With the $20 million write-off in CCP's latest accounts, most expected that WoD or DUST was getting the chop. On Monday it was revealed that World of Darkness was finally given a stake through the heart.
On several social media platforms some Eve Online players were very much "Good, now they can concentrate on Eve!".
Guys, CCP needs more strings to its bow if we are going to make it to the 20th anniversary! Lets have a look at what they have currently.
Eve Online.
OK, things are looking OK for now. However, empirical evidence is that many of us are seeing more players are getting bored and the game is stagnating some what. How many corp mates have you lost in the last six months? How many people have you heard moaning they are bored and off to try a different game. However, the subscriber numbers don't show any reason to be worried yet. Personally I feel this summer is going to be crunch time for Eve. With so many people are getting bored with their current situation in Eve things could be dicey if the game isn't shaken up a bit. Eve has stuck around for ten years because of the constant expansion and new things to do. For the last couple of years the 'new things to do' have been severely lacking in expansions. Whilst fixing and balancing has vastly improved the game, we need new content and things to do to prevent stagnation.
DUST 514
Yeah, its not gone as planned has it? At Fanfest 2013 we were told that being on the Playstation network would open the Eve Online Universe to tens of millions of players. Looking at the peak user graphs for DUST, that hasn't happened has it? Forget tens of millions, forget millions, forget hundreds of thousands. One year on and we are seeing peak user numbers around the 3,500 mark. As a free game, DUST relies on its micro-transactions to make its money. I wonder how many people are spending money on DUST AUR? I have no idea but given the peak user numbers I guess its well below what people were hoping for. As the PS3 slowly (and it will be very slow) dies as more people move over to the PS4, will DUST be helping to support CCP in a years time? Unless CCP have a good long hard look at Planetside, Battlefield and Titanfall, I doubt it.
Eve Valkyrie
Looks a fantastic concept and I will be buying a Oculus Rift and a copy of the game the moment they are available, if I am still out here. If I'm back in the UK not sure if I'll have the cash free. That's the thing. Whilst I can see that Eve Valkyrie will be the 'must have' game for Oculus Rift owners, I worry about how many
Oculus Rift owners there will be in total. It won't be a cheap optional extra will it! I am sure there will be a good number, but compared to PC gamers in total, they'll be a drop in the ocean. Yes Eve Valkyrie could be bought by 90% of Occulus Rift owners, but how many Oculus Rift owners will there be in total.....?
Mobile
I wrote this in draft yesterday. Given that CCP Uniflex said on Twitter he was leaving CCP last night it might explain a few things. Anyway here is what I wrote before Jon said "Byeeeeeee" last night.... Well John Lander aka CCP Uniflex moved over at Fanfest 2013 to head up the CCP mobile gaming and app division. So far we have nothing. I'm guessing we'll hear more at Fanfest (if I get there thanks to the airport strikes in Iceland happening on the 30th, grrrrrrrrrrrr). However, will Eve related mobile games and apps bring in the money for CCP or are we too niche a market? Can they emulate others successes? Will Flappy Rifter bring in $50,000 a day like Flappy Bird? I doubt it.
So in the end the only thing CCP can count on currently is Eve Online to make them money, and relying on one golden goose is bad business.
On several social media platforms some Eve Online players were very much "Good, now they can concentrate on Eve!".
Guys, CCP needs more strings to its bow if we are going to make it to the 20th anniversary! Lets have a look at what they have currently.
Eve Online.
OK, things are looking OK for now. However, empirical evidence is that many of us are seeing more players are getting bored and the game is stagnating some what. How many corp mates have you lost in the last six months? How many people have you heard moaning they are bored and off to try a different game. However, the subscriber numbers don't show any reason to be worried yet. Personally I feel this summer is going to be crunch time for Eve. With so many people are getting bored with their current situation in Eve things could be dicey if the game isn't shaken up a bit. Eve has stuck around for ten years because of the constant expansion and new things to do. For the last couple of years the 'new things to do' have been severely lacking in expansions. Whilst fixing and balancing has vastly improved the game, we need new content and things to do to prevent stagnation.
Yeah, its not gone as planned has it? At Fanfest 2013 we were told that being on the Playstation network would open the Eve Online Universe to tens of millions of players. Looking at the peak user graphs for DUST, that hasn't happened has it? Forget tens of millions, forget millions, forget hundreds of thousands. One year on and we are seeing peak user numbers around the 3,500 mark. As a free game, DUST relies on its micro-transactions to make its money. I wonder how many people are spending money on DUST AUR? I have no idea but given the peak user numbers I guess its well below what people were hoping for. As the PS3 slowly (and it will be very slow) dies as more people move over to the PS4, will DUST be helping to support CCP in a years time? Unless CCP have a good long hard look at Planetside, Battlefield and Titanfall, I doubt it.
Looks a fantastic concept and I will be buying a Oculus Rift and a copy of the game the moment they are available, if I am still out here. If I'm back in the UK not sure if I'll have the cash free. That's the thing. Whilst I can see that Eve Valkyrie will be the 'must have' game for Oculus Rift owners, I worry about how many
Oculus Rift owners there will be in total. It won't be a cheap optional extra will it! I am sure there will be a good number, but compared to PC gamers in total, they'll be a drop in the ocean. Yes Eve Valkyrie could be bought by 90% of Occulus Rift owners, but how many Oculus Rift owners will there be in total.....?
I wrote this in draft yesterday. Given that CCP Uniflex said on Twitter he was leaving CCP last night it might explain a few things. Anyway here is what I wrote before Jon said "Byeeeeeee" last night.... Well John Lander aka CCP Uniflex moved over at Fanfest 2013 to head up the CCP mobile gaming and app division. So far we have nothing. I'm guessing we'll hear more at Fanfest (if I get there thanks to the airport strikes in Iceland happening on the 30th, grrrrrrrrrrrr). However, will Eve related mobile games and apps bring in the money for CCP or are we too niche a market? Can they emulate others successes? Will Flappy Rifter bring in $50,000 a day like Flappy Bird? I doubt it.
Unless DUST suddenly becomes more popular, they need a new 'winner' in their line up. Personally I would love to see the 'Stronghold Kingdoms' meets Eve-O planetary interaction that I proposed a month or two ago. May be CCP already have their eyes on the next big thing? May be we'll hear about it at Fanfest?
Oh yes, and the other thing they need is a summer expansion to shake up Eve and re-energise the players. The CCP Golden Goose is at risk. So no pressure then!
Oh yes, and the other thing they need is a summer expansion to shake up Eve and re-energise the players. The CCP Golden Goose is at risk. So no pressure then!
@CCP .. folks you need to double down and push a services infrastructure based API to the backend that promotes 3rd party integration. Now! Before it is too late.
ReplyDeleteToo many outside applications give players an edge in-game .. bring that integration into the UI and promote and cross-market it. Jeezus this isnt hard people ..
Dont let this game die!