Simpler yes... cheaper yes in the short term no in the long term. UE4 is free which is the main reason they went with it. The only pay that they do on UE4 is a % of what ever they make goes to epic... In the short term it means they don't really pay that much but in the long term they end up paying much more. Here's the quote directly from epic themselves on the engines payment method "When you ship a game or application, you pay a 5% royalty on gross revenue after the first $3,000 per product, per quarter. It’s a simple arrangement in which we succeed only when you succeed." aka they are stuck paying 5% per of their total earnings per quarter which is kinda a lot in the long run. Honestly they should have retooled the engine that they had to be usable with a different network interface... That was the entire reason it was trashed it was tooled for the piko server which just didn't work. Retooling a engine to interface with a different network after setting it up for something like the piko is a huge task but honestly it would have saved them a shit load of money in the long run but it would have delayed the game by around 6 months to a year which I would not have minded at all. I mean really EC is really expensive to run as is 5% per quarter + payments to amazon servers + pay to the team + any issues that come up... Really it doesn't look all that good with all the high bills they have it really does make me question if they didn't rush to free because they are having financial issues. I mean they have lost around 6-7 key members over the past few weeks only 1 of them left the company that we know of the others were just placed on other projects but that doesn't bode well due to how much is left to be done with the game. I remember Nathan saying something along the lines of when he came on board he had the option to either cancel the game or try to salvage it and he chose to attempt to salvage it and that's how we have what we have today... It was either a we get nothing or we get a fun little game which was a hit or miss success. Anyway I honestly hope Nathan decides to shed some light on the recent events to put minds at ease... As it stands it does seem kinda bleak. Moving to free to play is usually a last ditch effort for a game to turn a decent profit before being shut down and it doesn't always turn enough of a profit to continue service. *edit* I went back and read this sorry it's a wall of text I was just rambling.
Theoretical: Free2Play isn't a bad choice or means that the game won't do well. If you have more players and they spent regularly at least a little money you have a continuous income and can add more items and features to the game. Which leads to the more players, more money... Resin and repeat Practical: At the current state of EC the switch to F2P won't save this game. Maybe we get some minor additions to it (cosmetics), balancing and if it is already done, the elite classes like the Terminators,but don't expect a glorious resurrection. In the end I will moan for the opportunities thrown away and lost to the wrap, since I didn't want to see this game fail.
Nathan aslo said in the past Ec is performing better than average and especially mentioned battleborn. Which is not really something you want to boast about. Being better than average is not really amazing in the days of crappy steam asset-flip games. Isn´t Fortress Ronan supposed to be 40v40? EC is more like milking a mouse.
In no way am I saying Miguel is blameless. Each had mistakes and Nathan's was switching to U4. Well Nathan has been saying Terminators are already being worked on and coming a month after EA launch, only a year+ later to see the first WIP.
og course he will say this .. not like he would say crap yeah the RTC store is an overpriced pos - which it is ... some things are ok some are waaaay not .. look at eldar cosmetics .. just out of a RTC price so u gotta but more etc etc .. and in the end its for personal enjoyment more than anything else ..
ohhh no i did not believe it .. what i couldnt believe is that people bought this game on that actual premise .. and then argued about that ... while all along most of us knew it was a crock of crap
no .. i still play that every now and then .. but i also have an account with EQ ... BUT lets not even try and kid ourselves here EC is NOT in any way shape or form close to EVE .. and never ever will be.
The biggest failing of EC will be forever killing the hopes and dreams of a quality 40k video game that isn't an RTS. EC will leave such a stain on GW's IP that they won't try something ever again. I guarantee it.
they sent out 250k free keys ... of course some are going to be used hence the peak in players now all it needs to do is RETAIN those numbers ... which quite frankly i highly doubt since all the sales EC has been in 10 quid for a AAA (lol) game etc etc people that wanted to try it would have got it by now ...
