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Fighting game pricing seems flawed to me
- Thread starter DrArchon
- Start date
Again, this is never a problem in any other game where you purchase individual characters. You can play against every character, even the ones you don't buy.
Shit, this was solved in fighting games with fucking MK9.
katsubento
Member
Yep. But you won't be paying $60. You want to pay nothing at launch because you will only main one or two people.
Maybe check out the f2p mobile games since I don't think there's any mainstream fighter coming out that will do what you want. It's an interesting approach.
Metal Gear?!
Member
It sounds like you want Street Fighter 1, op
While I didn't come even close to implying such terms, I don't see the issue with giving consumers more options. The pubs would be the ones naming whatever price they offer.
KI and DOA5 have done it, and yet they didn't help the genre grow, so maybe not.
The F2P model has some pros and cons.
Pros:
Overall, I think it's a good idea. Whatever it takes to grow the playerbase.
Pros:
- If you play online and only as one or two characters, this model is saving you money.
- Fighting games have a larger barrier entry when it comes to skill. People don't want to spend money on a game they may be trash at. If the game is free they can try it out and see if they like it enough to "git gud". This benefits younger players who have more time than money.
- You'll probably be matched up with the free character more than any other which can impact your enjoyment.
- DLC characters need to be sold so developers make characters that the majority likes. Birdie, who was near the bottom of the popularity charts, would have never made it into SFV as a DLC character.
Overall, I think it's a good idea. Whatever it takes to grow the playerbase.
Tertullian
Member
If they can charge price-insensitive enthusiasts in a niche market full price, why on earth wouldn't they?
I'm so glad you gave us your input.
Basically. Fighting games aren't a fast growing genre and they haven't been since the 90s. The market isn't going to get much bigger, no matter what devs do. The goal should be slow, steady, sustainable growth of the enthusiast crowd.
CadetMahoney
Member
You'd be lucky to even get that. If there was a consistent and constant amount of killers playing all the time I could live with that easy. Depends on how shit and cheesy the game is though.
Glitter and Gold
Banned
That's pretty much what's happening. Devs are either developing games with modest sustainable business models like ArcSys, or deciding Fighting Games really aren't worth the investment anymore and putting less money into them like Capcom.
Any new delivery model would only alienate the audience they have I feel.
This is funny because fighting game players are some of the cheapest audiences in games. They just think the games are worth full market price. (and rightfully so)
This is absolutely subjective but it's also why I don't think this model works for fighting games. If they did a Dota model and the entire core game was available for free, I think a good chunk of the core FG audience wouldn't buy a damn thing lmao.
I'm not sure if that is a solved problem.
Anytime you get bopped by X character, the first advice from the FG community would be to record X character doing the troublesome moves in training mode so you can learn to deal with them.
ShinMaruku
Member
Doa5 does this masterfully and as a result has some pretty decent dlc sales. But some people ignore it a d that is fine it is self sustaining pretty well.
mr_sockochris
Member
Killer Instinct did this perfectly. You can buy single characters or whole season's. Plus the rotating Free fighter meant you get to try before you buy and dont miss out on characters you might have thought you wouldn't like. My main is Riptor but I ended up (unexpectedly) loving Kan-Ra after trying him for free first and they couldnt be mpre different in style.
SiegfriedFM
Member
In two words: Noooooo oooooooooo!
I don't see where this would be a good idea. If you are casual, you're not playing online and only occasionally with friends. You're not going to get deep into any character so you'll get bored if you only mess around with one. You're going to have game nights where you just pick randoms. If you are hardcore, you might play mostly with one character but at that point you will experiment with others to learn matchups.
Also, I hate buying games piecemeal. I already agonize over buying extra costumes for characters I only play rarely. "Hmmm, Laura would look so much better in this but I only play her 1/40 of the time so is it really worth it?" Having to pay an extra $5 up front means an added obstacle to trying out new characters, so instead you keep to what you have. Which means we get tons of people only using the basic character or whoever is the top tier of the month.
