Having played Guilty Gear Endeavor, Tekken 8, and Street Fighter 6 with people over the weekend in the US, I think it’s safe to say that the war for better netcode in fighting games is pretty much over at this point. Already won.
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We had developers delay the game to make sure their online features were working well, which is the biggest green flag you can get. But when one war ends, another begins. It’s clear to me that the next major hurdle for the genre will be monetization – getting money from you outside of the game’s initial sales. This is inevitable as fighting game developers move toward an industry dominated by real-time services.
This proved to be a tricky battle. Tekken 8 is the game with the worst post-launch monetization strategy recently. Bandai Namco’s goal was to make money while also attracting players fairly, but it doesn’t seem to be hitting either goal.
With the release of Heihachi, his stage is on sale for $5, which is very important in the story mode and to the overall competitive future of the game. Therefore; it is not included in the Season Pass. This has left many people confused as to why the full season content pass they previously purchased did not include all
Street Fighter 6 avoided such PR issues, but was criticized for its post-launch cosmetic events and the price of its DLC. Even so, as time goes on, the content that comes out every season gets better and better, it’s just that the price is too much for some people to accept.
Then there’s Mortal Kombat 1, a game that implemented the IAP strategy so aggressively and boldly that almost no one had anything good to say about it (even die-hard MK fans were a little annoyed at this point). However, this clearly benefits WB Games – do we, as players, reward their bad behavior?
With all three hit games clearly focused on selling extra content (much like fighting games of the past), but with slightly different approaches to solving the problem, the developers at Capcom, WB Games, and Bandai Namco are in a serious dilemma: the game’s With production and maintenance costs higher than ever, are the tried and tested ways of doing things enough? If so, how do you convince players to keep biting?
I can guarantee you: those who are independent of the development team, those who work on live operations, and the financial side of every company, are thinking about this. Fighting games never exist in a vacuum. Now more than ever, fighting games will be compared to other games in other genres that are being min/maxed to generate as much revenue as possible during their shelf life.
While Capcom seems content to release great games with typical post-launch DLC, Bandai Namco is always looking for new ideas on how to make cash: look at its attempt to make an MMO with Blue Protocol, which, notably, failed and was burned.
As with most things, the most ambitious approaches can be seen among conservatives. Cygames did a pretty good job with Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, offering a free version of the game with a limited cast of playable characters, hoping to attract a wider range of players who could then, ideally, widely spend money on the full version. . If they were so inclusive, they would make a concerted effort to lower the barrier to entry and get people to spend money. Cygames also sells a large number of character recolors, weapon sets, and DLC characters, solving the monetization problem on multiple fronts.
What this issue demands is the first truly bold game, one that breaks through the brick walls and blazes a trail for the rest of the series. On the subject of netcode, Guilty Gear Strive showed the world how well a game with good netcode could perform during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of monetization, it will most likely be Riot Games’ 2XKO. Completely free, it will be funded like all Riot games; including post-launch cosmetics and DLC. Even the alpha test has a battle pass and unlockable character skins! If Riot can make a free-to-play game that generates significant revenue, like League of Legends or Valorant, it will spark other games to follow suit.
Or maybe 2XKO will completely fail at this. It’s easy to recall a casualty-free fight for better network code, but that’s not the case. Many games try and fail to achieve good online effects, such as Samurai Showdown. There will be games that try to do this, but fail, and lose millions of dollars in the process. Don’t believe me? Take a look at a live service shooter built around this model. They’ve been doing this longer than any other genre, yet we still see games come out and screw it up. This is a dangerous road.
But it’s definitely going to be traveled. I, like many, really like the simple strategy of releasing a full-price fighting game and selling characters and costumes. But again, fighting games don’t exist in a vacuum, and efforts to turn them into money-printing machines will inevitably happen. Oh my gosh, that’s it already. If you’re generous, you can even see Multiversus being pioneering in some way. Like the fight for better netcode, the community has to be vocal about it and will certainly continue for many years to come.
