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INTEREST: Fate/Grand Order Made an Estimated 9 Billion Yen in September


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DRosencraft



Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 665
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 6:15 pm Reply with quote
What is staggering here is two-fold. First, this is ostensibly a free-to-play game. You are capable of playing, and beating, this game without spending money on it. Yet people do... by a huge amount it would seem. Now, I understand the basic explanations, and the criticisms, but that is still a staggering rate of people spending money on something that could be free to them.

Second, and directly related, is that exact rate. A triple-A title sells for $60 or $70, maybe a collector's edition of around $100. Toss in a few DLCs and you can maybe double or even triple that - so what, a max of $300 pulled in per copy of a AAA title? And that would be a per-unit assumption that says everyone buys the max dollar amount. Based on the monthly revenue numbers here, and what we know about how many people have downloaded this game, that suggests a much, much, greater per-unit sum than that.

Perhaps the time is coming to reconsider what makes a AAA title? And is that a good trend for the gaming industry. I can certainly see that there are a lot more similar mold of games being pushed now. Is this just a widening of the gaming sphere, or is there a depletion of the "higher tier" games for these sort of games that micro-transact away player's money? It's been a trend long in the making. I can only imagine that FGO's success at it will only drive more developers in the same direction.
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Asaaaasd



Joined: 07 Nov 2018
Posts: 48
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 6:55 pm Reply with quote
DRosencraft wrote:
snip

Game devs have been relentlessly trying to break into the gacha market for years, the vast majority fail, since only a pitifully small number can succeed. Also, a game being triple A isn't dictated by how much money it makes, but by how much money it costs to make.
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 7:07 pm Reply with quote
A portion of the financial success would also have to be attributed to the fandom in of itself, without a mass of people authentically believing that "enjoying this series is a GOOD thing" there wouldn't be a group of Whale level spenders in the first place.
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Catsplay



Joined: 24 Sep 2015
Posts: 381
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 9:08 pm Reply with quote
Huge Fate fan here and long time player of F/GO on both the Japanese and English versions of the game so I thought I would write my perspective on it here. While I do understand the criticisms of what is essentially a gambling game in a way something like F/GO doesn't irk me in the same way that Triple A games that cost 60 dollars up front do when they implement microtransactions and gambling aspects. Mobile gacha games like F/GO work for me because it's all optional and you can enjoy the game free unless there's a character you really want and your luck and ingame currency has failed you.

Honestly I'm in love with the Type Moon lore and storylines in the Fate series and F/GO having a constant on-going storyline written by Nasu is the greatest thing I could have asked for as a fan, especially when I can see some of my all time favorite characters get involved in funny and serious storylines (Illya is my favorite and I love I get both the Prisma version of her and the F/SN version through Sitonai). I'm not a whale but I have put in a few hundred dollars over the years into the game and despite some downs I've always been a dedicated player due to how much fun I have playing the game and talking with my friends about it.
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Scion Drake



Joined: 25 Nov 2017
Posts: 941
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 9:16 pm Reply with quote
I stopped playing this game long ago when I went months without getting anything good. The point of these games are getting fun characters so where’s the fun if you can’t get anything? I mean the actual gameplay proper isn’t exactly stellar & the story can update very slowly so you are left with nothing to do but just grind, & grind without much reason.

These gacha games or at least Fate are pure shit. Only a 1% chance of getting the good stuff, I don’t care if the base game is free, that’s way too brutal.

Goes to show ya that no matter what the game, heavy monetizations are just a terrible, terrible thing.
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xaelcry



Joined: 07 Dec 2017
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 9:27 pm Reply with quote
DRosencraft wrote:
What is staggering here is two-fold. First, this is ostensibly a free-to-play game. You are capable of playing, and beating, this game without spending money on it. Yet people do... by a huge amount it would seem. Now, I understand the basic explanations, and the criticisms, but that is still a staggering rate of people spending money on something that could be free to them.

Second, and directly related, is that exact rate. A triple-A title sells for $60 or $70, maybe a collector's edition of around $100. Toss in a few DLCs and you can maybe double or even triple that - so what, a max of $300 pulled in per copy of a AAA title? And that would be a per-unit assumption that says everyone buys the max dollar amount. Based on the monthly revenue numbers here, and what we know about how many people have downloaded this game, that suggests a much, much, greater per-unit sum than that.

Perhaps the time is coming to reconsider what makes a AAA title? And is that a good trend for the gaming industry. I can certainly see that there are a lot more similar mold of games being pushed now. Is this just a widening of the gaming sphere, or is there a depletion of the "higher tier" games for these sort of games that micro-transact away player's money? It's been a trend long in the making. I can only imagine that FGO's success at it will only drive more developers in the same direction.

Gacha game already hated by most of gamers due it being exploitative.

What makes an AAA tittle is their production value and cost not how much money they created because they already had it planned overtime or expected how many copies it'll sell.

Console games and PC games should always stayed away from gacha games and microtransactions unless it is Free.
Even its Free to play ,that doesnt it'll hold long unless its very popular, online games or microtransactions have lifetime unlike single purchase game.
Looking back on some Game you'll be seeing tons of mobile games already closing, and you may not already realised that how many mmos already 1 step away from graveyard and maintaining server also have cost then you should also imagine how many money you need to develop new content with barely any player purchasing the microtransactions.

