On Colors and Post S3 Monetization

I cannot remember how much I spent on costume packs etc. for various FGs but I think it was somewhere around:
SFIV: $50-80 spread over both 360 and ps3 versions.
SFxT: $40-60 again for both 360 and ps3.
DOA5: $100
MKX: $30-40

Not to mention that I BOUGHT Tekken games and Soul calibur games because of their customization options and cool looking characters (thanks to said options).

This was when I didn’t have a lot of money. Now that I have some, my favorite fighting game (KI) doesn’t allow me to spend any extra money on it. Missed opportunity so far.

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There’s a lot of good discussion going on here already and most people have already hit the main points that I would have thought to say (and I’ve handed likes out like candy to said people!), but I still want to pop in here and be yet another voice that supports the idea of adding more… well… everything in terms of customization. Colors and accessories are of course the big ones, but I would love to also see different taunts, maybe even intros and outros too… just look at Overwatch, which lets you unlock a variety of emotes and highlight intros among the usual appearance customization options. I can say for sure that I have already dropped plenty of extra money on Loot Boxes in that game and have already heard from a great number of friends that have done the same. And I am far more passionate about KI than I am for OW (and I love OW). That being said, I would happily do the same for this game if its creators gave me the option!

Another fun way of introducing these sorts of things would be with Seasonal Items, like the Christmas Accessories that were released in Season 1. Again, Overwatch’s Summer Games is a good point of comparison here (though I would really hope that they don’t do what Blizzard did, where those items can only be randomly unlocked–but given how KI’s unlock system works I don’t foresee this being a problem since there’s no RNG to them). I dunno, I just love those sort of fun, themed addition to games because it encourages you to think about characters in ways outside of the usual, and also is just a fun way to celebrate seasons.

There’s a lot of different ways they could go about it, really! Hopefully the Community Survey and threads like this will help provide them the incentive they need. (And if they need help brainstorming ideas or creating assets, well, I may or may not be the sort who likes to spend their time thinking about and doodling this sort of thing. I can dream, right??)

#On behalf of everyone who has a pocket full of cash burning a hole.

I think it’s more “all of the above.” The model was something new in terms of console content delivery so in that sense, it’s very nature made it slightly more difficult for people to wrap their heads around. Would this be better or worse than a standard console release? In what ways would it differ beyond the surface stuff? We didn’t have those answers post E3 / Pre-launch because most of us didn’t have any real comparison to draw on.

When the term “free to play” started getting thrown around, especially in the gaming media, it muddied the waters even further. I still remember Ken Lobb trying to put a pin in that rhetoric by calling it the world’s most generous demo.

Now, the Mattrick era certainly had its fair share of missteps. No question. But I don’t lay this solely at MS doorstep. Could they have come up with a more straight forward model? Yes. Could they have been more concise in explaining the model? Possibly, but I tend to think that those looking for answers found them. So sure, if people on message boards have to guide one another, you’re probably not doing so well message-wise, but again, I still think part of that is the gaming media and part of that is the model itself.

In hindsight, I think it’s a genius model. It got content to us sooner, fans have been involved the whole way through, and we’ve had a healthy stream of content going on three years now, which has also helped keep the game not only from fading in to history, but actually growing in both fanbase and relevance.

Granted, the content itself is top notch, so that never hurts, but who would’ve thought after that initial reveal that we’d still be talking about this game three years after launch and that we’d have what we have?

I honestly don’t know how MS could’ve explained back then why this would be such a good idea over what we were used to. I’m not sure they even knew. I think they were just trying something. Thankfully, it worked.

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Lol. Yeah, but Irritated Infil™ is really just a more acerbic version of Standard Infil near as I can tell :joy:

I wanna see you flip a table :tada::rage::tada:

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I have never supported a game by buying costumes, and I was actively annoyed by Capcom with SF IV. I didn’t see the value proposition in buying those costumes - so I didn’t and I happily lived with my decision without bashing the company or their business model. Looking at it now I have a lot more sympathy for the need to have a continuous revenue stream if you are going to keep updating the game.

I would support paid DLC costumes for KI and gladly pay for things that looked good and came at a reasonable price (whatever that means). I tossed a few bucks at MKX to get the sub zero skin that supported tournaments because why not? I have now even bought the SFV season pass, just to support fighting games (even though the more I play that game the less I like it).

I am firmly in the camp that is suggesting MS is strangely averse to this payment model. I’m totally spitballing here, but it looks to me like a couple of things are going on. First, it seems to me that it was clear that from the start KI was not really being made with the expectation that it would make money. S1 was without any doubt a game to bolster the Xbox1 launch lineup. They were fine to lose money on it, as long as it wasn’t too much. Everything points to that, including the failure to lock down a long term contract with the developer. Why lock them down if you might not need any more content? I wouldn’t be surprised if S1 took a loss, financially. But the game was very well received and had a generally positive buzz in a launch lineup that (for both systems truthfully) didn’t have a lot of buzz. Most people were just upgrading their CoD box and the other games were not a priority. My view is they really didn’t know what would happen after S1 ended.

For S2 I think they put their toes in the water and got the green light (mostly) to make the game for the long haul, but the green light came very late in the planning phase and IG was basically nose to the grindstone for 10 months… I think a lot of good ideas for things got hooks in the game, so you see stuff like KI gold that still really has no sensible use in the game almost two years later. I think they were just pressed for time.

