I keep going back and forth on this in my mind since it was announced. But I feel that each character, guest or not deserves his or her own stage. Its part of their individuality, and character, also the music plays into that as well. So I would like other folks thoughts on this, my hope is that with the Ultra edition, or by means of a “Kombat pack”, to borrow from MK realm, some sort of add-on with more stages and or music. I am not a fan of paying extra for this, but if it must be so, then so be it. I would like all of your thoughts on this, thank you!
I generally come down on the side of preferring that every character have their own stage, but don’t feel super strongly about it
I would not be willing to pay money for extra stages though. Something about the idea rubs me the wrong way, and if I’m going to be paying for extra content, I’d rather pay for characters or costumes or ultimates or something.
The optimal would of course be to have a stage for every character… But there’s already SO many stages! I can completely understand why they wouldn’t want to make any more, and rather focus on other things, like the characters and the gameplay.
I am only a bit iffy about Arbiter getting a stage. He’s a guest character, so I don’t feel like he should’ve gotten one. I might have thought otherwise if I liked the stage, but it doesn’t really look cool to me, compared to so many other stages.
I have to agree with you on the Arbiter stage. It seems a lil odd to have a guest with a stage when potentially gargos and or any new character wont be getting one. IMHO any new/ returning character deserves a stage as that was the standard KI1 and KI2 and season 1 and 2 (since the two bonus chars shajo and omen share a stage and since they are bonus and werent planned they are kinda sudo guests in my book).
But alas this is what we get, and i understand there mindset of putting resources else where.
I feel a bit let down especially now that I see we got barely anything of interest to me in return, I spend most of my time playing versus so nothing they can add that is not related to that will interest me. Now I understand that people disagree and want more not versus mode related features and I do respect that, its just not what I play fighting games for. For all I know there are a bunch of versus related content that is brand new but I think with all the matches they played they would have shown it.
Ill just say this. Coming from another next gen fighter to this…when it comes to stages you guys have been spoiled XD
I don’t mean that in a bad way either btw, it’s just a way of me saying that this game (in it’s current state) has (IMO) the best looking stages of any next gen fighter. I am a huge MK fan and have been my entire life and have always loved the game’s stages, but they really really dropped the ball with the majority of MKX’s stages IMO. The Pit is great (as always), Dead Woods is good, The Kove is cool and Krossroads are good but they rest are meh…meanwhile this KI has like 16 stages and just about every one is beautiful…there are a few that are less awesome than the others (Jago, Shago, Orchid) but each one is great.
TLDR: This game already has so many beautiful looking stages compared to most other fighters that I am content with what we have, even though I would love to see IG make some more awesome stages for us to fight in
It is a rather huge bummer to not get 8 stages with season 3, because to me stages have always been just as important and exciting as characters themselves. However as I’ve stated before , I’m not dwelling on it anymore. I do find it extremely odd though, that Gargos won’t be getting a stage; it’s almost a given that he’ll be coming, and the fact that he, the boss of the game, won’t be getting a crazy new amazing stage to go with his amazing new redesign, after all these years.
I still feel there is no excuse, remember guys they were working on Season 3 before it was officially announced. They did more for Season 2 in a shorter time span albeit the season starting off with only 2 characters but at least Season 2 appears more complete.
Season 3 has been in work for much longer and while they were still wrapping up Season 2. I know the stages take the longest to make but they aren’t short for resources or cash, that is all in your head. Microsoft is backing this and if they don’t see by now that there are people that love this game then they are blind. If this game isn’t successful how did we even make it to Season 3 let alone how is the community still supporting this 3 years later if it isn’t growing or stagnating why make more?
If they can get a company to make figurines of the KI roster, there is demand and you have a franchise that is making money. I don’t buy that it takes up too much time and resources, they have an infinite supply.
True it isn’t infinite but how much do you think they are afraid of losing $$$$$$$ wise when they are a multi-billion dollar company. Do you think this game hurts them financially to back it up, do you know how many revenue streams MS has?
I honestly do not care about more stages/ less stages what have you. I don’t play a fighting game to look at stages. Yes they can be attractive, but what I’m looking at is fun competitive gameplay. That’s it. I much rather they put their funds into balancing characters, fixing bugs, and making one H E Double Hockey Sticks of a fighter than adding a ton of new stages.
All I’m saying is that they can do them, it is dumb that they don’t follow the tradition and make it look like it is a time and resources thing. Time and Resources won’t stop a giant like MS, if they really want it they can do it.
MS isn’t going to throw several million dollars into a niche game. KI isn’t Halo or CoDXXXXIIII.5. While KI has been a money maker, it isn’t a huge blockbuster game. MS produces games to make money, if you spend more money than you’re going to make back, that is a loss. From a business stand point that doesn’t make sense. IF KI had several million players then MS will add more to the budget.
