Nothing has changed for me…still my favorite game that I play every day for at least 1 hour.
Yes the forums are a bit slower and teh tournament stream are fewer but to me the game is still kickin assss way more than Injustice 2, MKX, SFV, and the others.
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You bet I am. I’m nearing completion for Shadow Lords, as I’m currently sitting at about 95% done. Aside from that I just got my star so it’s interesting how much it changed my playstyle during the entirety of facing people at a high-level.
That said, I implore everyone to resist from placing their anticipation on the thought of something grand. I’m not trying to downplay the devs or the importance of the news, I just don’t want to see people disappointed to the point where the hostility of the vocal few reflects our community.
Don’t anticipate a sequel or the likes is all I’m saying, you’d be expecting a lot of news to come via a tweet.
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Yeah, but if fund would go only on prize pots, then why hyping up this announcement so hard?
Beats me. The only logical explanation would be at the absolute-most a renewed season, but even then that is quite far-fetched.
I believe this has to do with more involvement with local scenes or something of the sorts. I cannot reason a new installment because the setting would be inappropriate here.
Honestly, all I can do is assume, much like everyone else. I just want to be wary in my assumptions to avoid being letdown. That way I take the news in stride, not expecting much so if it is something spectacular like new costumes for all or something, then yeah I will be ecstatic.
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Yeah I wouldn’t expect any big content announcement either. My guess is the announcement will include world cup news hence the hyping.
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I think anyone expecting new content or a new game announcement is just setting themselves up for disappointment. They are excited to announce the tournaments that they will be supporting - hence all the hype.
Putting aside my own feelings that this is WAY too long in coming, it’s perfectly normal for them to be hype about that type of announcement without the need for anything else. Plus, think about it. They’re going to make a major content announcement on a random Thursday in March outside of any important event? Seems unlikely.
I have to say though, looking at the gold bananas and the dude being shot out of a cannon to hype up Sea of Thieves (a game I admittedly can’t find any interest for), I’m starting to tilt toward the side of the community that feels KI has been criminally under supported by MS marketing. We get $50k in tournament prizes that we paid for ourselves. Not $200k weird tchotchkes and half million dollar bizarre one off stunts.
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Yeah your right…why the hell is SOT getting such a big push and KI was just left in the basement to starve to death. I just dont understand the hype behind the muliti player onine games…it get so boring after doing the same ole thing over and over again. But thats just my opinion.
I hope MS doesnt think SOT is going to help them rise up in the exclusive game war…because to me its just not that great of a game.
But like you said Im expecting the announcment to be pot bonus amounts for this years tourney schedule and the big part of the announcment being a date fro KIWC.
I really enjoy multiplayer online games. I love cooperation and teamwork and frankly I’d rather play WITH my friends than against them. But I still don’t have any interest in Sea if Thieves because I don’t see what it is you are actually supposed to do. And I’m not really a pirate fan.
But hey, some people will love it. I guess I would be fine with the marketing if I could understand it. They are dropping triple digit funds on gold bananas? What is that going to do? I am a pretty aware guy and I don’t see how that even ties to Sea of Thieves . Then they turn around and release the game as. $40 budget release. I am always just completely baffled…
Sea of Thieves is getting hyped because it’s Rare’s big return to game development after Microsoft relegated them to Kinect nonsense for a decade. Even after all these years the rare name is still revered and Microsoft has been trying to cash in on it these last few years with stuff like rare replay and rash in KI. People aren’t necessarily excited for it because it’s an online game, they’re excited because it’s rare.
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Don’t mistake me. I hope Sea of a Thieves is a smash hit that brings in billions of dollars. I really want all games to succeed, even the ones I don’t care about. But it’s just… hard to fathom the marketing decisions.
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Uh. Killer Instinct is a Rare game too… at least, that’s how it started. Have people forgotten that?
Yes but this KI wasn’t made by rare.
Well it’s Friday. Have they announced anything yet?
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Honestly, I don’t think that whether it was made by Rare or not has much to do with KI’s marketing budget versus Sea of Thieves.
For one thing, KI was a launch title. They were promoting the entire system at that point in time. They also had other, bigger games that likely ate up more production budget such as Forza 5, Ryse, Dead Rising 3, not to mention the multiplatform games that also got commercial space such as Assassins Creed IV, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Fifa, Madden, NBA2K14, etc.
Yes, KI had a definitely fanbase in the 90’s when fighters were arguably the most popular genre. But in 2013, when you’re launching a console, are you really putting a ton of marketing dollars in to a downloadable season of a reboot of a 20 year old niche title in a niche genre or are you putting that money toward games that have a greater mass market appeal, that are more likely to sell a larger amount of consoles?
Now, I obviously bought this system primarily for KI and I’m sure many of you did as well, but regardless of what our friends have told us or what we’ve read on a few fighting game message boards, I think it’s safe to say that Killer Instinct wasn’t going to be the XB1’s big killer app at launch compared to the other stuff that MS was pushing in order to get people to buy their console.
Let’s contrast that with Sea of Thieves. This game is not a launch title. It’s not coming out at the same time as a bunch of other, more high profile games. It’s actually coming out at a time when Microsoft is utterly lacking in exclusives, perhaps more than at any time in the history of MS consoles. They NEED this game.
