I just saw this news article on Eventhubs.com and thought I’d leave it here. It really bums me out to see this knowing how much we care about our game. But lucky Alex Valle is open to hearing your thoughts so if you want KI at SoCal Regionals send him a tweet.
Like everyone else on this site I really want to see KI prosper. I really don’t want to see it disappear on tournament line-ups because having 2 Smash games at events is now becoming the norm (they both come in huge numbers resulting less time for other games which then results in cuts).
WHY the hell KI is so upopular, this game is ■■■■ awesome. SF got ■■■■■■■■■ of entrants and hype only for being SF title, despite being mediocre fighting game.
Ono could release Pong and name it SF6, pro players would ■■■■ all over the place.
As hard as it may be to believe alot of people don’t share the amount of love we do on here. Which is why I always thought the polls people do on here have no real reflection of what real people want. There is only fans here and when a fan posts something negative they get shut down are called a hater. Just look at the Paul B post in which he is giving constructive feedback, people on here are dissmising it.
It was exclusive on the Xbox One for a long time and the X1 has half of the market share as the PS4.
Even though porting it to the PC was a great decision, fighting games aren’t really known to have a PC gaming audience (but that seems to be changing this generation with all the top quality indie fighting games coming out).
Fighting games are already niche as it is. If you try to play all the great fighting games out there, you’re going to end up playing none of them. I say this because it take a significant amount of time to learn and enjoy the meta in each game. Not a lot of people want to do that. Smash is an exception because even though it has a competitive scene, it is marketed as a party game and casuals of every demographic love to just play smash. So it has great name recognition.
Microsoft’s sh#tty marketing has slowed the growth of the game. Even though the community is growing, it could have been so much bigger if they took the time to mention KI at E3 and other press events like they mention their other big IPs. Even though Halo and Gears might end up making more money than the KI brand overall, nobody expected the KI brand to be this profitable or relevant this generation. KI might be the Xbox One’s most critically acclaimed exclusive this generation. That realization is shocking as hell.
It’s sad but understandable from Valle. KI’s offline tournament numbers are often quite low, and as someone trying to run a business, it makes sense to run the games that will get more entrants. In particular, KoF has a huge presence in SoCal, so that game is a must.
It’s not just KI he’s not running… Marvel and Pokken also don’t have spots (both games that got more entrants than KI at Evo).
It’s a shame because KI is such a good spectator game, but if the offline numbers aren’t there, then I can see why he’s chosen other games. I dunno what KI could have done differently along the way to be more popular with the offline scene, aside from not be on Xbox One for most of its life (which the team has no control over).
KI has always had great netcode. While the offline community might be small, online is where it’s at for KI.
If KI survives through 2016 and 2017 and if IG and MS have something planned for this game at that point I believe Project Scorpio will make the player numbers sky rocket.
The xbox features Arena and Groups or whatever they are called will be a huge factor for Nr. 3 to happen. I really think those 2 features are a game changer no one is talking about. (like game score was)
EDIT:
KI is not beginner friendly
KI doesn’t have a big name.
Nobody cares for KI in Japan.
EDIT 2:
I could name a lot more reasons. But IMO for all these factors KI is doing pretty well.
I’ve said this to quite a few people in person (even Smash players) and I’ll say it here. (Warning, if you’re easily offended, that isn’t my intention).
Smash games shouldn’t be at FGC events period. I say this because unlike most other games Smash has a thriving tournament scene with multiple Smash exclusive events that attracts 100’s of players and 1000’s of viewers. So why do they insist on having 2 games at traditional FGC events? All the smaller and growing scenes deserve their chance to be on the main stage to advertise their game but having 2 Smash games makes sure that doesn’t happen. Skullgirls for example was the 2nd highest donor for the breast cancer research back at EVO 2013… where have they been? Always on side streams if they are lucky. It was also because of Sm4sh and Pokken (which also shouldn’t be at FGC events IMO) that KI was delayed by what… 3 hours? And while we didn’t get to have top 32 streamed there were 2 Melee streams broadcasting at the same time while they also had plenty of time on stream the day before.
