DEAR FRONTIER- Free Marketing Advice!

[Twinn]

Star Wars: Squadron is a complete flop on PC as of this moment on launch (I logged off ED at top 10% of the current CG and bought it to try out, no-one in VR can play it properly because of control issues and anyone over 144hz gets stuck at 30fps. I almost threw up playing it. I am booting up ED after writing this post just to do another gun run before bed to cleanse my palette). These goombas stole your pip management, your flight assist off, and even your bobble heads. Get angry and do something.

Put Elite Dangerous: Arena back on steam for FREE as your demo. Literally infuse money into it and push it out to the front page of Steam as F2P... because it's actually good, your flight physics are beyond any other space sim (day 1 star citizen supporter and theirs still sucks compared to yours). Arena is the gateway drug you need before Odyssey and I'm sure your entire playerbase would love an infusion of brand new players into that space. Speed up your free merging of Horizons with the base game and make the pricing very very accessible. You could easily double your player base this way and start taking in a ton ARX money to supplement the sale losses. Also expand your ARX team and make better options. I've been wanting to buy the max ARX package to support you guys but I don't really want anything that's available...

 

[Rubbernuke]

FD had the chance to make Star Wars Squadrons on the PC in the form of its discussed Powerplay update and did......nothing.

If they had done that, FD would have had a SW S for free two years ago.

 

[kalniel]

These goombas stole your pip management, your flight assist off, and even your bobble heads. Get angry and do something.

Er.. you know they all existed in games before Elite Dangerous right?

You could easily double your player base this way and start taking in a ton ARX money to supplement the sale losses.

Ah, of course they could..

 

[Twinn]

Er.. you know they all existed in games before Elite Dangerous right?

Ah, of course they could..

A: Name a relatively notable game in this past decade that more than a million people have played, before Elite Dangerous 2014, with these features?
B: Do you not think that being on the front page of the steam store (F2P iteration or not) would do anything for game sales of a larger IP?
C: I redacted this statement because it was really mean and condescending too.

 

[Craith]

A: Name a relatively notable game in this past decade that more than a million people have played, before Elite Dangerous 2014, with these features?
B: Do you not think that being on the front page of the steam store (F2P iteration or not) would do anything for game sales of a larger IP?
C: I redacted this statement because it was really mean and condescending too.

X-Wing, TIE-Fighter, X-Wing vs. TIE-Fighter, X-Wing Alliance ... not this past decade maybe, but the energy management was a central part of all Star Wars space games ...

 

[Twinn]

X-Wing, TIE-Fighter, X-Wing vs. TIE-Fighter, X-Wing Alliance ... not this past decade maybe, but the energy management was a central part of all Star Wars space games ...

LOL Ah damn i was like 7-8 when i played those with my dad... so fair enough. SCHOOLED. I knew how to launch Mechwarrior in Dos at age 4, did I know how to play really?.... not really. But still come onnnn guys... they even stole the bobble heads... This forum never surprises me anymore with the weird tangents these posts take... because this is not even remotely the point of the post at all, but here we are.... and you damn well know where those young devs were looking for "inspiration".

None of you actually have comments on marketing or player growth? Or are you a suburban Elite players that want your bubble to stay exactly the same? Or do you just want to be old grumpy grumpersons and pick out any phrase that doesnt line up with your ideals.

 

[kalniel]

A: Name a relatively notable game in this past decade that more than a million people have played, before Elite Dangerous 2014, with these features?

Just look at the history of space combat games before Elite Dangerous. Many of them have had these features. The only one I'm not 100% sure about is bobble heads, but they were in other non-space combat games in some manner before Elite Dangerous. However if you think bobble heads is the killer feature of ED that should be shouted about then.. well I don't agree.

Which is all fine. The first Elite game WAS revolutionary and broke new ground. Elite Dangerous does not need to be - as you and I know, it's still a great deal of fun even if borrowing ideas from other games. Likewise SW:Squadron borrowing ideas (from other Star Wars games as much as, if not more than ED) is fine too. If every game had to be completely unique then we'd have a far less rich game selection to choose from.

B: Do you not think that being on the front page of the steam store (F2P iteration or not) would do anything for game sales of a larger IP?

