As an 80s baby, I still can't quite wrap my mind around the idea of microtransactions, battle passes, etc. It seems... and I don't know how else to say this but... profane. Like, you know, the opposite of sacred.
I remember back in the day when I plugged my PlayStation (3?) into the WORLD WIDE WEB for the first time and played with people across the country. It was amazing! However, I also remember the first time I was blocked from certain content, on a game I already OWNED, because I didn't have PlayStation Plus. I remember, rather vividly, looking at my friend Kyle with sadness- both of us knowing that the world had changed forever.
It's been interesting watching the development of the games-industry over the decades since I first started playing. At some point a couple years ago, I noticed that I've become a predominantly-PC gamer who mostly plays indie titles. Maybe if it weren't for some of the trends that you talk about in this article, I would've got the newest generation of console, remained a console gamer, and kept up with the newest games.
Either way, though, cheers to another article! Keep 'em comin'!
Thanks for the deep generational perspective from about 10 years ahead! I remember when Microsoft wouldn't let you use THE NETFLIX APP on the 360 unless you had an Xbox Live Gold membership (i seem to remember a silver one too but I'd have to do my research. That, plus Horse Armor DLC for oblivion really charted us up a path that has led to these types of business practices that are difficult to stomach a lot of the time. Profane is certainly the way to word it. If your game is an MMO, I can see charging a monthly membership, but if it isn't an MMO, frequently monetizing your players is nuts.
As someone who isn’t a fighting game player, I never gave it much thought on how genuinely messed up it is for them to try to sway you into paying WAY too much money for characters who were free to play back in the day!! This was a very fun read on a genre that I myself do not play!! It’s very eye opening to see the twisted tactics of other genres brought to light!! Also I loved the swear jar joke lol
Thanks! Its sad going from something like Tekken 5 on the PS2 to Tekken 8 now and seeing the monetization shift. It's certainly disheartening. Also thanks for the kudos on the silly joke — it hit me as I was typing out the sentence and felt it was perfect hahaha
It sucks to see a legacy character cost money because it feels like they were purposefully excluded to be sold.
But i also see the effort that goes into re-designing and remaking a character in a new engine and reworking their tools to actually make sense with new system-mechanics like the heat system.
If a dev team only has enough time and money for say a 16 character roster I'd rather have the launch roster be a healthy mix of new original characters alongside legacy characters, then have the battle-pass be a mixture of new characters and legacy too, which is what all fighters are doing atm so i'm happy. I also give SF6 huge props because if you buy the battle-pass they give you MANY different retro games like the SF Alpha games, Original SF2 and turbo, Final fight, Mega man games etc... all available to play in the battle-hub, even offline. You also get refunded your fight-coin for completing the battlepass there, which i love. SF6 also doesn't have advertising in it...
A huge peeve of mine is tekken 8 containing ads spun as "crossovers" for Nike, a new Karate kid movie and gentle monster glasses whilst also selling a battlepass, microtransactions and DLC. That reeks of greed. Tekken 8 has been very offputting for me unfortunately and i say that as a HUGE tekken fan.
To be fair, Tekken 8 (and SF6 to an extent) was the inspiration for this article, especially as a lifelong player and someone who admired the game at launch mechanically. Heihachi was as you said, clearly excluded to be sold separately.
I appreciate when a premium battle pass offers a lot of other benefits as well, but, I still don't believe paid games should have battle passes in my honest opinion.
I also was joking while playing Tekken 8 earlier with a friend about being close to a pair of nikes when I won a match. I HATE that shit.
As an 80s baby, I still can't quite wrap my mind around the idea of microtransactions, battle passes, etc. It seems... and I don't know how else to say this but... profane. Like, you know, the opposite of sacred.
I remember back in the day when I plugged my PlayStation (3?) into the WORLD WIDE WEB for the first time and played with people across the country. It was amazing! However, I also remember the first time I was blocked from certain content, on a game I already OWNED, because I didn't have PlayStation Plus. I remember, rather vividly, looking at my friend Kyle with sadness- both of us knowing that the world had changed forever.
It's been interesting watching the development of the games-industry over the decades since I first started playing. At some point a couple years ago, I noticed that I've become a predominantly-PC gamer who mostly plays indie titles. Maybe if it weren't for some of the trends that you talk about in this article, I would've got the newest generation of console, remained a console gamer, and kept up with the newest games.
Either way, though, cheers to another article! Keep 'em comin'!
Thanks for the deep generational perspective from about 10 years ahead! I remember when Microsoft wouldn't let you use THE NETFLIX APP on the 360 unless you had an Xbox Live Gold membership (i seem to remember a silver one too but I'd have to do my research. That, plus Horse Armor DLC for oblivion really charted us up a path that has led to these types of business practices that are difficult to stomach a lot of the time. Profane is certainly the way to word it. If your game is an MMO, I can see charging a monthly membership, but if it isn't an MMO, frequently monetizing your players is nuts.
As someone who isn’t a fighting game player, I never gave it much thought on how genuinely messed up it is for them to try to sway you into paying WAY too much money for characters who were free to play back in the day!! This was a very fun read on a genre that I myself do not play!! It’s very eye opening to see the twisted tactics of other genres brought to light!! Also I loved the swear jar joke lol
Thanks! Its sad going from something like Tekken 5 on the PS2 to Tekken 8 now and seeing the monetization shift. It's certainly disheartening. Also thanks for the kudos on the silly joke — it hit me as I was typing out the sentence and felt it was perfect hahaha
It sucks to see a legacy character cost money because it feels like they were purposefully excluded to be sold.
But i also see the effort that goes into re-designing and remaking a character in a new engine and reworking their tools to actually make sense with new system-mechanics like the heat system.
If a dev team only has enough time and money for say a 16 character roster I'd rather have the launch roster be a healthy mix of new original characters alongside legacy characters, then have the battle-pass be a mixture of new characters and legacy too, which is what all fighters are doing atm so i'm happy. I also give SF6 huge props because if you buy the battle-pass they give you MANY different retro games like the SF Alpha games, Original SF2 and turbo, Final fight, Mega man games etc... all available to play in the battle-hub, even offline. You also get refunded your fight-coin for completing the battlepass there, which i love. SF6 also doesn't have advertising in it...
A huge peeve of mine is tekken 8 containing ads spun as "crossovers" for Nike, a new Karate kid movie and gentle monster glasses whilst also selling a battlepass, microtransactions and DLC. That reeks of greed. Tekken 8 has been very offputting for me unfortunately and i say that as a HUGE tekken fan.
To be fair, Tekken 8 (and SF6 to an extent) was the inspiration for this article, especially as a lifelong player and someone who admired the game at launch mechanically. Heihachi was as you said, clearly excluded to be sold separately.
I appreciate when a premium battle pass offers a lot of other benefits as well, but, I still don't believe paid games should have battle passes in my honest opinion.
I also was joking while playing Tekken 8 earlier with a friend about being close to a pair of nikes when I won a match. I HATE that shit.