It’s also worth noting that ending Shago’s exclusivity could afford Phil Spencer another opportunity to put a rabid fanboy in their place on Twitter, Quantum Break for PC style.
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I know you feel strongly about this, and your reasoning is good. But I can’t be quite so dismissive of the history. Even during the community fund MS pushed the idea that this was it - this was your one and only opportunity to buy in, get Shago made and get access to him. We can agree that it wasn’t the best way to handle it, but I don’t think you can just dismiss it as “that was then, this is now.”
I know this comes up all the time too, but frankly the number of people who bought into the shadow Jago fund is going to far exceed the number of people competing in KI tournaments for the history of the game. So, the idea that TO’s might ban Shago is, frankly, not a huge concern to me.
Again, I’m not arguing that he shouldn’t be available. I just don’t think it’s quite such a trivial matter.
I remember it being pushed as the one and only opportunity to turn Shago into a “real boy”, but I don’t believe that it was implied that this would be the last opportunity to access him. In fact, I seem to recall the words “you’ll get other opportunities” being put out there.
Two issues with this:
- Do a majority of the people who bought into the Shago fund care about exclusivity?
- Is the sense of value in being the “have” in an artificial have/have-not situation really something that ought to be be nurtured?
When bringing up the numbers argument, you seem to neglect to consider the fact that people who revel in their exclusive access to content like Shago tend to be douchebags, and thus matter less.
The other point I want to make is akin to the “American dream” idea, albeit maybe a little more plausible: although few players play competitively or ultimately go on to have tournament success, it’s important that it be possible for anybody who picks up the game to be able to go on to win Evo. That’s especially important if the FGC is esports now. Maybe this is part of why SFV failed: if I can’t pick up SFV at launch and beat story mode and have the high from that phenomenal triumph carry me on to win Evo, then why the ■■■■ am I buying SFV?
I actually do remember it being implied that the Shago fund was going to be exclusive - and certainly when he went up for sale they never confirmed that he would be returning just that “he is only available until x date.” I am too lazy to dig up the quotes, and I have been wrong before, but I’m pretty sure it was a thing. I also think that there’s a lot of exclusivity that gets used in this game - Shago was a “act now” skin, and now we have toys being sold as the only way to get certain colors. I know there is a fundamental difference between a color and a character, but it’s damaging to keep saying things are exclusive and then making them inclusive.
LOL at your characterization of people who care about exclusivity. It’s funny and at least partially true. But sadly, a jerk who pays is contributing just as much to the profitability of the enterprise as Mother Teresa who pays. I wish they mattered less, but they don’t. In fact, more than ever in the internet era, loudmouth jerks - even when they are clearly in the minority, have a disproportionate impact on sales and a company’s image…
Anyway, I’m not sure why I’m playing the devil’s advocate here. I would be happy to see Shago go up for sale as a permanent fixture in the KI store. I just think people need to be prepared for the backlash, and frankly I really do believe that people will be justified in complaining.
I don’t, so I think we’re at a bit of an impasse. Pistols at dawn?
Anyway, a point I forgot to mention, is that whilst the FGC might be small relative to the rest of the market, so you’d think their position wouldn’t count for much, they basically already won.
Think about it: how many fighting games are running preorder or collector’s edition gameplay-relevant exclusives? Wouldn’t Capcom love to run that ■■■■? Surely WB would be all over it. But SFV and MKX don’t do it at all. The closest MKX gets is putting Goro in the store. It’s just not a done thing anymore – the uproar surrounding it when it’s done outright just isn’t worth it. I daresay KI has only gotten away with it at all because Shago started out as a stupid skin, and only became his own character because a vocal minority of casuals with hardons for the edgy finally got MS to cave enough to, er, exploit them for tournament monies basically, so he kinda crept into gameplay-exclusivity territory over time. Doesn’t hurt that they’ve been pretty bad at “preserving” that exclusivity, either.
I think it’s gotten to the point where, if you expect your gameplay-related exclusive to stay an exclusive, then you just have no sense of the climate on these things. When DH said “sure we’ll give Shago a moveset eventually”, people with that sense naturally assumed that’d be when the exclusivity expired. When the community fund started up and we heard that Shago would later get his own moveset, again it was sensible to assume that’d be when exclusivity expired. So if you were being precious about that exclusivity, frankly you got your notice when it became clear that he was getting a moveset.
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There just aren’t very many people around who bought Shadow Jago and are happy that others won’t be able to do it too. Those people are mostly gone from the scene (because they aren’t playing KI with any level of seriousness 2 years after launch). The few of them that are still around aren’t worth listening to in any capacity.
I got him during one of the bundles or whatever, and I got my value out of it: I now own the character. I would love for others to own the character, too.
And yeah, to agree with Fnrslvr, the exclusivity window was just for the aesthetic skin part of the character. I think any right-minded person would have thought all bets are off if they put several months of hard development work into making him a brand new character.
I’d like to dismiss it as “it was a dumb idea then, but now is a new day and maybe they will undo their bad decision.” I’d prefer it if they didn’t hold onto their bad decision for some legacy reason.
I’m being especially harsh about this point (in this thread and a few others) because I really believe what they’re doing here is very hurtful to their game and to their players. There are a ton of people who are looking forward to KI on PC who will think worse of it once they learn that Shadow Jago looks really cool but there is literally no way to buy it (assuming they don’t launch S3 with this issue resolved). It will just really sour them to the game, and rightly so IMO. But even worse is that there’s no reason for this to be the case. Their hands aren’t tied because of some legalese or because they’re out of budget. On the contrary, they will make money by flipping the switch and putting him in the store, and not ■■■■ off their new player base at the same time. My mind is really blown by why this exclusivity is still a thing.
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Everyone should be able to buy Shago and Omen separately now, plain and simple. No point in having arbitrary barriers stopping people playing certain characters.
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I agree completely. If not by March 29th, then at the end of Season 3 or sometime between those time periods.
Combo Assist Mode, the UI Changes and Guest Characters were all meant to attract newcomers. Having a Character’s availability sound like something out of a MOBA or completely F2P title is a bit against the tide.
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Goro is now available as part of Kombat Pack 2 (you cannot buy him separately)- but he was only available as a pre-order bonus for essentially a year after MKX released. How have tournaments and ESL dealt with Goro?
I…could’ve sworn the very menus in MKX were covered with advertisements trying to shill Goro.
Goro was available day 1 as a regular DLC purchase. Pre order just got you him for free.
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Really? Then why is he included in Kombat Pack 2? Anyway, if that’s true then it’s my bad. If I pull up the Xbox store I don’t see any option to purchase him except as part of a bundle. It may be hiding it because I got him with the pre-order.
To increase the perceived value of KP2 and XL, probably.
Bottom line there is no reason to keep this character exclusive anymore. Zero.
Make an exclusive skin or color for him, I’ll repeat this forever until it happens.
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