Do you not think FDev have a marketing team who's job it is to run the best marketing strategy? Being on the front page of steam store no doubt would increase sales. Whether it would increase sales enough to be worthwhile right now is a better question, especially if it would have to compete with much higher spending from EA for Squadrons. Comments such as 'doubling your playerbase' and 'selling a ton of ARX' seem plucked from thin air with no evidence. I am NOT a marketing expert (certainly, not for video games), but I would expect they'd get more bang for their buck if they focus advertising around Odyssey release, and avoid clashing with big players.

 

[PRORABBIT67]

 

[Craith]

I generally agree with making Arena free again to catch a bigger audience and then get them to the main game. It would still need some work to be invested in Arena (a few more maps, bots!) to get it out to a broader audience, IMO.

I got myself Squadrons Arena yesterday, won't hold me for long but at least I'm going to try out a better VR experience than the modded X-Wing alliance I have running now (at least visually)

 

[Rat Catcher]

Star Wars: Squadron is a complete flop on PC as of this moment on launch

...and as marketing advice to Frontier, this means what, pray?

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

X-Wing, TIE-Fighter, X-Wing vs. TIE-Fighter, X-Wing Alliance ... not this past decade maybe, but the energy management was a central part of all Star Wars space games ...

That is two decades ago.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

LOL Ah damn i was like 7-8 when i played those with my dad... so fair enough. SCHOOLED. I knew how to launch Mechwarrior in Dos at age 4, did I know how to play really?.... not really. But still come onnnn guys... they even stole the bobble heads... This forum never surprises me anymore with the weird tangents these posts take... because this is not even remotely the point of the post at all, but here we are.... and you damn well know where those young devs were looking for "inspiration".

None of you actually have comments on marketing or player growth? Or are you a suburban Elite players that want your bubble to stay exactly the same? Or do you just want to be old grumpy grumpersons and pick out any phrase that doesnt line up with your ideals.

ED is not as fun. And I don't use VR.

 

[Flimley]

Do you also dispense free mortgage advice?
I’m asking for a friend.

flimley

 

[ZeeWolf]

All that aside, CQC packaged with the training levels for the main game would have made a great demo + free-game and probably would have hooked a few into the main game.

Around the time "eve valkyrie" was launched, gamers on the VR forums were suggesting CQC as a much better value propersition.

I always thought it would have been an awesome thing to promote with VR headsets like 'Echo Arena' did. The lack of bots would have been the main sticking point though.

 

[Bottom Hat]

None of you actually have comments on marketing or player growth? Or are you a suburban Elite players that want your bubble to stay exactly the same? Or do you just want to be old grumpy grumpersons and pick out any phrase that doesnt line up with your ideals.

I have a comment for you sonny:

GET OFF MY LAND!

 

[GonzTheMalificent]

I think OP has a point.

I also think the servers would crash and the game would be spotty with the uptake.....

 

[Twinn]

All that aside, CQC packaged with the training levels for the main game would have made a great demo + free-game and probably would have hooked a few into the main game.

Around the time "eve valkyrie" was launched, gamers on the VR forums were suggesting CQC as a much better value propersition.

I always thought it would have been an awesome thing to promote with VR headsets like 'Echo Arena' did. The lack of bots would have been the main sticking point though.

Finally a comment. Yeah this could have been huge in the VR realm as a giveaway during that era. I literally bought an oculus at full price in 2015 just for this game (around $600 headeset and $200 controllers) Eve made me want to hurl but ED was amazing.

 

[Twinn]

I think OP has a point.

I also think the servers would crash and the game would be spotty with the uptake.....

Yeah... I'm thinking thats why they wont go F2P honestly. Servers for F2P would rack up a lot of overhead... but good lord would it pay off if they had the right upgrade model. Lets just say all your winnings were transferable to a new purchased account. Those $25 Million useless credits that many players would track as competitive stats in Arena are now all of sudden allowing you to buy your dream starter ship in the actual game.

 

[Deleted member 121570]

These goombas stole your...flight assist off

I'd understood there was no thrusters in SW:S ? How did they manage FA off?

 

[ZeeWolf]

I think OP has a point.

I also think the servers would crash and the game would be spotty with the uptake.....

Tends to be the other way around with the way the game works, more people playing means more available peers in your region to connect to, less time waiting for matches too. Most connection issues with ED are not due to server load per-say, although there does have to be a connected EDServer instance in the cloud and that has costly implications I'm sure. However more players on CQC would be a very good thing. Something tells me the uptake of CQC would be fairly niche still and the offline training levels don't have any cost involved.