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The future of RTS games - Page 24

Forum Index > SC2 General
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Keep "my game is better than yours"-slapfights out of this. If the discussion devolves into simple bashing, this thread will be closed.
Lumi
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
United States1616 Posts
May 15 2014 19:02 GMT
#461
Warcraft 4
twitter.com/lumigaming - DongRaeGu is the One True Dong - /r/onetruedong
Snorkle
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States1648 Posts
May 15 2014 19:05 GMT
#462
On May 16 2014 03:42 Plansix wrote:
Valve releases zero data on dota, but it's widely accepted that its main purpose to get you to install steam on your PC.

Who knows for lol, but they are making bank. But none of that matters for RTS games. It's like asking "how can 3d shooters get league numbers".


We can extrapolate just a tiny bit of data from compendium sales. The current prize pool is up to 5 million. The base was 1.6. So we know that the prize pool has been increased by 3.4 million. Now that 3.4 million came from $2.50 of every $10 dollar purchase which means valve has made 10 million dollars just from releasing this years compendium. If we consider HotS selling for $40 that is the equivalent of selling 250,000 copies of HotS. That number will likely continue to rise and this is ONLY the compendium and not any of the other hat purchases.


How amazing would it be if the SC2 competitive scene could generate the equivalent of 250,000 copies of a game sold every year while also supporting its own prize pool.

The future of RTS is somewhere in the free to play + hats model. Not in buying a box.
Destructicon
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
4713 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-15 20:28:03
May 15 2014 20:26 GMT
#463
On May 16 2014 04:01 urboss wrote:
When we look at the sales of the franchises, according to Wikipedia,

StarCraft is at 17 million total
Diablo is at 20 million total

Not so much difference to be honest.
At least there is no immediate reason to be concerned about StarCraft.

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises

@Thieving_Magpie: stop posting incorrect data , you are doing this the second time already in this thread.
StarCraft was the 8th best selling video game of all time!


One thing that really surprises me in very unpleasant way. Diablo 3 sound roughly about as much as SC2, now with the removal of the AH and gold buying it doesn't act as a sort of continuous revenue stream like WoW. Yet Diablo 3 gets regular patches, big ones every couple of months, it has also done several big and game changing sweaps. I'd like to see that same sort of care done with SC2 even now. Given that both games are roughly the same size in terms of sales I don't see why one has to get more attention then the other.

Edit: What Snorkles said is very true. I don't think RTS games are outdated or dead or on their way out, I just think the current monetization model for them is probably dated.
WriterNever give up, never surrender! https://www.youtube.com/user/DestructiconSC
JimmyJRaynor
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada17368 Posts
May 15 2014 20:40 GMT
#464
On May 16 2014 03:51 Big J wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 16 2014 03:44 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
On May 16 2014 03:34 Plansix wrote:
Blizzard is a studio with creative people. They don't want to make RTS games for 20 years straight. No one does. Why do you think studios that are making their 2nd or 3rd sequel are bleeding talent? No one make the same game for 15 years straight.


ah so because WoW is only 8 years old and the RTS team is all the same guys from back in 1994 they are getting bored.
ROFLMAO. there is turnover.. if u think the RTS team consists of all the guys from '94 youre dreaming.

no, Blizzard is a studio that generates profit that may have some creative people in it. do not reverse cause and effect.
the cause is profit and the effect is paid employees who may be creative.. or may not.

no,
the WoW team has not been moved off of WoW and onto a MOBA beceause WoW makes more money than any RTS game Blizzard has made.

SC makes less than Diablo and WoW so it team is what gets cannibalized when its time to make a MOBA.
and it gets publicly talked about because investors know its the least profitable.


I already told you. Heroes of the Storm is built on the SC2 engine. Of course the same people that developed that are developing it. Also MOBAs are a subgenre of RTS games
Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), also known as action real-time strategy (ARTS) or Hero Brawler, is a sub-genre of the real-time strategy (RTS) genre of video games (source Wikipedia)
Of course RTS developers are going to develop an RTS... Not RPG developers. Not ARPG developers. RTS developers.


if there were profits to be made MS, ATVI and EA would be doubling down and building all kinds of RTS games and supporting them with patches and live events.

this is not happening.

Blizzard is even moving its RTS team away into a MOBA

if there was money to be made Blizzard would hire a new RTS team to pump out more content.
Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
Falling
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada11450 Posts
May 15 2014 20:40 GMT
#465
On May 16 2014 03:18 Plansix wrote:
Shockingly, studios that make shitty games that don't sell get shit down. Those that make good games do not. RTS has nothing to do with that.

