Frost Giant needed the community to know that they care about 1v1 competitive and are committed to building a strong mode there. Everything else they have planned, even features in 1v1 itself, seem to be heavily focused on the casual playerbase: 3v3, 3vAI, cooperative campaigns, etc.
It's been quite clear that the marketing strategy is relying on community members to spread the word about the game. This was reinforced in the video I posted above. These community members have made a career streaming and casting 1v1 competitive Starcraft 2. It only follows that Frost Giant would need to ensure that people (the content creators and the greater community) know that this is a game for the fans and the competitive players as much as it is for the casuals. Otherwise, how quickly would the competitive community's eyes glaze over and move onto something else? Or hope and pray that maybe it's Uncapped's game that is going to deliver the goods for them? Or maybe just stick with the game they're already playing.
It bothers me slightly that after 13 years of a total RTS drought we have a potentially cannibalistic scenario among many game studios. I get that visions are different and these games might be targeting different playerbases, but it'd be nice to have people align behind one banner. I'm personally not interested in playing three different RTS. I just want one game that I can pour my energy into. I'll tell you this though, the studio that delivers a great editor to the community will definitely have my support. In my opinion, this is the game that is most likely to endure.
On September 26 2023 23:34 Hildegard wrote: Monetization with skins, voice packs, and so on only works for games with huge player numbers.
Path of Exile didn't have a huge playerbase when they started and I would say they still don't. It can work
tbf poe is much much bigger than sc2. sc2 is TINY. I just googled it and its played by 50 million users. 20 million active players in the last 30 days. https://activeplayer.io/path-of-exile/
Thanks for your answer. I actually feel like this statistic gives a really wrong impression. I am not sure how accurate that is but I at least have some doubts that 20 million unique players touched the game within 30 days.
No other stats I could find (steam, concurrent, GGG themselves) would really reflect that. Is that with the chinese client?
20 millions would mean 4x the players that touched CSGO which I find very hard to believe but maybe I am out of touch here and I had the wrong impression.
In any case the starting point was: you can build something from the ground. Even though RTS is niche it wasn't always small. and depending on your costs (overhead costs too) even a smaller playerbase can generate enough money. Especially in Starcraft people were often willing to support and/or spent money
On September 27 2023 14:16 RogerChillingworth wrote:
It bothers me slightly that after 13 years of a total RTS drought we have a potentially cannibalistic scenario among many game studios. I get that visions are different and these games might be targeting different playerbases, but it'd be nice to have people align behind one banner. I'm personally not interested in playing three different RTS. I just want one game that I can pour my energy into.
Thats not how business works though. RTS was nearly untouchable due to Starcraft, Broodwar, Warcraft and then Starcraft 2. Age of Empires IV really doesnt work all too well and I dare say wouldnt have worked at all if not for the money poured into it.
Now obviously people realize Blizzard/SC2 is fading and buisnesses want to potentially capture that void. They want to make their move for their business/idea.
I absolutely understand your take but its unfortunately just unrealistic. I hope we get one clear cut winner that is widely accepted and pushed with the other games being successful for the developers but not adopted into comp / splitting the scene
When we discuss which game could emerge as the go-to RTS of the next generation, there is one more.
I still think that Microsoft will make SC3, and that could be only a small update to 1v1, with iconic units remaining close to their former versions. They will add a campaign, probably revive co-op and use a better engine, and that game will probably be a huge hit for a relatively small investment. Chances are they mess it up anyway, but one can dream...
I agree that there is a chance Microsoft doesn't fully develop a new iteration of Starcraft but reworks Starcraft 2 - same engine - new campaign. Maybe reboot story or something. You only need good lorewriters + people familiar with Starcraft Lore for it.
Balance can be done by "outsiders" of Starcraft. New design etc bit harder. Thats not an unrealistic take imo
On September 27 2023 21:21 Hildegard wrote: When we discuss which game could emerge as the go-to RTS of the next generation, there is one more.
I still think that Microsoft will make SC3, and that could be only a small update to 1v1, with iconic units remaining close to their former versions. They will add a campaign, probably revive co-op and use a better engine, and that game will probably be a huge hit for a relatively small investment. Chances are they mess it up anyway, but one can dream...
It’ll happen someday, who knows when, and in what form.
But I think it’d be odd to just completely sit on the most iconic game in the genre, and the most commercially successful there. Even if it’s less ambitious in scope with campaigns and they go mostly competitive/Co-op multiplayer in focus.
Which tbh I wouldn’t mind as I’m not sure where you actually take the main narrative after 2 finisher anyway
I really enjoyed the new video. I think they must've read how the people hardcore following the game's development right now had some disappointment and criticism from their promotional materials so far. Hopefully it wasn't too hurtful as they don't actually have any marketing people apparently lmao. But I like what they came up with here.
I think a video like that is a great kind of thing to post for the small community following the game. And when they get a chance to show something to a large audience like at a big showcase, they can create a video that captures the attention of a wide audience.
