Has the F2P model hurt KI and should it change?

  • Yes, Killer Instinct has built a bad reputation for reviewers and gamers alike on its free to play model and should change.
  • No, the free character rotation is a nice feature and $4.99 isn’t bad for someone who only wants certain characters.
  • I have an idea… (elaborate in the comments)

0 voters

You may want to elaborate with a little bit of discussion and not just a poll. It helps with the discussion side of things so at least we know your stance on the matter.

I want to say NO, but I also feel the need to say we aren’t exactly “Free to Play” in the traditional sense of the term either. If you analyze a true F2P title on the PC and see how their gameplay/transaction model is conducted versus how KI’s model is, KI doesn’t fit the F2P model.

With that said, I feel a poll like this is a little misleading considering a slightly unfair comparison is being made towards the game’s business model.

Nah, but they should have advertised the free version as a demo. A lot of people were confused when KI was released.

I talked about this a couple of weeks ago, facing an eventual problem that might come with the PC release. If you consider it useless or as a spam, tell me and I’ll remove immediately the link of the topic. Here you’ll find also a constructive criticism that helped to see different points of view:

Let’s make KI a real F2P

Personally, I have always found that the free to play model has made it difficult for some players to truly appreciate what is Killer Instinct. Because of this, our generation of KI has pushed a lot of new players and even worse a lot of veterans away. Take for instance a recently published video by WatchMojo showcasing KI as a game that has been tainted by the f2p model. Another example is through Metacritic, whereas, 51 critics averaged a score of 73 and 551 users averaged it 6.3. Heck, even through Xbox Marketplace the game is rated 3.5/5 by an average of about 30,000 players. If anything, a lot of things can be blamed on the why KI is just moderately received by gamers. But, to deny that the free to play model has not effected the taste left on gamers is misconstrued.

So how do we solve the problem so that if anything this two year old game can leave a lasting impression? On one hand, if you charge lets say $40 then KI, IG and Microsoft will have a hard time compensating for all the hard work and money invested. On the other, the free to play model is a huge turn off in this generation because of how fed up players are that a free to play game turns out to be nickle and dimming you every step of the way. Do you differ against the free to play model, are in favor and simple believe the game just isn’t for them or wholeheartedly agree that there can be adjustments to fix the free to play model in KI.

I think the problem wasn’t the fact of being f2p (most successful pc online games played today are f2p: think about LOL and Dota), but how the model has been presented. It wasn’t just this the only factor, of course, but as you’ve read the previous comments, the impure model isn’t well accepted and wasn’t intended to be f2p at all.

However, if they charged an initial price, IG/MS wouldn’t have the chance of releasing a PC version today. So it’s up to the developers to follow an important direction. But I’m not talking about this because it has been largely discussed in the link I posted.

WatchMojo are idiots who did no research and just ride the hate train that was prevalent just after the release of the game. People saw the phrase “F2P” and it made their blood boil and they didn’t even look further. What you actually got was a demo of the game, all other content could be acquired for a price that is pretty standard for a retail release.
But this is MS who let it happen, the game should have never ever been labeled KI F2P because stuff like this happens. Because people not only have no desire to pay attention but they are very much aware of how exploitative F2P models can be.
It is also worth mentioning that the score is low because there was a very small amount of content at launch.

The list on WatchMojo is fairly recent not built around when the game was released and an abundance of gamers agree that the f2p model in KI has made it substantially less appealing. Also, yes the base review for this game is based on the initial release but that doesn’t negate its core rating on the Xbox Marketplace. Final note, it made their blood boil and it should because nothing in terms of f2p in this game is worth praising when taking a gander at pricing.

No, if anything it seems fighting games benefit from it more because of how difficult it is to get into them. If anything KI inspired the biggest fighting game to do the same.

I think KI is still alive and kicking (and punching) because of it. Its always in the store under free to play, which means a lot of ppl will try it who otherwise would not have.

Now we have a good community and are on our way to season three. And are getting more and more exposure.

This should be a standard in digital versions of all fighting games from now.

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I think the KI model is awesome. The problem is people don’t research it and think the game is ripping people off. To this day I still see people complaining that the game will cost $100+ dollars to buy all the characters.

i think that the current model is not suited. The model of a MOBA would have been perfect. Engender points by playing, by being able to buy character or buy them silver real. And all the skins is purchasable only silver Real.

Street Fighter 5 understood everything by imposing this model

The rip off people are talking about is the fact you can’t get the characters in any other way except by paying real money. The guy that wrote below you, LeCoach, centered the problem and gave the solution to this problem.

Thats not necessarily what they need to do…the way the game works is perfectly fine.

But it is what most free to play games do, so it is kind of expected from free to play games.

KI is free to play in a way that you can basically do everything the game has to offer, with the caveat that it has to be done with the character on rotation. Still in that sense it is free to play.

What they maybe should have done is promote it differently, not as free to play, but as ‘buy what you like’ so to speak, with free to play modes to test the game.

Yep. In fact I talked about this a lot long time ago, in another thread

I think its better to opt for an Early access or pre-order demo model next go round.

Actually I think the F2P was better for KI because think of the people who wouldn’t buy the game at all but played it because it was F2P and ended up getting the Ultra Edition or buying a couple fighters they liked the most. I know some people who don’t really play fighters that bought it because they played the F2P with the rotating fighters. Its just people reacted off of MS stating it was F2P thinking it was gonna have a bunch of micro transactions to get other stuff