I understand that it’s a business for TO’s and they’ll go where the money is but I find this extremely unfair for the smaller scenes. KI has been raising up in EVO entrants every year but people claim its a dead game cause it’s not getting Smash numbers.
I’m one of those people who doesn’t see Smash as a real fighting game. I respect their passion and I support that they get their own stream time as well but they already have that at their exclusive events. I don’t understand why they are so desperate to be recognized by the FGC that they have to be at our events as well. This only hurts everyone as Smash needs a lot of time (Melee as well, longest Sunday Top 8 at EVO this year) and they can’t get it while smaller scenes just don’t get a chance period.
After seeing Pokken take valuable time from KI at Evo, I seriously think they should label various types of fighting games. Smash, Pokken, power stone (lol) are maybe better categorized as Arena fighters or something?
Is Pokken a fighting game? I know my friend tonosama plays it and Harada san has been involved but I still don’t know.
I feel exactly the same. I respect what the Smash community has done for themselves and their passion for their games, but if they’re going to have their own events then why do they also need to be at other FGC events?
Sure, I get it. The Smash games are big when it comes to viewer numbers so it brings in money for TO’s, that’s more than logical. From my understanding though, Valle said that Melee support has been on the rise since last year even though it only had 20 entrants last year. Couldn’t you say the same for KI? Has it not also been increasing as well? If you want to say that Melee is their for legacy support, then why would they axe Marvel when it has quadruple the entrants of Smash for Wii U last year? With Marvel and Skullgirls not being there, there’s no team-based aerial fighter represented at SCR when the west coast has a big scene for Marvel (I’d say the same for Skullgirls but their community is based on the east coast). Isn’t there also a major for Melee two weeks before SCR in California; If so, why would it need to also be at SCR? Please correct me on anything wrong I’ve said.
Once again, I’m not saying I hate Smash games, I’m just saying that I’m sad to see two great games getting axed from SCR this year. I don’t know what I could have done to changed this outcome. Is it because I didn’t enter KI at SCR even though I just got done with EVO? Is it because I didn’t message Valle with calm and collected thoughts about why I think KI should be there? I just don’t know what I could’ve done to help the KI community over there so that our game could be there.
As much as I think Pokken looks cool and fun, I honestly don’t think so. If it is though, then I think that actually opens up the doors for some other games to be included in FGC events. If it is, then I’d really like to start seeing Senran Kagura: Estival Versus at tournaments!
Having their own events isn’t really a good reason to exclude them considering KI has the world cup, the pro-league, the beatdown, the combo clashes, the ultra tour, and combo breaker all to itself.
Thats your opinion not everyones. Ki is a good game, but not everyone will think that or have you forgotten? Every gamer has certain taste in games and we all wont have the same, but we will have some similar taste.
It’s actually the reverse. Why give a small scene that has a community that admits the game is going off the rails when they can just get a game that will have views and tons of participants. Businesswise it makes more sense to go for the games that give you more views.
Every community wants what’s best for their game. Am sure smash fans think just like you and think KI is irrelevant instead and would argue that it’s more fair to give exposure to a popular game instead of a dead one like many are saying online.
As for the part where I said the community is admitting faults in the game here is SeaDragon whom I believe was a finalist at EVO saying it himself. You can maybe ignore PaulB but when others start admitting it as well… well ignore all you want but that’s not going to help the game if you keep pushing issues under the rug.
Xbox One had a horrendous launch, while SF, MK, Marvel, Guilty Gear were thriving or at least staying semi-relevant for the past 20 years, KI was dead, it was only recently was made available on another platform and that is the W10 store which is much more niche and less user friendly than Steam, Origin, even Uplay. Along with other reasons like DH only being known for bad licensed games prior, being F2P, etc.
It’s amazing that it turned out as good as it did and with as much support as it has now, even if it doesn’t seem like much compared to other fighters.
I’m just going to shift the blame on MS for low advertising and marketing. Marketing is what brings in players and increases the tourney entrants overtime, but alas…a fun and profitable game being wasted.
But KI has been on the Xbox homepage non-stop since s3 launched. We got mentioned several times during E3 and have been the flagship game for Windows 10 until gears 4 was announced. What more could they do?