot-out, playing against someone who quits can turn a pacifist into a demon in a matter of seconds.
In that sense, last year’s almost free-to-playKiller Instincthas decided how it’s going to deal with players who abandon a multiplayer match early. Double Helix, its developer, calls the new system “rage quit solution”.
The first time your disconnect percentage goes above 15%, you’re sent to “Jail”. For 24 hours, you can only fight against other jail members.
However, each time you return to jail, the amount of time increases by 24 hours (up to a maximum of 5 days). When your jail time is up, you are free again… until you quit another match and go back to the Big House (as long as your disconnect percentage is above 15%).
Just in case you forget where you are and what you did, while in jail your profile icon is automatically changed to a custom jail icon.
It isn’t the first game in its kind to implement a solution like this, but the combination of the “Jail” and the icon sounds really cool.
Starting April 02, Sony Online Entertainment will offer a single membership plan called All Access, that will cover all its MMOs (EverQuest, EverQuest II, DC Universe Online PC, PlanetSide 2 PC, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and the upcoming EverQuest Next and EQN Landmark).
For $14.99 a month (with extra savings for 3, 6 and 12 month plans), subscribers will be able to:
Claim 500 Station Cash monthly from within the game marketplaces.
Receive a 10% discount on marketplace purchases.
Gain access to exclusive promotions and offers throughout the year.
Besides, all players with existing memberships will be automatically upgraded into the new plan. As IGN points out, free-to-play members will still be able to play games without paying for them and the new consolidated payment options are only available on PC right now.
I’m interested to see how this single subscription model works. As I see it, lowering the barriers for those who want to play (at least) more than one MMOs is a clear vote of confidence for the free-to-play model. Why? Because now the only way to monetize those players (outside the single $14.99 subscription fee) will be through in-app purchases, as they will be spending less per game. Of course, those who only play one MMO won’t see any change.
In the end, it’s about giving people more for their money.
World of Tanks, the insanely popular tanks MMO, has set a new record with 1.1 million concurrent users. In other words, more than 1 million players shooting each other at the same time. The game has over 75 million registered users around the world.
Kabam, the social games colossus known for its strategy games, had had a great 2012, making more than $180 million in gross revenue (70% more than in the previous year). Based on its mobile success in China, the company forecasted earning $270 million in 2013.
However, the Warner Bros. backed developer ended 2013 reporting $360 million in revenues, doubling its previous year. According to Kabam CEO Kevin Chou, most of that money came from their mobile ventures, although around $100 million were generated by browser games on Facebook and Kabam.com.
The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age (2013)
Regarding the general gaming scene, Chou acknowlodges the initial success of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but still isn’t sold on developing games for them:
…over time, free-to-play mobile gaming revenues will dramatically overtake traditional game sales as more people worldwide download and play games on smartphones and tablets from freemium content companies like Kabam.
League of Legends(Riot Games’ hit MOBA) continues its hugely successful run, having earned $624 million during 2013 (its 4th year in the market). The game is free-to-play, so the earnings came 100% from in-app purchases. However, that number wasn’t enough to make it the most lucrative online PC game, as it was surpassed by CrossFire, SmileGate’s first-person military shooter, which earned $957 million during 2013.
If we divide the top 10 free-to-play earners by publishers, the Chinese giant Tencent is the clear winner, having a combined annual gross of $1,581million and holding the top 2 spots. The South Korean developer Nexon comes second, with 3 of the top 10 slots and an $873 million annual income.
CrossFire (Tencent/SmileGate) – $957 million
League of Legends (Tencent/Riot Games) – $624 million
Dungeon Fighter Online (Nexon) – $426 million
World of Tanks (Wargaming.net) – $372 million
Maplestory (Nexon) – $326 million
Lineage (NCSoft) – $257 million
World of Warcraft (Activision/Blizzard) – $213 million
Star Wars: The Old Republic (Electronic Arts) – $139 million
Team Fortress 2 (Valve) – $139 million
CounterStrike Online (Valve/Nexon) – $121 million
It’s important to note that the study doesn’t include paid subscriptions, so World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic have even bigger earnings.
The online component of last year’s record-breakingGrand Theft Auto V lets players become part of a vibrant world, full of activities, challenges and sociopaths. Although it may sound too similar to its singleplayer experience, the difference lies, of course, in the actors: the mayhem here is brought by other human players. For sure, there are still plenty of game-controlled cops, shop owners and bystanders to run into (pun intended).
The fun fact this time is that, as happens in real world conflicts, a new unarmed character appeared among violence and death: the combat photographer.
Redditor cy_sperling decided to take full advantage of the game’s snapshot feature, roaming Los Santos (GTA’s Los Ángeles) in the search of hot spots. He plays passively, snapping images of his surroundings.
