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Marathon approaching 15k CCU low (sponsored by coachmcguirk91 - still having a blast)

StreetsofBeige said:
Next content drop isn't for another couple months.

Easiest way to build users without rocking the boat gameplay wise if they want to keep things whole is in April make it sub plan, f2p, or free weekend test, etc... if April is too early pissing off $40 gamers, then do it in May. But The CCU is dropping a couple grand every day and you don't want to get it too low. So do it mid April. That would give a month gap from gamers who bought it
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ChorizoPicozo said:
I can see this coming fast
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Free weekend/week/period sounds like it would be the safest early bet for them. Not going straight to F2P means you don't potentially annoy your existing paying crowd. It doesn't push you into something you can't easily return from. Server Slam was their highest CCU.

It's a bandaid though. They know their on-boarding is terrible, and this might bring in fresh blood, but will also exhibit a lot of quick churn. But building a robust on-boarding experience is going to take time to get right.

They need to be pitching hard internally. Just like the fans on here have been. "It's great if people can stick with it for 10+ hours. Look at all these videos and forum posts from people saying so! Give us more time and we can fix the wounds"
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Next content drop isn't for another couple months.

Easiest way to build users without rocking the boat gameplay wise if they want to keep things whole is in April make it sub plan, f2p, or free weekend test, etc... if April is too early pissing off $40 gamers, then do it in May. But The CCU is dropping a couple grand every day and you don't want to get it too low. So do it mid April. That would give a month gap from gamers who bought it
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Would free weekends even work to attract an audience?

And even if it did, unless they wall off the new players from the people that stuck around playing the game, you would be going in with the shittiest gear against the committed hardcore players with the good shit. They would have map/game knowledge and strats that you would just be at the starting line of learning.

It's a tough sell no matter what they do and might be better to start planning the funeral than to invest even more money into it.
 
Timberwolf25 said:
Would free weekends even work to attract an audience?

And even if it did, unless they wall off the new players from the people that stuck around playing the game, you would be going in with the shittiest gear against the committed hardcore players with the good shit. They would have map/game knowledge and strats that you would just be at the starting line of learning.

It's a tough sell no matter what they do and might be better to start planning the funeral than to invest even more money into it.
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They can match new players with each other.
 
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Timberwolf25 said:
Would free weekends even work to attract an audience?

And even if it did, unless they wall off the new players from the people that stuck around playing the game, you would be going in with the shittiest gear against the committed hardcore players with the good shit. They would have map/game knowledge and strats that you would just be at the starting line of learning.

It's a tough sell no matter what they do and might be better to start planning the funeral than to invest even more money into it.
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I presume ranked play means new low level players won't be put into matches with high level geared players. They certainly wouldn't want this to be a way to just feed the hardcore.
 
Timberwolf25 said:
Would free weekends even work to attract an audience?

And even if it did, unless they wall off the new players from the people that stuck around playing the game, you would be going in with the shittiest gear against the committed hardcore players with the good shit. They would have map/game knowledge and strats that you would just be at the starting line of learning.

It's a tough sell no matter what they do and might be better to start planning the funeral than to invest even more money into it.
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I would create beginner instances that lock the gear loadout at a certain cost.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Next content drop isn't for another couple months.

Easiest way to build users without rocking the boat gameplay wise if they want to keep things whole is in April make it sub plan, f2p, or free weekend test, etc... if April is too early pissing off $40 gamers, then do it in May. But The CCU is dropping a couple grand every day and you don't want to get it too low. So do it mid April. That would give a month gap from gamers who bought it
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I think April will be even worse, Arc has it's first major update since November and even though different takes on the extraction shooter there must be some crossover.
 
Being a loot piñata for experienced players is not fun gameplay. I doubt a free weekend will move the needle after the weekend completes.

Pro tip for studio execs, the next time one of your studios pitches a live service game where being a new player is a terrible experience, fire that person immediately.
 
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We're into the European evening time and haven't yet reached 30k CCU. (42K this time last week).
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Negotiator101 said:
The question now is how long do Sony wait before making some big decisions? At what type of numbers for a big studio does this become unsustainable?
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I'd have personally put it as way before now. Post first weekend numbers didn't match that of a AAA game to me, so where they're at now has to be crisis talks.
 
This new content appears to have had no positive effect and if anything a negative effect. It's hard to see how more new content would help much unless it fundamentally changes the nature of the game.

It's not like people stopped playing because they got bored of the existing content after months of enjoying it and are eager for something new; they stopped playing very quickly, presumably because they didn't enjoy it.
 
2 pm completed hour. It's catching up vs the morning slump. Only -4% now. As falconhoof pasted above, comparing vs last week is a forgone conclusion of a tanking.

