If this port sucks, so many people will be upset. PC gamers, because the game doesn’t run well and it’s another false promise from MS, Xbox players, because they had nearly flawless experience before, but now they would be forced to play with laggy PC gamers. It’s better be good or MS falls flat on its face again.
3 Likes
Another good reason to do absolutely everything possible to avoid a disaster. You deserved a like, sir
Especially with all the awful ports as of late. If this port turns out well, it would be a VERY good mark on MS’s track record in their attempt to rekindle their relationship with PC gaming.
Besides, testing things before release is ALWAYS a good idea. Open BETA testing would be a really good move towards a pro-consumer image/attitude.
Furthermore, it won’t give the impression they’re just releasing KI on PC just because they consider PC gamers as cash cows to take from them as much money as they can in the shortest time possible. Considering also the kind of “f2p” system they used, impure aka p2w, considered by PC gamers the most hated kind of marketing choice to apply for a game.
I wouldn’t call it “pay to win”. It’s the same sort of idea as watching a TV show vs buying the DVD box set. You can watch whatever episode they have on at the time, or you can buy the whole thing and binge watch it whenever and wherever you like.
Same thing with KI. They have rotating characters available for trial, or you can purchase what you want and just use that.
Besides, having a demo with complete online functionality will probably be received better than MGS: Ground Zeros (a demo with one level that costs $30). Heck, Minecraft is technically free. You just pay the $20 for multiplayer access or the console version. Free to play is a much more flexible term than it’s usually given credit for.
Apart that minecraft was never planned to be free (in fact it always had a price since alpha, but it’s another story), KI is considered from the current terminology as an impure f2p. Directly from Wikipedia, there are 3 kinds of f2p: pure (completely free, like abadonwares), hybrid (the most common system used; useful content for free or to get alternatively for free, cosmetic/esthetics for payment or even alternative way to get it for free. Examples are Dota 2, TF2, Warframe, Heartsthone and so on) and impure (also known as p2w, useful content only accessible via payment, access to free content only via weekly rotation or limitation per time. There’s also a subcategory called shareware, a kind of f2p that acts like a demo. KI might be included in this category).
Saying that KI is p2w might be a bit exaggerated, ok, but there are some characters that, with a tie of skills in the field, will give you more chance of winning more than others. Let’s think for example to the ol’ TJ Combo, when I tested in March/April: his instinct bar will resurrect him. A 1/10 additional bar would make a huge difference, expecially in lower ranks. I don’t know however if his instinct bar is still making him to revive, but when I played it he was able to.
Actually, recent ports have been really good (MGSV, Mad Max).
But it’s ok, Ubisoft will probably ■■■■ up again with their new AC game.
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That’s the sort of thing I had in mind.
AC:Unity, Arkham Knight, MKX, etc…
Though I have been pleasantly surprised with things like Mad Max and MGS:V. I heard the Mad Max port was REALLY good, even well optimized for lower end hardware.
KI’s model is not ideal, but it’s fine, because it gives you the ability to purchase all content in one pack with a single payment (at least the whole season). Technically, it’s F2P, but what you get in actuality is a demo, nothing more. But I will take it over LoL and Hearthstone, that require an insane amount of monetary investment to unlock all content. Yes, you can get most of the gameplay-related stuff for free, but at such a slow pace, it’s not even funny. I’ve been playing HS since beta (on and off) and I really don’t envy new players, hell, I can only afford cheap aggro decks for the most part (I didn’t purchase anything with real money though). Your only way to have fun in being at least half-decent at Arena.
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@DarthNos calling KI a pay to win game only highlights that it doesn’t fit with your Wikipedia definition of F2P. The characters are not deliberately imbalanced so that you need to buy the more powerful ones to win. If Jago is free in the rotation and you fight someone who has bought Jago, the guy who payed doesn’t get any advantage. They aren’t selling +5% damage mods. You might be able to categorize it as F2P on a technicality, but you absolutely cannot justify calling it Pay 2 Win. It isn’t.
I didn’t explain myself clearly, sorry. It’s not a matter of boosters, never said anything about that. I was talking about choice among different characters. If I have a character that is a little bit weaky (Riptor, to be clear) in free rotation, of course I get owned by somebody else that disposes of 3 - 4 characters. That’s what I meant as “P2W”.
The fact you’re forced to buy a couple of characters minimum if you want to be competitive and to “counter” the opponent, that’s what I was talking about. So the guy that bases himself on free rotations is always in a little disadvantage because he can’t choose other characters, thus being owned by some top tiers (you have to admit a Riptor will be in difficulties most of times against spam…zoners).
If you read carefully the last paragraph I made an example of what I was intending. I know the imbalances aren’t volunteer (and I hope so), but there are some characters that have a higher change of doing the game.
No offense, but you are explaining what you mean just fine. It’s just that you are wrong. In KIs ranked mode you don’t get to see who your opponent picks until after the fight starts. So counter picking isn’t a big advantage. It’s certainly not a pay 2 win advantage.
Pay 2 win is ALWAYS derogatory, and it always means that you get an advantage in the games competitive environment by paying that you can’t get for free. Access to the characters that will come up in the free rotation is not a pay to win advantage.
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The fact that Riptor may or may not be slightly lower tier doesn’t impact how KI’s free to play model is run. They aren’t intentionally making Riptor weak so that people will “need” to buy other characters to compete at the game. Riptor isn’t the permanent free to play character anyway; maybe they’ll give you whoever you think is the toppest of the top tier for a few weeks.