Life and death in Los Santos
He even takes his GTA Online persona one step further, wearing camo pants, a black jacket with “MEDIA” printed across the back and a helmet. When possible, he also tries to find a Weazel Newsvan (Los Santos news station) to get to the conflicts in full journalistic fashion.
“Weazel News: confirming your prejudice”
However, as in any other warzone, being a combat photographer can be a very dangerous task, especially if people don’t accept your political immunity:
It’s fun to see who “get it” and let me get up close while they fight. Most people seem to have fun with it, but there is always one guy who can’t stop trying to run me over. And they are always dressed as some ridiculous ICP Clown nonsense…
It’s great to see what can emerge when people have enough tools and a canvas to interact with.
Finnish developer Rovio, well known for its Angry Birds franchise, has become an entertainment behemoth, using its main property as a foundation for merchandising, cartoons and other outlets.
Now, almost 5 years after the first Angry Birds, Rovio employs 800 people. However, less than 400 are currently working on games. However, for Jami Laes, executive VP for games, the company will keep finding its future hits in his department, and not all the way around.
But games will always be at the core of Rovio. That’s our heritage. The majority of the folks who have come from different industries to work on different areas of our business, they all experienced the game as their first encounter with the brand. When it comes to future franchises, they’ll most likely see the light of day from the games department, rather than another area of our business.
And now, build yours!
Regarding Rovio’s future and ambitions, he ackowledges the current state of connectivity as the biggest barrier for online gaming.
There’s enough pixels, enough power, enough fidelity to build great games on mobile, with great UI and great controls and so on. But building that long-lasting server-backed experience right now is pretty difficult on mobile.
I’m not a big fan of online-mandatory games, especially for the impossibility of accessing them at any time. Actually, most of the times I pick my phone for playing, I tend towards experiences that rely more on consuming content than on social interaction (like I did lately with Badland or Injustice). However, that may change when overall connectivity improves… and only when it makes sense.
Titanfall is, without question, one of the most anticipated games of the year (it will be launched on March 11). Let’s sum up:
It’s a multiplayer-centric first-person shooter, a combination that has proven successful when executed smoothly.
It’s exclusive for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Actually, Microsoft hopes that it becomes a system seller for Xbox One (it’s even getting its own controller).
It’s going to be published by Electronic Arts (the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue after Nintendo and Activision Blizzard).
It’s being developed by part of the original team that turned the Call of Duty franchise into a billion-dollar business.
It’s been receiveing extremely positive buzz from the press, winning over 75 awards after its E3 2013 reveal.
And last but not least, it will let players fight each other as elite assault Pilots or as HEAVILY ARMORED TITANS.
So, it’s a game that’s being created by a team more than skilled in that genre, backed by Microsoft and Electronic Arts and with enough hype to fill a stadium. Therefore, a dream came true for marketing, right?
Apparently, no.
According to producer Drew McCoy, the multiplayer nature of the game forced the team to take a different approach to get the game noticed.
It’s actually been really tough trying to accurately market Titanfall. If you look at what we’ve done, its a lot different than what most FPS games do. Without a bunch of highly scripted singleplayer moments to recam from different angles, the usual ‘movie like’ trailer is just about right out.
Although Titanfall will provide some narrative moments, the main core of the experience is to play with other people, and that’s what they’re trying to emphasize (along with driving HEAVILY ARMORED TITANS, of course). So, their current marketing strategy consists in releasing full unedited 3-5 minutes segments, showing the flow of the game.
What I find interesting about this is that, when McCoy says that they have had problems ‘accurately’ marketing Titanfall, what he’s really saying is that, because of its multiplayer nature, they had no choice but to use actual game situations to get audience’s attention.
Marketing guys didn’t get the chance to build their own Titan (?)
And actually… that sounds like a good thing to me. There are lots of games that were marketed in a dubious way, frustrating players (because they weren’t getting what they were expecting) and creators (because their game was being advertised as something else) alike. As a matter of fact, in the only trailer they published (the one at the top of this post) there are no first-person sequences… and it’s a first-person shooter! But I’ll write later about that.
Titanfall is a hardcore game (there’s nothing casual about it) that’s being marketed to its potential hardcore audience through actual footage, even minimizing risks. Instead of showing a more controlled experience (i.e. a regular trailer, like the one they used for presenting the game), they are simply showcasing gameplay.
I understand that it may be a change from the more classic way of advertising a game like this one (and that, at some stage, an edited video can be useful for awareness) but I hope in the future more companies start to be more transparent regarding their actual products. Or, as McCoy himself admits,
There’s no amount of polished marketing that can replace playing the actual game.
The Gaming Bazaar 