S3 was done more deliberately and clearly on a better schedule. But I’m guessing there is a pretty linear chain of people leading to the final decision maker, and the decisions for things like use of KI gold aren’t made within the KI team. This means basically pitching internally and I’m guessing the final decisions are often very risk averse. It helps explain some of these inexplicable “we’ll see” and “soon” issues even for pretty trivial reveals. The final decider is in Baja this weekend or got pulled into the Halo discussion or whatever. No one is going to wake the boss in the middle of the night to ask him if he remembered to sign the memo allowing KI gold to be used. Further, MS seems to prioritize avoiding negative publicity rather than making money. So I would agree with the suggestion that they are missing an opportunity because they don’t want to read a bunch of forums and websites with people complaining about paid DLC. But the game is still being managed as a feature of the Xbox brand rather than a stand alone entity. I’m reasonably confident that the PC port happened because MS’s overall PC gaming strategy needed some Windows titles and the KI team was able to make this port - not because someone in management said “I think we will sell another million units of KI if we port to Win10.”

I’m also guessing that the metrics for KI’s continued development and success are still not linked to revenue. I’m sure there’s monthly player quotas, or other quantifiable metrics like player hours per month. But not “bring in X revenue.” In some ways that’s great, but I think it forces the team to allocate resources in a way that bolsters those other metrics. Two guys churning out DLC costumes would probably be a good financial investment, but it likely wouldn’t bolster whatever those target metrics are. So they put the development resources into something like SL. I think SL is designed first and foremost to try to capture players time. And then secondarily to see if it will encourage revenue through microtransactions. Which is ironic because I think the public response to microtransactions in SL will be far less accepting than to costume DLC. But I think if revenue was the driving force behind KI’s development we would be seeing all kinds of DLC long before now - because that stuff sells and MS has to know if. Therefore it’s hard for me not to conclude that MS has different priorities (other than making money) for KI.

Anyway, that’s my castle in the clouds. In the absence of any real information it’s my most reasonable speculation.

TL:DR they should make colors/costumes and sell them.

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Bingo. I didn’t spent one dime on gems in SFxT but I couldn’t get enough of costumes. Really looking forward to SL but I won’t spend one penny, or yen in my case, on it.

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Lol. I certainly will. Don’t feel like leveling up my guardians normally, and I have a stupid amount of KI gold from the Shago fund and Ultra S3 pack. I definitely won’t spend too much of it, but I’ll use at least a little to get myself started guardian-wise.

Me too but it’s money I already spent on buying KI Gold. Lol.( I won’t put down another 40 bucks for SL microtransactions).

Lol. Oh goodness no - I’m definitely not doing that :joy:

I’m not even going to spend my existing Shago fund & Ultra edition gold on Shadow Lords. I haven’t spent a single gold since I got it and I’m not about to start now. I don’t need gold to beat SL and I’m still convinced there will actually be a worthwhile reason to spend it down the road like skins or costumes.

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I’d be in even more support towards purchasing colors if they assisted in funding tournaments should Microsoft choose to go this route. That said, I would enjoy more colors and would purchase them :slight_smile:

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Me too lol I’m not sure I agree with getting bombarded with skin/color packs. I prefer getting unlocks through something like SL, which seems like that’s what they’re doing. Maybe in a ultra tech expansion more skin unlocks can come with it.

Like everyone else, I have in the neighborhood of 18k KI gold gathering dust because if S3 Ultra and the Shago fund. I spent a paltry amount and immediately felt like it was wasted. I thought I might spend it on leveling bonuses but I haven’t.

I doubt I will spend it on SL. I am trying to stay optimistic but I don’t see this as a game mode I will spend a great deal of time with. And I just never feel like the economics of those microtransactions ever seems really attractive. I can’t explain this but it boils down to - if I feel I have to spend money to enjoy the game then it hampers my enjoyment of the game. I recognize this is a bit of a paradox because I have already “donated” money to KI just because, repurchasing Shago and kicking in to the community fund etc.

But if they offer me the ability to get some new outfits or accessories? Probably I would at least draw down on my current Gold stockpile.

Yes, I’m still holding out though.

As an overall statement, I think IG’s got stuff planned. They always say that they hear us out, and time and time again they’ve proved that. Today’s patch that nerfed Eyedol, for example; heck, the fact that Eyedol got added at all!

The reason I think it’s taking so long is because…well, Season 3 isn’t technically over yet. They still have to prepare for SL’s full release, along with the potential for an influx of new players when the Definitive Edition releases. And even after that, there’s still a multiplayer mode to add and the Eyedol “expansion pack” to Shadow Lords (taken from the Beam stream). And, while I might be getting a little too hopeful, Season 4 might possibly be a thing as well, so that’s something they have to plan for, too.

There’s just a lot of stuff that has priority right now. Work on the content that gets players into the game and THEN add extra costumes, colors, and general “bonus” things later. Too many games nowadays feel like they focus on grabbing more of our money as opposed to just leaving you be after you pay $60. I’m glad IG is better than that, even as a small company.

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I would also be all over more costumes and colors. This game is begging for them.

I’m still down for Bed-Sheet Hisako. If I could buy that…

I’d buy it in a heartbeat :heart_eyes:

I’m surprised why they haven’t done this yet, but hopefully in the future we get SOME news about this. At least we know it’s in their Top 3 things.

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