KI’s model is literally just a game demo. Here’s the whole game, but you can only play with one character until you buy more. Like what you see? Please buy the game and support us. Happy with just the one rotating character? That’s cool too. The cost of owning all the S1 and S2 characters is $40, less than the cost of many big-name games on the market (certainly less than MKX and SFV will be).
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I wouldn’t think that it would be an issue. I mean, compare it to League of Legends.
I could pay $20 in KI, and get 8-9 characters, each with 9 colors and a few dozen accessories.
My brother used $20 for Riot Points. He got a few skins.
Comparatively, I’d say that KI’s model is relatively fair. Especially compared to the place where it matters; other competitive fighting games like MKX and SFV
"Oh, you can try out our game, if you drive out to an event 2 states over and/or preorder."
Plus, the pricing for the full game is much better.
I paid $90 for the full MKX package. That gave me one game and 4 extra characters.
I paid $80 for both KI Ultra packs. That gave me 3 games, a retro skin with 3 sets of accessories for all 16 base characters, a premium skin for every character, and functional net code.
And then there’s my friend Jimmy. He paid $5 for Sabrewulf and was plenty competitive.
And before I bought the game, I still managed to kick his ■■■ with freebie characters if I used my head.
All things considered, I think KI’s pricing seems pretty fair. Maybe not Steam Summer sale fair. But still better than some other options.
As much as I love steam summer/winter sales (and regularly buy stuff from them), I think they are doing some damage to what people expect as a fair price to pay for a videogame. People are starting to complain about $20 for a game that will get them 30 hours of fun, and they’ll wait for the steam sale in 2 years when it’s $3.99 and the devs are broke.
Not to make people feel guilty for not paying full price for a videogame, especially one that you weren’t planning on buying anyway, but I know far too many people now who are actually really interested in playing a game but aren’t interested in paying the actual price of the game. I’m not really sure how the industry will keep itself afloat long term if steam sales become the standard for pricing. :\
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I was mostly using it (Steam Summer Sales) as a general example, really. Steam Sales are often used as examples of a pro consumer pricing model.
For the amount of entertainment I’ve gotten from KI (over 700 hours and counting) I am MORE than satisfied with the price I paid for it. Same goes for Fallout or Doom games and even some Call of Duty games. I put stupid amounts of time into those games, because they’re really satisfying experiences and provide a wealth of content to enjoy. What bothers me is games like The Order 1886, Evolve, Destiny, or Titanfall with far less content or replay value being put up for the same price as games with a metric butt ton of content.
Personally, I’m perfectly fine with paying full price for games. Most of my game catalogue was paid for at full price… Well, I say that, but I got Valve’s entire catalogue (Portal, Left4Dead, Half Life, etc) for about $30 in a flash sale, but otherwise I’m content with paying regular price for a game if it’s worth the money.
Yeah, I just wanted to make a little rant about it, that’s all. lol
Steam sales can do really good things for indie publishers as well, since they can get their games into the hands of people who wouldn’t otherwise have cared, but I’m just a little worried about what it’s doing to the public perception of game prices.
Game pricing is always a huge topic of conversation though, because there’s tons of other factors… like you mentioned, you could talk about how some games charge you $90 for a game that lasts 5 hours and is largely cutscenes (The Order 1886, eg) because their development process got massively bloated and their end product isn’t very good. So that does a lot of damage towards gamers’ perceptions of game prices too.
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I’m in the same boat as Infil where I would definitely enjoy a PC beta but they are probably building it with Season 3 in mind. I think with all the disastrous PC ports of games lately a test before the global release would be very important. With that being said though I’m sure they already have a playable version of the game on PC just for season 2 I’m sure by now. They still are probably working on Cross-play, online, and DirectX 12 features though.
A PC port isn’t hard to do, the past few failures were just because the developers were lazy. I highly doubt that the KI Developers are lazy. They already have one of the best netcodes to gloat about, I don’t think they will disappoint. The only people who will experience issues are those who will try to get the most out of their toaster. KI will have some decent hardware requirements I would assume but they won’t be extreme since fighting games don’t have a whole lot to process compared to open world games. Since they are planning on cross play, I’m assuming that’s why it will require windows 10. Since they know the hardware of windows 10, and that’s what the X1 uses, I’m pretty sure that if your pc has the same specs as the X1, playing from PC vs X1 will be no different. The net code will run the same, but if I can play from my PC without a Gold subscription, consider my X1 gone =)
I don’t see why I should be offended.
I know you can’t see the opponent’s pick before the match starts (I played the game too). But I analyze the problem just considering 2 important things:
- The actual situation of ranked
- A little-modest income of PC players that won’t change drastically the situation in mid - long terms.
We know that usually you meet the same, usual people for multiple times per day, even consecutively. So you should know for sure which character that a freebie is going to play and you can counter it, because he can’t choose. I make you a fair example: I played against a person called OriginalCK for 7 consecutive times. He used Sabrewulf and Riptor while I was playing TJ Kombo. After 5 times I defeated him, he picked Kan Ra with the result of winning the other 2 remaining matches. Tj Kombo suffers from long range attacks after all, at least the ol’ pre-nerf boxer.
So, under this point of view, having cash gives a little advantage. Of course, if you’re good and the other is a noob, you can win even against a Sadira by using a Riptor on steroids.
Another important note: if the number of PC players, for a miraculous reason, should be very very high, this part can be considered archived and closed.
Btw, I shot a bullet and you took it. By answering, you increased the visibility of this topic, so now it gets the attention he deserved. Another like for you.
From what I’ve heard, PC gamers won’t pay for the gold subscription for sure. Somebody corrects me if I’m wrong