If you haven’t been paying attention to the live services space in recent years, you know that it’s a bloody business. It’s a feast or famine industry, where developers either deliver some critical flops (like Hellraiser 2) or, like the recently released and often mocked Concord, drown in turbulent waters. For every successful game, there are three that did well and five that failed. Entering the space once is risky, but entering again after your first attempt failed? It’s an act of bravery, or perhaps financial abuse.
Such was the case with Sharkmob Studios, which was founded by a number of industry professionals, including many of the big names behind The Division and the Hitman series. A few years ago, the Swedish studio introduced Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodhunt to the world. It was an ambitious third-person battle royale game that had a heavy focus on verticality and a variety of unique vampire powers that set it apart from other games in the genre. Development on the game ceased a little over a year after its release. Now they’re back with Exoborne, a sci-fi shooter that clearly ported many elements of Bloodhunt, while also throwing in some new ideas and a clever extreme weather element.
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At Gamescom this year, I joined other members of the media to watch a hands-free gameplay demo of Exoborne. The game looks fun and meets all the criteria of a good evacuation shooter. The weather system provides clever players with opportunities to quickly move around the map, while also being a strong force that pushes players to break away from their fixed playstyle. But as good as it looks, shades of Bloodhunt remain. That’s why I asked CMCO and Sharkmob’s Narrative Director Martin Hultberg what the team learned from their first attempt.
“Bloodhunter was a game that we all loved, but like you said, unfortunately it didn’t really take off in the long run,” Helberg said. “It’s a very competitive industry, and online games are definitely one of the most competitive areas. Personally, I think we learned a lot from Bloodhunter about how to run a live game. We learned a lot about making content in a live environment and how to keep the community engaged… So we’re taking all of those lessons and applying them where we can.”
But really, it’s never just about the game itself, it’s about everything that’s happening around it. I’m sure you can look at a lot of games and think about the challenges they face and so on. But for us, there are a lot of lessons to be learned. Like community engagement and early engagement! We do all these tests to react early on, at a stage where we’re already fully committed to development.”
One of Bloodhunt’s biggest flaws was content releases. Sharkmob was in development for several seasons at the time, but it disappointed many people in terms of new content players could play each month. So I asked about the game’s longevity, and what plans they had in place to ensure Exoborne would retain players. Hultberg briefly talked about their plans, and the changes Bloodhunt is trying to make.
“These are one of those details we don’t discuss right now, but this is a live game and there will be content coming after launch. We have a roadmap internally and we’re looking at ways to set that up. That’s also a lesson from Bloodhunt – how do you plan content so that your time is on a sustainable cadence. More importantly – not more importantly – but equally important is how do you get community content out in a timely manner. Those two are hard to combine. But it’s about how you push out content and how you package updates. That’s something we look at a lot – how do we get content out without relying on a big update once a month. That’s usually not sustainable.”
It’s worth noting that there’s a more significant change in strategy this time around – a move to a paid model. Bloodhunt was free to play, but the game didn’t gain the popularity that people had hoped for. Exoborne will be a paid game, sold at an upfront price. It’s not possible to discuss what the price will be yet, but given the recent situation with Concord, there’s debate about whether this is a good move. Hultberg makes a few points for this approach.
“I’m going to talk about my point of view – other developers may have good arguments as well. There are a few reasons. First, we found out with Bloodhunter that Bloodhunter is a free-to-play game. That opens up opportunities for cheaters. You can ban someone and they’ll come back again and again. If it’s a paid game, then you have to pay a little bit of money to get it, so if we ban you, you’re going to be upset. So if you’re a paid game, you lose a lot of cheaters.
“Another reason, of course, is that you need cash flow to stay afloat,” Helberg continued. “Free-to-play games are cool and great in many ways, but it’s a very hard business model to recoup your initial costs. That’s why we’ve moved towards paid games – ultimately, paid games give game developers money to create content, help prevent cheating, and that’s where we’re most comfortable. Almost everyone in our studio has a background in paid games – making free-to-play requires a specific skill set that you have to master over time.”
I did ask what the optimal pricing would be for a game like this, especially when there are already free-to-play games on the market. Hultberg was tight-lipped, but did give an answer.
“I’m not comfortable speculating on that, it’s not my strong suit. But you’re right, it’s something you have to think about because there’s so much competition and there are a lot of really good free-to-play games that are doing well and there are a lot of premium games that are either standard or mid-priced. Like you said, it’s all about finding that sweet spot.”
It’ll be a while before Exoborne is playable by the general public. It’s currently in closed beta, and the Sharkmob team is hoping that through these tests, the public product will attract a large and eager audience. Obviously, time will tell, but it’s comforting to hear that the lessons of the last attempt were taken to heart. That’s all you can really do, isn’t it? In game development and in life. Such a thoughtful way to end an article about a video game with evil tornadoes!
