Forum Discussion

5 years ago

How does EA think it's going to retain new players?

How does EA think it's going to retain new players when you get put into matches like this? With cross-play having arrived, it now gives me the opportunity to play with a couple of my mates who are ...

discussion

pastaclown

5 years ago

@ChickenPops54 "How does EA think it's going to retain new players when you get put into matches like this?"

I'm pretty sure that they don't care about retaining new players, they care about selling skins. That's why they advertise Apex the way they do, flashy, pretty, fast, cool sliding shots, etc. etc. If they really cared about retaining new players, they'd understand that the best way to retain any audience is to constantly improve upon what they've built. But it's been 6 seasons in now and there's a whole multitude of issues that've sat around unaddressed since Day 1. Audio has been busted since day 1, and they only address it now, 6 seasons later? How long do we have to wait for more hit-reg improvements? Until net-code is improved? Until the server quality and performance increases? What about optimization?

The hardest type of player to market to, are the casuals / newbies. If they're not having a good time, they won't spend money, they'll just go off to some other game. Experienced / Veteran / Streamer / Pro-players are the easiest, because generally no matter how crappy a game has become, they're still going to spend money on it. Spiral Knights is a great example of this, that game hasn't seen genuine improvement in 9 years since it was released, and to this day people still spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars on it.

The first step to getting genuine improvement to any of the systems that are currently in place, is to hold the Developers to a higher standard. The only way to do that is to rid the community of this mindset where, if you criticize the game, you're just a terrible person and you ruin games for people, and you're likely to send death threats to the developers. Like 90% of the people on Reddit need to learn how to be critical of something AND STILL ENJOY IT. Yet you go onto any post that criticizes longstanding issues, and you'll always see someone going, "If you don't like it just don't play it." Not only is that detracting from the issue at hand, it's not at all helpful in any circumstance. It's pointless black and white thinking that prevents real change from happening and it's saddening to see more and more people adopting that kind of mentality.

Like from this thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/j7riwg/another_reason_you_should_treat_the_devs_like/

PsyhiX69
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
They don't care about players. They only care about people who pay (whales).
PeterN_UK
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@pastaclown

Apex Legends is a decent game probably because Respawn had less interference from EA in development. I feel sorry for the developers who have to be the PR when I'm pretty sure any monetary decisions on microtransactions, cosmetics, SBMM logic etc are a higher decision.

Someone could say developers should play their own or listen to community to improve it. Or even just select few well known streamers and make them sign NDA then throw them some money on how a game should be made then its massive twitch promotion.

Battlefield 5 is one example - EA did actually listen to community and made changes all the time and suddenly stopped. There was no revenue from extra free content they were giving out and focused on Apex. Nobody wants to buy skins where its just different shades of grey from world war 1 or 2.

Hence developers find it more worth while just to make mobile games now. Less risk on return.

I think developers themselves are unhappy being forced to create content/updates they have no belief in but feel pressured by corporate demands. So it has to appeal to younger kids where majority is and skins to be colourful to attract in order to make money first.

What is sad is that I read about bullying in schools where kids berate eachother if they don't spend real money on skins in fortnight. It is creating a real life problem outside of the gaming environment.

I love Apex Legends. Could of been a £1, £5 or £10 monthly subscription like an MMO to bring out new content like new maps instead of just weapons or new characters once every 3 months.

Still keep the gambling element for cosmetics as everyone wants to look unique. It is fine as no real in game advantage (probably opposite it makes you stand out to enemies if you're running in pink)

I hope EA can feed on comments that making money is understandable as a goal. But reputation builds loyalty to maintain and build understanding so your developers can feel proud. It is a far bigger vision to think long term like that.