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What Lesson Can Be Taken From Boss Key's Bad Luck? - Garrett Fuller - MMORPG.com
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
What Lesson Can Be Taken From Boss Key's Bad Luck? - Garrett Fuller - MMORPG.com
In game design it is always a race to the finish. Usually when it comes to game genres or types of ideas there are several titles trying to hit the market all at once. Boss Key Production had Lawbreakers which was its premiere title. The game was set to go into the arena shooter line up against: Overwatch, Paragon, Battleborn, and several others. This was no easy task.
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Next time if so much is on the line, create your own unique space.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Retired : Daoc , Warhammer , WoW , Lotro , Tabula Rasa
, Everquest 2 , Aion, Eve , AoC , SW:Tor ( failwars ), Planetside 2
Waiting : Star Citizen
Playing : Star Citizen
FPS : Overwatch
Yt chan : https://www.youtube.com/user/raine187
Timing is everything.
Slow people finish last.
Time waits for no one.
Do I need to continue?
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
First against the wall when the revolution comes.
Timing is critical in business. There's always a balance between too early and too late.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
Ultimately, I think it was completely overlooked due to the crazy success of OverWatch and PUBG.
2. If Cliff Bleszinski is involved, take absolutely everything he says with a grain of salt.
So I think its safe to assume that this company failed on multiple fronts. Considering how many game developers can literally write their ideas down on a piece of paper and generate hype that lasts years while the game gets developed. These guys didn't generate any buzz, did they even advertise?
So their plan was to what? Compete with Blizzard in a genre that is already tapped dry? Lets be real here, arena shooters and battle royals are basically the same demographic.
So this companies plan was launch 2 games in 2 over saturated market against hugely popular games like Fortnite, Overwatch, PUBG, Paladins, R6 Siege etc. All with next to no advertising.. As others have said this is not bad luck. This is stupidity.
I give this 4 LOL's out of 5.
Ps. I remember the Lord of the Rings MOBA.
This lesson has been taught for decades and keeps repeating. One thing gets popular and companies flock to it to try and milk the success and only breed their own failures.
A company that manages it's budget and expectations and puts something out creative and fun that caters to a starved market will beat the bandwagon effect every time. Just look at God of War. While many big time publishers are scampering away from single player games in favor of "games as a service" to try and milk every cent from a dwindling crowd sick of the BS that just want to play a game, you have some smart devs that cater to that crowd and cash in on a starved market. Another great example, Hellblade: Sensua's Sacrifice.
All those rules apply to MMOs as well. Right now the MMO audience is starved for something new, something nostalgic, and something creative. There are a few options on the horizon that show promise. But like all things, should one be massively successful, watch for the bandwagon of rushed development to follow.
Now that is out of the way,the problem is deeper than simply copying another developer.
This is going to leads right back to that Blizzard topic/idea.
Other devs see certain games and try or even do it BETTER,the problem is better does not always sell or attract the players,usually CHEAP to lame gimmicks do.
Blizzard for example already has a market before their next game is even a thought of design.Then Blizzard adds in Esport/rankings and it is that SIMPLE lame gimmick that attracts the streamers and pro gamer's then many gamer's follow.
A developer copying could make a game 10x ,yes 10x better than using that example Blizzard's game but has a MUCH less chance at success just because it is not Blizzard.
When you look at Overwatch,Blizzard is too into making that "cool map"rather than a skilled map that works better with the PRO scene.
Besides WHAT player base was Lawbreakers drawing from?
Lawbreakers has an audience of ZERO,they have or had to try and lure in players that are already steadfast in the pro scene or streamers making $$$,they are not moving over unless they see a definitive amount of $$$ to be made that is MORE than they make now.
You can see this ""popularity" working everyday just looking at a streamer named Ninja.He can literally stream ANY game and thousands show up to give him money.It's a new popular hangout,doesn't make ANY sense but it is reality.So Lawbreeakers was like that brand NEW streamer moving in,doesn't matter if that streamer is 500x better than Ninja,he is not stealing all of Ninja's followers in a matter of a week,month or even a year or two.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
2. Don t scream to the 4 winds that your game is the most hardcorde of FPS available, because that will work like a two edge sword.
3. DO NOT belittle and insult the group of people who has supported you in the past (xbox players) and were still willing to pay for your new product.
4. Think of better release dates for your game.
So, according to you, making a game CLEARLY BETTER than others does not sell, making it a copy and gimmicky does.
http://twitch.tv/woetothevanquished
Look at Path of Exile, it was in development/beta for 3-5 years before releasing. I personally avoided buying into the beta (it was a pay-to-beta) because I assumed it would fail like most other games. That's an example of developer/publisher striving through loss and time to create a good product.
http://twitch.tv/woetothevanquished
Had Blizzard beaten League of Legends to the market, it would be the genre leader. Riot games was an irrelevant company, but they enjoyed a long period without viable competition. DotA was just a mod, and Heroes of Newerth would come a year later (and be of questionable quality). By the time viable competitors like Smite and DotA2 came into the picture, League of Legends already held a majority of the market share. Once those two competitors set in, it got to the point that even legitimately great mobas (like Dawngate) could not secure a viable audience. Frankly, if it wasn't for being a Blizzard title, HotS wouldn't even hold the position as the solid 3rd/4th place that it currently enjoys, and I say this as someone who really enjoys HotS.
My thoughts. It may not happen 100% of the time, but most of the time that is the case. It's been happening too often since games as a service became a thing. If you don't copy others nobody notices you, but if you copy others you fail to become popular. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
* In the case of 'battle royal' they (and everyone else) did have an opportunity when it was only PUBG, because PUBG has some clear downsides (e.g. bugs) and could clearly be 'done better', but once Fortnight hit the scene (and did things ‘better’) it was basically game over (especially if the best they could do was generic BR-shooter with an 80s gimmick... I mean, at least add dinosaurs).
I have to agree luck wasn't unusually unkind to this game though. Failure to understand the audience and the competition, yes.