I get it, F2P models work, because people are fucking stupid and think they're getting a better deal. They'll happily pay $100 over the lifetime of a game rather than pay $60 up front.
Also, DoA (and, I guess, Soul Calibur: Lost Swords) used existing assets so they didn't have to finance the entire game to begin with. I'm not sure you can subsidize a quality fighter if most customers will only pay for a tiny part of it. Killer Instinct models and animations are horrible.
The entire premise of the thread is stupid. There are tons of games where you only get to see a tiny part of it. Should every RPG be episodic? "Please pay $2 to continue watching this cutscene"? And not just games, everything. It's as silly as not wanting to pay taxes if you're not using public infrastructure.
I don't see where this would be a good idea. If you are casual, you're not playing online and only occasionally with friends. You're not going to get deep into any character so you'll get bored if you only mess around with one. You're going to have game nights where you just pick randoms. If you are hardcore, you might play mostly with one character but at that point you will experiment with others to learn matchups.
Also, I hate buying games piecemeal. I already agonize over buying extra costumes for characters I only play rarely. "Hmmm, Laura would look so much better in this but I only play her 1/40 of the time so is it really worth it?" Having to pay an extra $5 up front means an added obstacle to trying out new characters, so instead you keep to what you have. Which means we get tons of people only using the basic character or whoever is the top tier of the month.
I get it, F2P models work, because people are fucking stupid and think they're getting a better deal. They'll happily pay $100 over the lifetime of a game rather than pay $60 up front.
Also, DoA (and, I guess, Soul Calibur: Lost Swords) used existing assets so they didn't have to finance the entire game to begin with. I'm not sure you can subsidize a quality fighter if most customers will only pay for a tiny part of it. Killer Instinct models and animations are horrible.
The entire premise of the thread is stupid. There are tons of games where you only get to see a tiny part of it. Should every RPG be episodic? "Please pay $2 to continue watching this cutscene"? And not just games, everything. It's as silly as not wanting to pay taxes if you're not using public infrastructure.
Ive figured out a model to save fighting games, yall.
The game is free...to download.
But you have to purchase a token every time you play.
The tokens cost 25 cents a piece.
Each token gives you full access to the game (minus cosmetics like premium costumes and stages) for 15 minutes.
Once youve purchased $60 worth of tokens you unlock the game forever.
Youre a casual who only wants to play for an hour or two with your friends? Pay a couple dollars and have a party. Wanna just play through arcade mode with 20 characters? Itll cost you five or ten bucks, depending on how good you are.
Im a genius. No need to tell me.
The game is free...to download.
But you have to purchase a token every time you play.
The tokens cost 25 cents a piece.
Each token gives you full access to the game (minus cosmetics like premium costumes and stages) for 15 minutes.
Once youve purchased $60 worth of tokens you unlock the game forever.
Youre a casual who only wants to play for an hour or two with your friends? Pay a couple dollars and have a party. Wanna just play through arcade mode with 20 characters? Itll cost you five or ten bucks, depending on how good you are.
Im a genius. No need to tell me.
Waluigilicious
Member
This...solves the problem of having backlogs too. You don't end up paying for games you don't play!
most people here are arguing for getting all the characters for training mode
for actually playing local or online you'd have to buy them tho
rotating the free characters could mean we don't see an army of F2P Ryus
I don't know, I mean would you even know who your spirit animal is before purchase even if we do the free trial route, because then how long would you keep the free character in rotation if there's 30 characters in the game, how long would you be willing to wait for that free character to become available before getting distracted by a shiny new game, and then we throw games with teams like KOF, MVCI and DBZ where team composition might be a thing.
Not to say that a buy what you use shouldn't be there but I think a base entry price of $10-15 for 8 characters should be there instead of F2P with one or two characters because you don't know what you want... Hmm I guess that's kind of what SFV is right now if you were to buy the vanilla version now in the shop.
Not to say that a buy what you use shouldn't be there but I think a base entry price of $10-15 for 8 characters should be there instead of F2P with one or two characters because you don't know what you want... Hmm I guess that's kind of what SFV is right now if you were to buy the vanilla version now in the shop.