IG has a LOT more on their table this time around than they did in S2. Making KI a PC game isn’t a cake walk, as the game wasn’t originally designed around Windows 10. They have to deal with all the bugs that occur on the Xbox One and now the PC itself. The game has to play well no matter what platform.
With the limits of staff and a budget, IG had to cut corners. I’d much rather them cut corners. In this case, stages. Sacrifices have to be made, and I much rather not get as many stages, versus get those stages and have cheaply implemented characters, bad lighting, and an over all buggy game experience.
Still not an excuse, the game should feel more completed at this point, there was no deadline to get KI on PC, they could’ve been working on it still while setting the game to be finished and polished as #1 priority. Make KI the best then port it over for Windows 10, not simultaneously. They took billions of dollars in losses to invest in the first Xbox. They only started making money in the Xbox division 6-7 years later during the Xbox 360 era. You are making it look as though KI started in the red and trying to make money as if they are broke and barely making it. This is not the case and sometimes investing in something now bears the fruits of success later.
Adam isgreen said he has to go to his superiors to get a budget and the go ahead. The big boys at ms don’t believe that KI is a big franchise.
Listen I agree with the fact there should be 8 stages and I wouldn’t converted it to the pc til the game was finished.
But unless it’s halo, forza r gears they’re not gonna throw money and resources at it
Firstly, who says there wasn’t a deadline? There is ALWAYS a deadline when it comes to producing content. Sometimes that deadline is made, sometimes it is extended. Just because they don’t make a deadline known to the general public, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
With a limited budget it actually makes perfect sense for the IG staff to develop S3 with Widnows 10 in mind. It would take much more money and more time to create it exclusively for Xbox One and then change everything to Windows 10. This was well planned and thought out.
Whether MS is making money off of Xbox or not is irrelevant. It comes down to allotting money to the products and services making them the most revenue. This isn’t rocket science, but good business. What would you put money into a game that sells 50,000 copies or a game that sells over 1 million copies. These aren’t obviously KI’s figures, but I think you get the idea.
It’s not that MS is broke and can’t afford it, it is that KI isn’t an AAA title and it isn’t selling several million copies. This isn’t because KI isn’t one of the best fighters to date, but that fighting games in general have always been a niche genre that many people just don’t get into. This was one of the reasons that IG implemented CAM (although I’m still not a fan). They wanted to use CAM to make KI more accessible. More people buy KI… more money goes to KI… simple.
Xbox Division lost billions just to try and make a dent, it took years to start making money. One can argue why go into the gaming market if you will start off not making money for a long long time. My point is relevant. KI could start making money or even more later, it is an investment in the franchise that gets it bigger, if they do nothing and let it die that’s another story. Not everything starts making money right away and you have to put a lot of money before you see any return.
You put money in “losing” products (products with long profitability time horizons) because those products are a “slam dunk” - you almost KNOW they will sell. Prohibitive capital costs are only worth it if the product is almost a need, or if it’s serving as a way to break into an emerging niche or market. Otherwise, you need to expect your products to make money, else you will not be in the vendor business for long.
I can build a power plant for 200 million dollars because I know that people have a need for electricity. In my actual industry, we can have 30-year break-even horizons for a jet engine because we know that there are only a few engine manufacturers in the world and that the current models need to be phased out. MS could lose money on every Xbox they sold because they were trying to steal away market share in a market worth billions of dollars. Losing money to add a few extra stages is nowhere near that level.
MS is a billion dollar mega company with myriad revenue generators. That doesn’t mean they can afford to have each individual product or revenue stream lose money, in the hope that a “better” product will eventually turn it around and actually make a buck. No one’s going to buy KI because “oh snap, it got another 5 stages ” A casual might give it another look because “oh wow, that fight in that level with the giant spider in the background was awesome.”
You know… you stole the words right out of my mouth Storm179. I was actually typing pretty much the same thing.
As Storm said, losing money in a long term investment, isn’t a bad thing. MS knew they would lose money. They didn’t create the Xbox (original) to make money, but to cement their standing in one of the most lucrative markets on the planet. It did that.
This has absolutely no baring on KI. Fighting games are a niche genre. They are more popular now than they were, lets say 10 years ago, but RPGs, Shooters, and Action Adventure games tend to sell far more quantities than fighters. A large part of this comes down to the fact that it is much more difficult to get into a fighting game due to the learning curve.
IG is already trying to address some of these issues with CAM as well as allowing cross play with PC gamers. IF MS sees that KI is selling a ton of games, then they’ll put more money into the franchise. IF MS sees that KI is not selling enough games, then they will shrink the budget and or discontinue the franchise and put that money into a more lucrative franchise.
The reality is having 5 new stages versus only 3 new stages isn’t going to impact sales. As stated, I don’t purchase fighting games based upon how many stages it has.
” A casual might give it another look because “oh wow, that fight in that level with the giant spider in the background was awesome.”