I really believe this is the true issue. As much as I have serious issues with SC2, I really only see Blizzard pulling their weight in the RTS genre. The RTS that have been released outside of Blizzard have been really crummy. From boring gameplay (Supcom2), to baffling multiplayer decisions (C&C4- what the hell were they thinking match-making low tier with top tier when you had to play to unlock units), to completely buggy messes (Total War: Rome II.) Modern RTS's have failed for the most part because they were crummy games.

I suspect we need some developers to move away from the AAA gaming industry and a $60 game, but a more indie approach released on Steam. Maybe with more community consultation like Grim Dawn's developers. But I don't believe RTS genre is dead because the demand has gone down. The demand might not be equivalent to a free moba, but I think it still exists. It just can't be fulfilled with crappy games, AAA marketing or not.
Moderator"In Trump We Trust," says the Golden Goat of Mars Lago. Have faith and believe! Trump moves in mysterious ways. Like the wind he blows where he pleases...
JimmyJRaynor
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada17368 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-15 20:49:20
May 15 2014 20:45 GMT
#466
On May 16 2014 04:01 urboss wrote:
StarCraft is at 17 million total
Diablo is at 20 million total


this includes sales of games made in the 1990s... in the past.. 10+ years ago RTS games like SC1 sold great compared to other genres of games. and i'm really not talking about the 90s.

my point is that "the future of RTS games" is bleak because sales are declining relative to other genres.

D3 has outsold SC2 by a substantial margin.

D3 alone has surpassed 15 million and once "Ultimate Evil" comes out .. D3 alone will pass overall SC lifetime sales.

and MORE THAN DOUBLE SC2 sales.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/02/07/diablo-3-surpasses-15-million-sales

SC2 is no where near 15 million. Blizzard brags about their sales totals and stopped discussing SC2 sales just after HotS came out.

D3 is available on many more platforums and Blizzard is continuing to pump out new D3 content for even more sales.
SC2 is on hold until the MOBA is done.

On May 16 2014 05:40 Falling wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 16 2014 03:18 Plansix wrote:
Shockingly, studios that make shitty games that don't sell get shit down. Those that make good games do not. RTS has nothing to do with that.

I really believe this is the true issue. As much as I have serious issues with SC2, I really only see Blizzard pulling their weight in the RTS genre.


its all about money per hour of effort by the dev studio.
RTS customers are more trouble than they are worth.

Even Blizzard is slowly pulling away.
Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
RedFury
Profile Joined September 2011
Italy85 Posts
May 15 2014 20:45 GMT
#467
May be inherent to the thread:
http://www.microsoft-careers.com/job/Redmond-Software-Development-Engineer-Lead,-Principal-Microsoft-Studios-(876718)-Job-WA-98052/58627500/
urboss
Profile Joined September 2013
Austria1223 Posts
May 15 2014 20:58 GMT
#468
So Microsoft is starting to create a MOBA?
They are always late to the party.
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
May 15 2014 20:58 GMT
#469
S2 sold about 5 million units, which is a huge number for PC. Companies would love to have to numbers for games like the Witcher. It outsold huge main stream games like Tomb Raider and other big releases. It got great reviews and the expansion did well.

The only place that SC2 is a bad game is on TL in eyes of BW hipsters. Everywhere else it was a wild success.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland26416 Posts
May 15 2014 21:04 GMT
#470
For BW hipsters read 'people who want it to be as big as LoL', which I think is an unfair yardstick.
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
JimmyJRaynor
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada17368 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-15 21:12:21
May 15 2014 21:08 GMT
#471
In Blizzard's eyes it does not matter where the $$$ come from. Whether its from a guy playing Hearthstone on his iPad or D3 on his XBOX.

WoL was such a wild success LOL.
so wild Blizz has made a single $40 expansion in more than 5 years. ( LotV is more than a year away)

When any game is a wild success ( WoW, CoD, Skylanders ) the first thing profit oriented organizations do is say this
How can we make even more money off of these guys? Make more content and sell it!
Blizzard is not doing that.

CoD now has 3 studios pumping out games. That's the sign of a profitable game. SC2 lost its only studio making it.
EALA , Ensemble, Victory Games.. all gone.


