F2P Edition release idea

Battleborn Battleborn General Discussion
#95

I’ve seen a few other threads with this topic.

This one for example:

#98

Didn’t mean to move this post with it, merged a similar topic into this one

#99

Demos and base content and compensation, oh my! Please make sure you’re reading the thread before posting, not just the most recent. A massive demo with up to 5 characters, no gear, and capping out command level/character level has already been suggested.
The trolls in f2p community have been mentioned.
The unequal compensation has been brought up. I, for one, would drop this game like a pregnant girlfriend if it went f2p. I paid. Unless they give me my $80 back, I won’t touch it. I don’t buy skins, I don’t buy in game currency at all. Is it pretty? Sure. Do I care? No. And why do I care if someone else gets to enjoy if I had to pay? It’s like going out to eat. You get your bill… And then everyone who showed up after you gets a full free meal. But your food was made with potatoes (because potatoes are awesome) so you should be happy to fork over $80. (It’s a fancy restaurant).
And lost my train of thought… Just try not to make this thread a broken record. I, and many others probably, am curious as to what new ideas could make f2p almost justifiable.
Oh, and I’m on console. So the game is certainly not dying in my end. :wink:

#100

Chain of events that take a Premium game to Freemium over time:

  • Ambitious design and unique concept draw in the initial player base.

  • Unrealized expectations start to settle in, other titles release, players begin to move onto other projects.

  • Reductions in player activity lead to early price drops.

  • Developers try to compensate for negative feedback by making major adjustments.

  • Previously satisfied players react to adjustments, some of those players move on.

This is where we are now, what comes next is typically the result of failed attemps at maintaining the active player base with content and gameplay adjustments.

  • As player activity remains low, plans are developed to convert the game to attract new players and generate revenue.

  • A notice goes out to the population announcing plans to make serious changes to the game.

Generally, it’s some variation of the following:

We remain dedicated to supporting this game and offer our players new and exciting content. In order to continue to give our players the best possible experience, we are working on changes which we will reveal in the near future. We are very excited about the upcoming changes and we hope you enjoy your experience with us as much as we enjoy creating it for you. We appreciate all of your support and hope that you will continue to support us going forward.

  • A basic framework for micro transactions is established along with test items to establish baseline transaction pricing.

  • Marketplace Items are expanded with the introduction of unique options not available through the previous format. (Eg: boosts, pets, personality alterations, ect…)

  • Official announcement goes out informing everyone of the upcoming Free to Play conversion, followed by backlash from current players.

  • The conversion goes live, resulting in a flood of new players.

  • Servers struggle with the new influx of activity and suffers from periodic down time.

  • Servers stabilize & game activity surges, increased revenue allows the game to continue to expand.

Now, that is just a basic guideline of how past games have made the transition when it wasn’t part of the original release concept. In the past, the conversion has taken less than a year and players who purchased the game were compensated with very limited in-game currency and a novelty item that eventually makes it’s way into the marketplace.

I based this list on my personal experience with 8 different titles that made the conversion, with varying results. Most of them survived for years. I’m not particularly in favor of a F2P conversion, but it sure looks like Battleborn is headed that way.

3 Likes
#101

totally agree…

#102

So you’d rather have a paid game with no players than a F2P?

1 Like
#104

The game doesn’t have no players - It has a low player count.

Would I prefer the game to have a small pool of dedicated fans or for it to have an influx of people who don’t care about it, who will abandon it in favor of the next FoTM F2P game in a week or two?

Yes, I will take the small pool of players who paid thanks.

As someone who has played many games that have started on a premium model and gone F2P (for example Rift, SWOTR, Wildstar etc) I can say they all suffered from it and I no longer play any of them.

More players would be great but not by way of the game-death-tainting that is F2P.

#105

Thing is, it’s not only about players.
Some peoples make a living out of this game’s results on the market.

#106

Once again, was going to make my own topic on this, but then I was alerted to this topic via the “Suggestions” thing that popped up. Props to the person at Gearbox who designed this forum, Very nicely done :wink:

Anyway, as to the whole thing of Battleborn going F2P, I certainly wouldn’t be upset if it did, but I also wouldn’t be all too surprised.

