In this Metacast episode, David Amor, Yon Raz-Fridman and Aaron Bush, join your host Maria Gillies to discuss the $100K cost required to max out a character in Diablo Immortal, and the implications of such a high price tag for Free-to-play games. The team also discusses Axie Infinity’s very first batch of UGC-driven games, and how Apex Legends’ mobile launch has faired thus far.
Axie Infinity’s First UGC Games
- Context
- Sky Mavis has revealed the first 12 games of its Builders Programme.
- The programme invites developers to build user generated content (UGC) on the Ronin blockchain that will be added to the Axie Infinity world.
- Some are sceptical of its success.
- Sky Mavis seems to be investing very little into the programme.
- As the game’s earnings increase, the percentage paid back to the developer decreases and amount paid to the players increase.
- While this incentivises developers to reward players, it is unfriendly to the developer.
- It makes the programme less of a step away from pay to earn than it seems.
- Competition in the form of similar programmes e.g. Riot Forge could make it difficult for Sky Mavis to attract talent.
- The revealed games look very simple and low budget and hence may not have a great impact.
- What are Sky Mavis’ possible goals here?
- Perhaps only intended as a cautious initial step towards larger UGC programmes.
- To encourage community engagement and create a decentralised community.
- An attempt to go beyond the play-to-earn market and attract new audiences.
- This is especially as most of Axie Infinity’s players are currently from emerging economies and their number of daily users is decreasing.
- Aiming to become a platform, not just a game.
Diablo Immortal’s $100k+ to Max a Character
- Context
- Diablo Immortal, a free to play and primarily mobile game from the Diablo franchise, has been accused of exploiting pay to win practices and being non-transparent with its prices.
- It can cost between $500,000 and $700,000 to fully upgrade a character.
- The game uses gacha/ loot box mechanics but does not reveal the drop rates of items necessary to make characters stronger.
- While play to win mechanics are nothing new, such a scheme at this huge scale is unheard of.
- Diablo Immortal, a free to play and primarily mobile game from the Diablo franchise, has been accused of exploiting pay to win practices and being non-transparent with its prices.
- It could possibly be part of a strategy to overprice initially and lower costs later.
- Is it ethical?
- It is unethical
- The game has an important PVP component, meaning the game could be more difficult and less fun to play for those unwilling to invest.
- Transparency is necessary to enable players to make informed financial decisions.
- Minors could easily and perhaps unknowingly spend a lot of their parents money without their consent.
- It is ethical
- Any user could easily choose to play other games instead, so the creators shouldn’t be morally culpable.
- Some may be unhappy, but some would be willing to pay. A game should not necessarily aim to be likeable for everyone.
- It is unethical
- Regulation
- Some countries that ban games using loot box mechanics have banned Diablo Immortal, such as Belgium and the Netherlands.
- Notably, the Norwegian Consumer Council’s report on loot boxes and the free to play business model calling for regulation was backed by organisations from 18 countries. However, most of the propositions made in it are overly vague.
Apex Legends’ Mobile Launch Results
- Context
- Apex Legends, a battle-royale shooter game already available on a variety of platforms, was released as a free to play mobile game a few weeks ago.
- The game saw a strong launch, with 5.5 million downloads in its first week. Now has 10 million downloads and has earned about $6-7 million.
- The game has been modified from the original to suit the mobile medium.
- E.g. it is easier to unlock champions in mobile than the original, shorter game modes have been introduced, the on-boarding difficulty curve is friendlier.
- Apex Legends original business model relied on a select group of players generating a large proportion of revenue, a model incompatible with mobile.
- Comparatively, PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty (COD) Mobile got 11 million and 48 million downloads respectively at launch, dwarfing Apex Legend’s debut.
- However, Apex Legends should be more focused on competing in future downloads instead.
- PUBG and COD mobile each have about 1.5 million downloads a month.
- No cross-play across platforms is being introduced as the mobile version is aimed to bring a new audience demographic to Apex Legends.
- The game’s quality and perhaps success seem assured as its developers, LightSpeed Studios and Respawn Entertainment, also created PUBG Mobile and the COD franchise respectively.
- Electronics Arts (EA), the publisher of Apex Legends, however, has had a mixed record of launching and supporting mobile games.