I bet the average 10 year old has lost more money in those stupid fucking Skylanders plastic things than all the revenue Blizz brought in for SC2
Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-15 21:18:25
May 15 2014 21:13 GMT
#472
Chasing other peoples success and looking at them with envy is a bad plan. See all MMOs that are not Eve and WoW. Just try to have success on you own terms, rather than assuming that if your not number 1, something must be wrong.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
Destructicon
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
4713 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-15 21:34:16
May 15 2014 21:33 GMT
#473
This whole doom and gloom regarding the RTS genre is quite disturbing, I highly doubt SC2 is really its last big hurah, and I have the utmost confidence a Warcraft 4 or SC3, with better core design decisions, a stronger UI and arcade and a better monetization model could still be a resounding success even if it doesn't reach the height of MoBAs.

People just seem to have some really wild expectations here, seriously if ded geam wasn't bad enough ded genre is probably worst.
WriterNever give up, never surrender! https://www.youtube.com/user/DestructiconSC
5c0rp10n
Profile Joined September 2010
Germany342 Posts
May 15 2014 21:37 GMT
#474
When i think of Heroes and RTS, i just think of Warcraft 3. It's the most entertaining game i've ever played. For sure, there was not as much strategical depth as in Starcraft but these low unit count army fights were awesome. A RTS game with more units and different unit compositions plus the hero effect would be ideal for me.
| NaNiwa | CJ`herO |
DocM
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States212 Posts
May 15 2014 21:45 GMT
#475
I see a lot of clammoring for wc4, but that's not going to happen anytime soon if you figure in Blizzard's time schedule. So, I think what we want is for a wc3 like game to come out sometime soon.
I don't think that we have a dead game or genre either.
JimmyJRaynor
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada17368 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-15 21:51:20
May 15 2014 21:50 GMT
#476
On May 16 2014 06:33 Destructicon wrote:
This whole doom and gloom regarding the RTS genre is quite disturbing, I highly doubt SC2 is really its last big hurah, and I have the utmost confidence a Warcraft 4 or SC3, with better core design decisions, a stronger UI and arcade and a better monetization model could still be a resounding success even if it doesn't reach the height of MoBAs.

People just seem to have some really wild expectations here, seriously if ded geam wasn't bad enough ded genre is probably worst.


Blizzard is very happy with the work Dustin Browder did on SC2. They promoted him to VP and put another big title under his empire. They even let him be the #2 speaker at Blizzcon right after Morhaime.
Blizzard thinks SC2's core design decisions made by Browder were really good.

Ultimately, SC2 is Browder's baby.
Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
Destructicon
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
4713 Posts
May 15 2014 22:08 GMT
#477
On May 16 2014 06:50 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 16 2014 06:33 Destructicon wrote:
This whole doom and gloom regarding the RTS genre is quite disturbing, I highly doubt SC2 is really its last big hurah, and I have the utmost confidence a Warcraft 4 or SC3, with better core design decisions, a stronger UI and arcade and a better monetization model could still be a resounding success even if it doesn't reach the height of MoBAs.

People just seem to have some really wild expectations here, seriously if ded geam wasn't bad enough ded genre is probably worst.


Blizzard is very happy with the work Dustin Browder did on SC2. They promoted him to VP and put another big title under his empire. They even let him be the #2 speaker at Blizzcon right after Morhaime.
Blizzard thinks SC2's core design decisions made by Browder were really good.

Ultimately, SC2 is Browder's baby.


So good that Blizzard decided they need another lead designer
http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1y9j0l/blizzard_looking_for_a_lead_designer_for_sc2_and/
Lets not kid ourselves here, Dustin did a good but far from great job. SC2 has many critical design flaws around several concepts or units that didn't work but Blizzard felt was absolutely imperative they force to work. It also has micro limitations built right into the engine, lack of a proper scaling economy, lack of meaningful drawbacks to keep aoe splash from becoming to strong in critical masses, etc.

Again he did a good job but the way he handled the design problems when they reared their ugly heads has been appalling.
WriterNever give up, never surrender! https://www.youtube.com/user/DestructiconSC
Deleted User 97295
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
1137 Posts
May 15 2014 22:39 GMT
#478
--- Nuked ---
packrat386
Profile Blog Joined October 2011
United States5077 Posts
May 15 2014 23:00 GMT
#479
If you define sc2 as dying, there are tons of "dead" games with vibrant scenes.
dreaming of a sunny day
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-15 23:03:49
May 15 2014 23:01 GMT
#480
I am now convinced that JimmyJRaynor is a janitor at Blizzard and listens in on meeting and office gossip. He clearly knows everything there is to know about the inner workings of Blizzard.

On May 16 2014 08:00 packrat386 wrote:
If you define sc2 as dying, there are tons of "dead" games with vibrant scenes.


Quake and BW are the deadest of games.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
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