I mean, just look at what happened to Evolve recently when it went free to play, and that game has been slowly plodding along at a few hundred players for the last 8-10 months:
http://steamcharts.com/app/273350#All

If the game did go F2P, I think they would need to do a few things:

  1. Everyone that bought the game gets all the current characters unlocked, while the people who play for free would only be able to play as set characters that were on the standard MOBA rotation system. They would be able to buy the characters with either Platinum or the in game currency (but would need to pay the 47k like we currently do for Alani).

  2. People who paid for the Season pass content would still get what they paid for. Everyone else has to pay for it.

  3. Story mode DLC would still have to be bought. Not sure how the current story would be done though. Maybe either leave it free, give people the prologue and the first two episodes (same as the beta) and they pay to unlock the rest, or free people have to pay for the whole campaign (don’t like that one personally, but it’s an option).

I don’t think they’d make it free to play THIS soon after it’s launch, but if they did decide to do it, they’d probably aim to do it once all the Season Pass content has been delivered, so maybe sometime beginning of next year?

1 Like
#107

Too late to fix… 570 player in game on a friday evening on PC. It’s dead, nothing will revive it and it’s sad.

#108

You have absolutely zero clue what you’re talking about. Look what happened to the playerbase of Evolve after it just went F2P. As of right now, 11:40 EST on a Saturday morning, there’s freaking over 34 THOUSAND players. If any game was dead, it was Evolve.

#109

Yeah, but from what I heard, Turtle Rock Studios had to make some pretty drastic changes to the gameplay in order to bring people back in.

I can only hope GBX don’t have to do the same thing, but right now, a free weekend might help boost the numbers a bit

#110

Evolve runs better on my pc tho(ATi card) and there’s been no fix since launch.

#111

How I think Battleborn can be improved:

1. Move Through Allies

  • I’ve had too many times that I tried to retreat or move somewhere, but then an ally or minion blocked my way. Both in PvE and PvP. This is very frustrating if you then get killed that way. In every game this is often a problem they don’t see.

  • So I suggest making it so that you can move through allies, but there is a vector coming from the middle of the character controllers that pushes them apart. Like what happens in Team Fortress 2. This way players can move past each other without problems. And they won’t be clipping into each other, causing weird physics and damage detection.

2. Free To Play

  • First off: WHY? The player base is just too small. Waiting times are boring. I want a lot of friends to join in, but they don’t want to spend the money. They want to try the game.

  • Why would it work? Well, Evolve is a good, recent example. Their players base increased immensely. Gearbox also needs money, and the platinum skins and taunts is a dick move, leeching off the people that were devoted to them.

  • The story missions would become DLCs, expect the prologue and maybe the algorithm. For like 2 euros each?

  • Add typical F2P items, like credit and xp boosters (which you can buy with credits)

  • Remove platinum currency, and add the option to buy credits with real money.

  • Merge Meltdown and Incursion. The less game modes, the more players play it. But a Capture match takes 10 minutes, while a Meltdown or Incursion match takes 30 minutes. And I think most people prefer to have to option to play a short or long match.

  • The players that bought the game already get the story missions for free. They would also get some of those xp and credit boosters

  • The players that bought the game for 30-60 euros or more (I bought it for 20). Would get more of those boosters. And they get some DLCs for free, as gearbox needs to make some amends with them.

#112

Buy credits with money!? So many will say it’s p2w

#113

I bought Battleborn for the PvE, If they ever go F2P I just hope they keep the PvE behind a paywall and keep releasing more as DLC.

#114

Meltdown almost never takes more than 20. Incursion takes almost thirty regularly.

#115

I think if Battleborn were to go free to play. It should not include the campaign.

I wish Brink went Free to Play.

1 Like
#116

When Battleborn switches to F2P(it’s a matter of how long at this point), they aren’t going to offer a refund to those of us who have paid for the game and season pass. They’ll gives us ‘founder’ titles or something, maybe some sort of elite status or something, but otherwise we will all have to get used to the F2P system as well.

Personally I am kind of looking forward to when the devs rebrand the game and re-release it as F2P. It helped EVOLVE massively, and I hope they take a few lessons from the developers over there.

1 Like
#117

Same. I’m looking forward to the day I check Steam Stats for this game and see 10,000+ playing on a regular basis.