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LawBreakers' peak concurrent Steam playerbase dropped to 431 today [Up2: Down to 302]
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
How long to people get F2P is not the answer to everything.How low does a game's online population//concurrent players need to go to become F2P like Brink, Battleborn, Ghost In The Shell First Assault?
So you are the problem, got it.
Come again?
Cheat Code
Member
The game is almost impossible on PS4.
Barrel Cannon
Member
I think Dan meant that the advertising wasn't properly done, because he hadn't heard of it.
Triggerhappytel
Member
You and I share similar sentiments in this topic, but you don't need to be passive-aggressive to people just explaining that they'd not heard of the game.
Yeah, that is cringeworthy. I've felt this way about Cliff's work all the way back to Gears of War personally but it's really come out here with what seems to be his fingerprints on the advertising more clearly than ever.
Messofanego
Banned
People seem jumpy in this thread...
I believe he said this game is hot fucking garbage on PS4.
Especially if you picked this game up in Australia, like one poor mate has. He must have done something wrong in a previous life to suffer them wait times, for a pretty mediocre game (imo).
SomedayTheFire
Member
The lighter blue is semi transparent so laid on top could mean either. It's a shitty graph if what you think is correct.
It was a joke as it sounded like "If even myself has not heard of it..."
Did not mean to be an arse, I apologize
This just smells of the same out of touch edginess that David Jaffe loves.
LaunchpadMcQ
Banned
I mean, is it really surprising? Since the game launched, the community for the game has been constantly hit with comments like "not surprised" or "lol ded game", with people almost sounding vindicated that the game hasn't been able to find an audience. Even with the amount of crap piled on it from other factors, it feels pretty twisted, like the world honestly did conspire against this game for no real reason. The majority of people who've actually played it have enjoyed it a lot (steam reviews at 86%), so it just feels really weird.
UpDownLeftRight
Banned
It looks like Cliff wrote those himself tbh.
Ok... yeah it's a conspiracy against the devs and the world is also flat. You realize this is just a game and unless you worked on it personally you're being unreasonably defensive.
jim2point0
Banned
Still getting beaten by Brink I see. Though even I'm tempted to reinstall Brink and see if it's as terrible as I remember
LaunchpadMcQ
Banned
I didn't say there was a conspiracy. I'm just saying, as a fan of the game who has been having a blast, it can feel a little unfair having to face these kinds of comments all the time.
What the hell are you talking about lol????
It's the only answer for this game. The game is such at a low population so shortly after release, it's going to be completely dead pretty soon. Feel free to pitch your super magical game revival solution, but facts are facts. And since this game was literally originally designed as F2P, and already has monetisation with lootboxes and the like: it would be a pretty simple transition.
Most people didn't enjoy it all that much, which why people that played it quickly abandoned it.
They're actually right you guys. We in the Bilderberg Games Council met in the Zurich at the beginning of the year and decided that LawBreakers would be a bomba, sorry to say. Better luck next time.
LaunchpadMcQ
Banned
It does have mostly good reviews across multiple metrics, though. I'm not sure what that's indicative of. I also don't think most people have played the game, really, when the peak for the beta was 7K players.
I'm trying to explain how fans of the game might feel and I'm getting labeled as a loon. That really helps, thanks.
UpDownLeftRight
Banned
I can get that but there's clearly been a big failure in some aspect, likely marketing. It IS unfortunate because the game looks like a lot fun IMO. You're right though drive by posts with no substance offer nothing.
Boss key need to be criticised right now for the future of their product but it's pointless without knowing what people are unhappy with.
LaunchpadMcQ
Banned
Yeah, I agree with you, especially with the last comment. It's been hard to weed out the people that the game has legitimately not been able to make a connection with from the people who just throw out hot takes for the sake of having something to say.
Hopefully Boss Key does learn from this experience, but if they don't for this release, I'm a big boy and I can move on.
PartTimeWarrior
Banned
Are you saying Lawbreakers is competing against Overwatch? It's not even like Overwatch ffs
RedlineRonin
Member
It's a hero driven, class based, team shooter.
You and Cliffy and like three other people are on an island by yourself if you think this game isn't competing against OW.
That's not what "market" means.
So everyone should just give up... as we apparently have the ultimate online shooter with Overwatch?
NecromorphTX
Member
R.I.P Lawbreakers August 2017 - September 2017
Here lies the The Dark Souls of FPS.
Here lies the The Dark Souls of FPS.
UpDownLeftRight
Banned
To be fair I don't think this is the end of the line for them, but I do think they're going to have to look at the F2P model or overhaul some of the game to make it standout a bit more.
I could be wrong here too, but due to Cliff being a long time vet in the industry I'd like to think he prepared for the possibility of outright failure and that it won't kill the company all together.