But as a week over week comparison using Mondays, it's trending like this:

- Launch day Friday Mar 6 peak 88k

- Monday 16 vs 9: 53.9k vs 66.6k (-12.7k or -19%)

- Monday 23 vs 16: 44.4k vs 53.9k (-9.5k or -18%)

So each week over week is bleeding almost -20%. Right now, it's at -50% vs launch peak. Half the PC CCU in 2.5 weeks. And that even includes the hyped up cryo map. If it keeps up, next Monday will peak at 36k (44.4k less 19%). The low last night before server shut off was 13.7k. That will drop to about 10k this week if it keeps dropping.
 
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ARCs update will definitely pull players back into that and make a dent in what Marathon is struggling to hold onto, I think.

Helldivers II regularly shoots up over 100k players whenever they have a big event or Warbond drop.

My point is they'll continue to hemorrhage players without any significant content and major QoL updates. From what I've read, their next big QoL update is like "sometime in April".

The only other content you've got is a "weekend raid" type thing.

That encourages people to just not play during the week and only log on for one specific thing *if* they find it enjoyable to do so. I don't see that working out long-term.
 
Negotiator101 said:
Well given the numbers that Arc has lost over the last few months surely some went to Marathon? Now this new map for Arc coming next month will surely bring some players back right?
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Maybe? Arc has its own problems, but I'm not sure a lot of the people churning off it are excited for Marathon. They're likely just tired of the game seeming stagnant and Embarks lack of effort to curb cheating.

SEGAvangelist said:
That's not long enough, IMO. I think a gear cap would work better.
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Definitely needs to be longer.
 
Sohurmk833 said:
Why would they? They make 30% of every single successful GaaS Game on Playstation.

They should stick to what they're good at. Nobody needs more live service slop, the market is overcrowded as is.
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So you don't like what they're doing with MLB The Show and GT7?
 
1.2 millions total? Lmfao
tlHxuc.gif


What about the so called beyond 2 millions sales?
This game and Bungie smell like fried escrement lmao
 
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calico said:
This new content appears to have had no positive effect and if anything a negative effect. It's hard to see how more new content would help much unless it fundamentally changes the nature of the game.

It's not like people stopped playing because they got bored of the existing content after months of enjoying it and are eager for something new; they stopped playing very quickly, presumably because they didn't enjoy it.
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Yea man, imo cryo sounds about as fun as an ice pick up the dick
 
Sohurmk833 said:
Don't care about either but both are long running franchises. Of course you keep them running as long as they are successful.

It's the new games that are the problem.
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Aside from Helldivers 2 (I might be missing one?), it's the only new GAAS game that did well. I think the rest either bombed out, game cancelled, studio shut down, layoffs etc.... There are some coming soon we'll all have to see how well they do..... Horizon Hunters, Fairgames, NCSoft Horizon mobile game etc....
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Aside from Helldivers 2 (I might be missing one?), it's the only new GAAS game that did well. I think the rest either bombed out, game cancelled, studio shut down, layoffs etc.... There are some coming soon we'll all have to see how well they do..... Horizon Hunters, Fairgames, NCSoft Horizon mobile game etc....
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Yeah, those 3 are dead. I can see Fairgame Dollar Sign getting cancelled before release.
 
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Not saying something can be as loud as saying something.

Marketing people love big numbers. It's such an easy press release for them to throw out there and celebrate. Crimson Desert has done it twice now, Capcom did it with Resident Evil. The only reason Bungie wouldn't would be if there was nothing to celebrate.
 
Timberwolf25 said:
Are you turning on this game? Because I thought you were among those precious few thousand that was having a blast!
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I love this fucking game to death and will enjoy it until it is no more.

But all of my posting on here in any thread on it has been fairly realistic, along with feedback/criticisms and what to do to improve it/bring players in.

I'm a realist and at this rate it'll be dead around season 2…
 
If this was a budget production those would be pretty good numbers. I would even say it looks like a budget production.
We all know that isn't the case.
 
Pollux said:
Ya love to see it - call me a hater, and I absolutely am, but I want this to fail because they murdered Destiny for this....mediocre product. If they did a single player campaign, did the whole loot grind with both PVP/PVE with Marathon, etc. I wouldn't hate it, but killing Destiny for a niche within a niche is so stupid.
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I'm a hater too because they also murdered blue point for this shit
 
Mr.ODST said:
The copium on here hoping Sony go back to making Single Player games if Marathon fails, they have been killing off single player studios .... unfortunatley this is the world we live in where GAAS is the absolute money maker, its shit but thats the industry now.
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Bro this game likely won't ever be profitable

Meanwhile crimson desert, a single player game that came out like a week ago, already sold 3 million copies

Sony is being greedy banking on the next Fortnite, when in reality they just release concord 1 and 2
 
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So some conversations around the net on the sales have been hilarious and goes something like this.

"Alinea stats suggests they are..."

"Well they are bullshit!"

"Well Paul Tassi of Forbes with contacts in Bungie say they are close.."

"He's lying! Besides 1.2m in the first month is good if it was true."

"Yeah but Bungie cost billions to acquire, the dev cost of this was in the hundreds of millions, and they have a ton of employees with high living salaries"

"Well they can just make Destiny 3 fast! This game is a success! It was never meant to be a big game!"
 
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