Make this game F2P
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I really believe that Ninja Theory should make this game Free to play. The game is not really worth it´s price. Do not take me wrong. This game is AWESOME. I do love it, it has potential to become an extremely popular game. But in it´s current state, with just 2 game modes, a few characters, and no real rank system, people won´t give it a try. For the same price, you have many more more complete games to play. And the problem this brings is the following: There are not enough people playing it. You have non ending qeues , i have had qeues which lasted 15 minutes, and when it finally finds a match, the teams are really unbalanced cause there are no people playing. 4 low lvl players against a premade team, all over lvl 100. We wait 15 minutes to play a game which ends in less than 10 because of the skill difference between teams. This game needs more players, and the best way to get them, is turning it into a free to play game. I strongly believe you should create in game coin, such as League have with riot points, for example. Put a store where you can buy coins to get skins, and other cosmetics, so that you can earn money from it, but make the game free for people , so that more players decide to give it a try. I do not complain about it´s prize, I have gamepass and it does not really make any difference to me. But for those who do not have it, or steam players, believe me, for its prize, players have 10 better options.
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NT has made it clear they will not do ANY microtransactions. They want to give people a game for one price, like how it used to be. They are a small developer and their BE team is smaller still. They are doing what they can to give people a game without having to throw extra money to unlock things faster than intended.
This may annoy, upset some people but to me it is amazing. I intend to buy otber NT games to support them and continue to play BE for a long time to come.
If they were to reverse course, make it F2P, and add microtransactions that would be a step back, not forward.
They are trying to be a developer for the gamer not for the money and that deserves nothing but respect.
TY NT!
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Definitely agree in principle and props to NT for trying, bc I hate microtransactions, but I do wonder sometimes if making the game F2P is a better model for building the necessary player-base.
I wonder if there's a middle ground: game is F2P, no microtransactions, but a one-time payment of $30 (or whatever) unlocks all the skins/boards or something. Still have to play for mods.
Or could pay to unlock all mods and still have to play for skins, not sure, but you get the point.
I already have a lot of mods/skins/etc I want, but I'd pay the one-time price just to support NT if they made it F2P to build the player base.
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That´s what i meant @Matolius It´s all about making a better player base. I honestly support Nt´s decision of not adding micro transactions to the game. I think it´s the only game i have played that does not have them. and @thetruepilliger I really prefer paying for a game, and not having micro transactions, than playing a f2p game with lots of them. The problem is that when u have hundreds of people complaining about the same things I do (umbalanced matchmaking) and when you have 15 minutes qeue, or play 7 games in a row and in all of them there are exactly the same 8 players, u can easily realise that something is not working well. the thing is not adding micro transactions, is finding a way to bring more people to the Bleeding edge´s community. So adding them would be a possibility through which the game could be cheaper than it is nowadays. What´s the point of keeping the game with no transactions at all, if there are not enough players neither ? I love the way the game is evolving, and I understand that just a small group of NInja Theory is in charge of it. But if they do not do something quickcly, it will end up dying. And it would be a pitty, since its an incredible game, and the community around it , despite being small, is awesome. What the game needs most is having a bigger player base. A matchmaking system which works in the correct way, and more content. We all understand that the game has been realeased just a few months ago. I do, and u guys probably do, cause we are xbox users, or game pass users. But people who are not, people who we would like them to join the game, have no reasons at all to play BE, since they have lots of other options which are free, full of content, a higher player base, and in different platforms where they can play
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We're definitely at a point in the game's lifespan, in my opinion, where the number of players will not grow if nothing changes marketing wise. As a game that is 100% multiplayer, it needs players, and we're already encountering more negative experiences due to a low number of players. I think we'd all welcome a new content update, and it would likely encourage players that haven't played in a while to give the game another shot, but it wont sell the game to brand new players, as most on the sidelines have had time to make their mind up already.
You've got to remember that the game is already on Xbox Game Pass though, which without looking at behind-the-scenes analytics, I'd assume makes up a huge proportion of players that installed the game. Microsoft announced that Game Pass had surpassed 10 million members back in April 2020. So this game is essentially F2P for 10+ million people already. Taking the base price away altogether would take value away from Game Pass (albeit a small amount of value being realistic) so I don't see Microsoft doing that. It may not be a Game Pass flagship title, but it certainly adds to the backlog.
In terms of monetisation for Bleeding Edge - and again this is all speculation - Ninja Theory are owned by Microsoft Studios. You'd imagine there is some sort of monetary interest in it for NT too. I'm quite confident that they're not in a mountain of debt because of Bleeding Edge, therefore there is no real need business-wise to pour in resources in order to retrieve losses (e.g. making the game free to play and adding micro-transactions). It would also be going against a public stance of "no micro transactions", which could potentially damage a very reputable company's image. Ninja Theory's brand power is in narrative-driven 1P games, which Bleeding Edge is obviously not. They have two huge projects in development - Hellblade 2 and Project Mara - which I'd imagine takes up the majority of resources and where their focus is business-wise in order to turn a profit.
Bleeding Edge, as reiterated several times in press releases, was always a passion project made by a very small team of developers that could be put onto Game Pass as a Microsoft Studios Exclusive title. Yes, it's also available on Steam but still requires an active Xbox account, which is in line with Microsoft's ethos of "Play Anywhere" anyway. As long as you're using their services, they aren't bothered where or how.
Of course, the people that have worked, and continue to work on the game are immensely passionate and invested in it, however being realistic, the game was never going to be supported enough to turn it into a blockbuster title. It's done about as well as anticipated and will remain active until people stop playing and lose interest - as fans of the game though, we all wish the game will be/could've been that blockbuster title.
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@x-AmberPrice Agreed. I'm hopeful that once NT is done with their single player projects that you mentioned they might increase the the size of the Bleeding Edge team. I don't know the time frame for when those games will finish production and I'm not aware of anything NT has planned for after them so they might have some programmers available to assist. One can only hope.