The problem is two-fold here: You don't know which character you want to play in advance, and you still need to be able to play other characters just a little bit in order to learn how to fight against them.
Also, a la cart pricing encourages price gouging. If you only buy 1 character at a time, be prepared to have to spend +$150 for purchase the entire game.
It's also worth noting that the game is more than just which character you play; it's also the characters you play against!
Just simply paying for the character you control is a flawed argument because the opposing characters are also a part of the package; fighting games live and die on opponent variety. Imagine if you could only play mirror matches; that'd be terrible!
Just simply paying for the character you control is a flawed argument because the opposing characters are also a part of the package; fighting games live and die on opponent variety. Imagine if you could only play mirror matches; that'd be terrible!
*slams head on table repeatedly*
FOR GOD'S SAKE! THIS IS NEVER THE CASE WITH GAMES THAT LET YOU PURCHASE INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERS!
You are never limited to playing against the characters you buy. You can always play against the full cast.
People who have clearly never played F2P games really shouldn't be throwing their opinions into the ring.
jasminlovesyoux
Banned
Just how successful was killer instinct and doa5? Because they both followed that model.
ThaPhantom
Member
I feel like how DOA5 has it should be standard. A base game with a handful of characters and rotating trial characters and an option for full purchase if desired. I personally play all the characters in fighting games because I like the variety. I main 2 or 3 and play the rest for fun periodically. I would have to lose that option if all fighting games were piecemeal.
honestly this just feels like whining now. Just buy less games, I like having a big roster and maybe its because Ive played fighting games for years that its easy to pick up new characters that being said Im not a pro play for fun hate tier whores but I dont want games to be sold piece by piece when there are already companies doing things like this to line their wallets.
If its too expensive for you dont buy it, or wait until they go on sale. Im doing that for MvCi
If its too expensive for you dont buy it, or wait until they go on sale. Im doing that for MvCi
As already mentioned KI and DoA5 did it.
What I want from the fighting games is to have a decent single player content for the 60-100 asking price. That's what why I love the most in MK9/XL.
Recently I bought KI on Steam, although I started story mode to learn the characters, it still lacks on the finishing moves the originals had. No mercies (although not needed since it has ultimates I guess), humiliations and half the cast have ultimates missing.
What I want from the fighting games is to have a decent single player content for the 60-100 asking price. That's what why I love the most in MK9/XL.
Recently I bought KI on Steam, although I started story mode to learn the characters, it still lacks on the finishing moves the originals had. No mercies (although not needed since it has ultimates I guess), humiliations and half the cast have ultimates missing.
None of those F2P games have local in mind.
You want to play local a ton? Buy the founders pack with all of the characters included. Done.
For the last time: I am NOT saying that there should be no way to purchase all of the characters for a reasonable price.
I'm just saying that, for those people who only plan on playing online and using 1-2 characters, buying piecemeal and having the game be free would be a cool OPTION. Not a replacement. An OPTION.
superNESjoe
Member
I'm only going to use 6 Pokémon, why should I pay for all those 700+ extras I'll never be competitively viable with?
FYI, the price of the game is more than just the roster fella. It's the game itself too. Some f2p stuff like KI has worked this way, but that's not how everyone wants to design their game.
FYI, the price of the game is more than just the roster fella. It's the game itself too. Some f2p stuff like KI has worked this way, but that's not how everyone wants to design their game.
lucebuce12
Member
Btw, I love the incredibly pointless comparisons to purely single player games in this thread.
They need to make a F2P SF/Tekken/DOA with character loot boxes. Pay to unlock a random character for $4.99
it's a bad idea
CrazyDiamondu
Neo Member
You are making a false assumption here, that the $60 price tag is composed of the number of fighters a game has. You are paying to access the game itself as a whole, not the roster of characters. Also, you accessing one or more character makes no difference to the publishers, because it does not cost them more for you to use the other characters in the game.