As I'm really ambivalent toward in-game army skins, I'm happy to hear how much they're working on customization / self-expression outside of that. IDK if they're seriously considering a "show default skins on enemy units" option, but I think the one really realistic path toward pulling that off would be to give so much customization outside of unit skins that people are not upset about their opponent not seeing what army skins they chose.
Their marketing is totally fine for the hardcore RTS crowd. We criticized it because many of us, including me, don't think it appeals to the player base for single-player campaigns and younger gamers. And those, at least to my understanding, will make (or not) the game commercially successful. A new game can't be sustained by the goodwill and some cosmetic purchases of the hardcore RTS crowd. If someone has better insight, please educate me.
On September 27 2023 21:21 Hildegard wrote: When we discuss which game could emerge as the go-to RTS of the next generation, there is one more.
I still think that Microsoft will make SC3, and that could be only a small update to 1v1, with iconic units remaining close to their former versions. They will add a campaign, probably revive co-op and use a better engine, and that game will probably be a huge hit for a relatively small investment. Chances are they mess it up anyway, but one can dream...
It’ll happen someday, who knows when, and in what form.
But I think it’d be odd to just completely sit on the most iconic game in the genre, and the most commercially successful there. Even if it’s less ambitious in scope with campaigns and they go mostly competitive/Co-op multiplayer in focus.
Which tbh I wouldn’t mind as I’m not sure where you actually take the main narrative after 2 finisher anyway
I wouldn't hold my breath. I mean with Age of Empires they had (have) a huuuge IP with loads of fans all over the world, casuals and professionals and neither AoE 2 remake nor AoE 4 could hold on to the hype train very long as it left the station
On September 28 2023 19:14 Hildegard wrote: Their marketing is totally fine for the hardcore RTS crowd. We criticized it because many of us, including me, don't think it appeals to the player base for single-player campaigns and younger gamers. And those, at least to my understanding, will make (or not) the game commercially successful. A new game can't be sustained by the goodwill and some cosmetic purchases of the hardcore RTS crowd. If someone has better insight, please educate me.
I think Stormgate will be great too, but lets call a spade a spade. They literally said they do not have a marketing team so calling their marketing fine is laughable. It's LITERALLY non-existant.
On September 27 2023 21:21 Hildegard wrote: When we discuss which game could emerge as the go-to RTS of the next generation, there is one more.
I still think that Microsoft will make SC3, and that could be only a small update to 1v1, with iconic units remaining close to their former versions. They will add a campaign, probably revive co-op and use a better engine, and that game will probably be a huge hit for a relatively small investment. Chances are they mess it up anyway, but one can dream...
It’ll happen someday, who knows when, and in what form.
But I think it’d be odd to just completely sit on the most iconic game in the genre, and the most commercially successful there. Even if it’s less ambitious in scope with campaigns and they go mostly competitive/Co-op multiplayer in focus.
Which tbh I wouldn’t mind as I’m not sure where you actually take the main narrative after 2 finisher anyway
I wouldn't hold my breath. I mean with Age of Empires they had (have) a huuuge IP with loads of fans all over the world, casuals and professionals and neither AoE 2 remake nor AoE 4 could hold on to the hype train very long as it left the station
I’m not sure if it can hit the same heights as 1 and 2 did, but they’ll still probably release something sometime.
I mean they did drop AoE4 which seemed to do alright, just not any kind of transformative giant mega-hit for the genre either
If it's a good game, it will thrive, even without a marketing team. If the game is an absolute mess on release, well, the future probably won't bode well for it.
Ultimately, if they are committed to making a good 1v1 esport that can compete with SC2/BW, they are going to have to dig deep and really hone in on creating a fast paced, high skilled game without making it so high skilled that it chases away everyone that can't dedicated tons of time to it.
Not a task I envy, definitely not an easy one. It looks cool though, although I think leaning more on the Starcraft side vs. the Warcraft side will do them better, even if the unit design looks a bit more Warcraft esque.
On September 29 2023 04:42 Beelzebub1 wrote: If it's a good game, it will thrive, even without a marketing team. If the game is an absolute mess on release, well, the future probably won't bode well for it.
Ultimately, if they are committed to making a good 1v1 esport that can compete with SC2/BW, they are going to have to dig deep and really hone in on creating a fast paced, high skilled game without making it so high skilled that it chases away everyone that can't dedicated tons of time to it.
Not a task I envy, definitely not an easy one. It looks cool though, although I think leaning more on the Starcraft side vs. the Warcraft side will do them better, even if the unit design looks a bit more Warcraft esque.
I think their first goal has to be finacial stability and enough profit to continue developing. If this goal isn't met, everything else is just a moot point
On October 01 2023 00:40 Theonetruebarcodesg wrote: https://youtube.com/shorts/KUJVhcTzhbI?si=GiAGna_ra2jdVDQd I am going to be making daily shorts covering stormgate, today is a unit spotlight on the ' Lancer '. What do you guys think?
That short contains information I didn't have up until now. Is this information (name and research location of the upgrade for example) publicly available or do you have alpha access?
EPT