Also, unlike fighting games, Sea of Thieves is practically begging for mass market appeal. Everyone that tries it seems to love it. However, that’s kind of the problem. Most people seem to look at it and disregard it. Killer Instinct is a fighting game, and most people know what those are, even if they haven’t heard of this game specifically.
MS doesn’t have to get KI all up in your face so you have some clue as to what it is or why it’d be fun. Sea of Thieves, on the other hand, absolutely needs this kind of promotion, because a lot of people have no idea why this game would be appealing. It’s very much a “once you play it, you get it” kind of title.
I would also put stock in the idea that MS wants it to succeed because it’s the first non-Kinect developed Rare game in ten years. Rare is one of the few flagship studios they have left, and the Rare name still has some cachet in the industry. So while I think that this is a title that MS desperately wants to be successful to help bolster their exclusive lineup, I think it’s also a bit of a prestige title for them; a real effort to put something big out that’s new IP, not something overly familiar, and developed by a venerable studio that’s been away from gaming for far too long.
That said, I’m personally not interested in this game. I hope it does well for MS. I hope it brings Rare back and I hope MS gives them both the rope and the people to make some new iterations on some of their classic titles or maybe even something new like an MS kart racer or something. But this game doesn’t really appeal to me.
As for the Kilgore fund, I do tend to wonder why it took this long to line everything up for what it’s being spent on. I mean, maybe I’m mistaken, but didn’t Kilgore come out over a year ago? I mean, if they wanted to save that money for 2018’s tournaments, perhaps trying to keep the game relevant until some sort of 2018 announcement, either of a new season or a new game, I suppose that makes sense, but even then, I kinda hope James will clue us in on what went down here.
I don’t want to be all “you owe us an explanation,” because I personally hate that kind of customer entitlement. But we did spend this extra money, so it’d be cool if they could tell us a little bit as far as what it’s going to, why the delay, etc. I’m sure this stuff doesn’t come together overnight, but a year plus seems a bit strange if it’s not related to new game content (which I’m 100% assuming it’s not).
Maybe it has to do with MS not wanting to announce stuff too far out anymore? Either way, looking forward to hearing what he has to say about the fund, hopefully today. He’s always been a cool, stand up guy, always willing to help on game issues and what not, so to say I’d cut him a little slack is more than an understatement.
You are not mistaken.
I don’t think this is really unreasonable. I think even putting it in the most positive light, they clearly squandered an opportunity to “strike while the iron is hot.” In the absence of any logical explanation we are left to speculate. I have my own theory about how this story goes that I will keep to myself because it’s just a speculation. But it’s really challenging for me to come up with a scenario where waiting a full year to even announce the disbursement of the fund has any conceivable benefit to the game or the community.
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It’s not that it’s unreasonable, I just don’t want to be one of those “as a paying customer, I DEMAND” types of people that think a few dollars paid for a game character buys them a controlling stake in Microsoft and they’re owed any and all information the second they want it.
That might be a bit extreme, and I don’t want to come off like a cheerleader or a pushover either, I just think there’s a right way to inquire about this and a way that’s well… I little crappy. I just don’t want to be on the crappier side because I don’t particularly like those people.
However, after a year, it would be nice to know what’s going on and I hope we can find out soon enough. I agree that there’s no chance of striking while the iron’s hot in terms of helping the tourney scene.
Part of me wonders if that might be the reason why nothing’s happened here. Maybe they decided at that point that the tourney scene wouldn’t be worth the investment, so maybe they decided to do something else with the money and they didn’t want to announce anything, per Microsoft’s current edict on announcements, until they were in the home stretch.
Yeah… I sincerely doubt that. Like 99.9% doubt that. Okay, 100% doubt that.
Maybe they decided to funnel all of it toward KIWC and they just had to figure out all of the details and get things finalized to the point where they could announce everything? Who knows.
Either way, they’ve held this announcement back this long. My assumption is that there’s a reason why and I sincerely doubt it has anything to do with it falling to the back burner, but again, who knows.
I’d be curious to know your theory though. I have to agree that the disbursement of the fund so much later will likely have a hard time benefiting the game or the community, but here’s hoping we’re wrong! 
Eh, I’m reluctant to share this because it’s just speculation. My pet theory is that the Kilgore fund was not originally intended to be a fund. Or at the very least everyone didn’t get the memo. There was no big announcement before the Kilgore launch. I basically heard about it being a community fund from people in here but there was no mention of it whatsoever on the Xbox store. So then the “extra” $5 just went into the general revenue bucket with everything else. Then they had to wrestle it out of accounting. I also think the process was slowed by the fact that most of the devs have moved in to other things.
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Well, on the Kilgore stream, I do recall Keits making a formal announcement about the Kilgore fund. I mean, maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t recall the Shago fund being on the Xbox Store either, was it? That was a long time ago, so I’m probably not recalling correctly, but I do remember with 100% certainty, the IG stream where Adam spoke about the fund, so I don’t know if it was really a “general revenue bucket” kind of deal. I believe it was always earmarked for tournaments, but the details never followed.
Who knows though. I hope we found out soon either way.
Kilgore’s fund will go on fixing Kim Wu’s face.
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Are people really STILL ■■■■■■■ about that! Lighten up people! She’s FINE!
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