RedlineRonin
Member
Yup, totally what I said.
.......
Of course that isn't the answer. I'm merely commenting that saying "it's not competing with Overwatch/every other game like it in a very crowded genre" doesn't make that true.
I get that it skews for more of a traditional, 90's, arena based shooter crowd, but at the end of the day, it still falls into the broader bucket i mentioned above, with company like OW, Team Fortress, to a lesser extent games like Titanfall and Destiny.
FPS is a crowded genre. Period. No, everyone shouldn't give up making FPS games. But you don't get to say "it's not competing with those." The market of players choosing to play your game or not make that determination.
Stone Ocean
Member
No, but if it doesn't bring something very visibly unique to the table don't be surprised if it flops, specially when you have an entry fee.
High popularity isn't going to mean anything if it can't be maintained. i.e See drop of evolve after a month of going F2P. Going F2P will only hurt the game more at this point due to things like no more guaranteed revenue, souring the dedicated few for unknown increase in playersize for X period.
I never claimed to have a magic solution but F2P isn't going to fix things here and no just having lootboxes isn't going to be enough when they have things like dedicated servers to run. As people have suggested a free weekend would the first thing to do before even considering going F2P.
And if people were dropping it because they weren't enjoying it you think the same won't happen when access isn't gated anymore and there is even less reason to stay.
The facts also say arena style shooters don't have the pulling power they once may have had.
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
Is the lack of marketing why current owners aren't even playing it?
Nah, but not taking it into account when developing and marketing the game seems like a poor choice. The WoW example earlier is spot on, if you want to peel players off an absurdly popular game you need to have all the basics down while providing something you can't get in the more popular game. LawBreakers tried with the Zero-G Combat stuff and it's neat to be sure but it's apparently not enough. Either its reputation as being for the "hardcore only" crowd or the lack of marketing (all I saw were banner ads and the twitch prime pack), meant the average player was less likely to give it a shot. The open beta convinced me I could have fun with the game but only in a group of friends (seriously chat was terrible). We LAN fairly regularly in an area with shitty internet so no local mode made the game DOA for us. This sucks because most new MP shooters are online only.
legacyzero
Banned
Jesus, is the game really that bad? It cant be that bad. I only played the beta for like 15 minutes then got distracted. I mean.. I was ok I guess.
mullet2000
Member
The game itself is pretty good imo. I've had a good time with it.
UpDownLeftRight
Banned
No. Clearly. It likely also suffers from a lack of identity. There's nothing where you can say "that's lawbreakers" in the game right now IMO so I think they've got some work to do on that front.
mrqs
Member
Cliff doesn't mention the game since August 26th.
https://twitter.com/therealcliffyb/status/901328407325278208
It might be a stretch, but I think he may stay quiet for a long while. Before that day, he was mentioning the game daily.
https://twitter.com/therealcliffyb/status/901328407325278208
It might be a stretch, but I think he may stay quiet for a long while. Before that day, he was mentioning the game daily.
CommandThrower
Member
LawBreakers' identity is the low gravity mechanic--being able to glide and fly around in low gravity zones. That's the one thing that sets it apart from the other shooters right now.
That's also where the name "LawBreakers" comes in. Yeah, it's a game featuring cops and robbers, but the point is that you break the laws of gravity in the game.
Evolve failed to transition to F2P because they took too damn long to do it.
Class based hero shooter? then Sorta, yes. Blizzard made class based shooter that is huge in Esports, Twitch, etc. They beat people to market, and buried them, literally.
Other offerings like Team Fortress and Paladins fill the F2P gap, and I cannot see anything else succeeding in that market for 3-5 years. Sure, something might survive, but it won't pad the developers war chest.
RedlineRonin
Member
I'm so conflicted about Cliff.
I genuinely want every game to do well. There's no sense in "i like this game so i want other games it "competes" with to do poorly" When that happens, devs don't make money and can't pay bills, put food on the table, and do the shit they love without having to worry about making ends meet (more so the rest of Boss Key. I'm sure Cliff is fine forever, financially speaking)
There's no denying dude has been influential in gaming but the whole narrative around LB from day one has had is colossal ego attached to it. The tale of hubris and watching it being punished is older than time. It just seemed like he wanted to make a game that he loved for a sub-genre he thought was ready for a resurgence and completely misread the market. I mean, the idea of making a super focused, super high skill ceiling-based shooter is directly juxtaposed against mass adoption right?
The whole thing is just kind of a bummer. Hopefully they get a chance to make something again and when they do, the game can speak for itself.
Not much of a hook when everything else about the game is subpar.
I feel like the higher costume unlocks would have been a better design for the game imo. Since the game is like a futuristic cops and robbers and the empahsis isn't really on the characters but gameplay I feel like these designs are more appealing imo (not all of the designs just some)