You're only looking at FGO thats because its Fate Franchise, Similiar to other tittle like Fire Emblem Heroes which is under big Fire Emblem IP.

Now try imagine how many company trying to do the same by releasing new IP every year?
Having staying player is already hard you know.

Single purchase game wont have any of these issues because it provide lots of production value especially known IP or popular one.

If you didn't know Blizzard currently in dipshit after they're trying to release Diablo Immortal in Phone. This basically means more developer trying to follow market trend but it wont work really well overtime and you can even find more abadoned microtransaction game in store.

I am not going to lie, i am not going back to past of MMOs shenanigans , having day 1 DLC alone is already bad for gaming.[/list]
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#854626



Joined: 04 Apr 2016
Posts: 171
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 9:35 pm Reply with quote
Big fan of free to play mmo warframe and have personally spent maybe 100 dollars over the course of a year in it. That's fair enough. That's like a new game every half year. The drop rates in warframe are good enough where you wont have to spend to much time grinding for what you want and If you want something really bad and really fast you can spend some stuff, but I here in fgo literally all the good stuff is like 1%. You basically have to spend money are your always left behind.
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dark_bozu



Joined: 03 Sep 2012
Posts: 208
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 11:31 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
although it's still behind Monster Strike

Well, Monsuta has much more players, so it's not surprise.

Although, I found other information on that topic: https://imgur.com/a/SUZJzwZ#Lnn0KvQ (revenue in 2018 and daily active users). If you look at that statistic you would see that FGO has almost the same revenue as Monsuta, despite it DAU (daily active users) are an quarter of Monsuta playerbase. Which means that FGO generates much more revenue per user than any mobile game in Japan (2333$ per DAU for FGO and 563$ per DAU for Monsuta).

#854626 wrote:
but I here in fgo literally all the good stuff is like 1%. You basically have to spend money are your always left behind.

Nope, that's not like that Laughing.
Trust me, as someone who has tons of golden servants, I'm STILL use bronze servants (that you could summon for free) because game works in a way that you could clear all content without any 5* servant - sometimes bronze servants even more useful than golden ones, because they great in farm. EVEN challenge quests that hard to beat even with gold servants, you could clear with bronze and silver servants, that you could summon for free.

And yeah, you couldn't be "left behind" in single-player game Laughing There's no multiplayer features like online battles/duels between players.
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SpaceDuckMan



Joined: 26 Jan 2018
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 12:06 am Reply with quote
All this money and yet they can't be nice to the playerbase just once to let us have a SSR of our choice, I'm not saying it should be done often, but come on, just letting people have at least ONE SSR they want the most wouldn't damage their bank......
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 12:10 am Reply with quote
dark_bozu wrote:
#854626 wrote:
but I here in fgo literally all the good stuff is like 1%. You basically have to spend money are your always left behind.

Nope, that's not like that Laughing.
Trust me, as someone who has tons of golden servants, I'm STILL use bronze servants (that you could summon for free) because game works in a way that you could clear all content without any 5* servant - sometimes bronze servants even more useful than golden ones, because they great in farm. EVEN challenge quests that hard to beat even with gold servants, you could clear with bronze and silver servants, that you could summon for free.

And yeah, you couldn't be "left behind" in single-player game Laughing There's no multiplayer features like online battles/duels between players.


While I don't really use bronze servants myself, I do agree that lower star servants are still good in terms of gameplay. I still have some silvers on some of my teams myself. And in terms of NP, the 4 star relief servants they give you in the events can actually be better than 5 stars, if only because active players would likely be able to grab all the copies of the relief servant they offer during the event, and max out their NP level, while your 5 star will likely be stuck at the first NP level as you're lucky to get one in the first place, let alone 5, unless you go whaling. In terms of getting that one waifu (or husbando) in the window, yeah, FGO's percentages will be harsh, but the silver or even bronze servants aren't without merit in that regard either (I was pretty excited to get Hassan of Serenity myself, a silver servant).

And on the single player thing, that is actually one of the appeals of FGO for me as compared to other gacha games. There is no pressure to compete with other players, which can be a significant driver for people to put money down on it. Now obviously, they found other ways, but I has been pretty freeing for me, along with the ability to complete the game without the highest rarity servants.
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dark_bozu



Joined: 03 Sep 2012
Posts: 208
PostPosted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 12:34 am Reply with quote
zrnzle500 wrote:


While I don't really use bronze servants myself, I do agree that lower star servants are still good in terms of gameplay. I still have some silvers on some of my teams myself. And in terms of NP, the 4 star relief servants they give you in the events can actually be better than 5 stars, if only because active players would likely be able to grab all the copies of the relief servant they offer during the event, and max out their NP level, while your 5 star will likely be stuck at the first NP level as you're lucky to get one in the first place, let alone 5, unless you go whaling. In terms of getting that one waifu (or husbando) in the window, yeah, FGO's percentages will be harsh, but the silver or even bronze servants aren't without merit in that regard either (I was pretty excited to get Hassan of Serenity myself, a silver servant).

And on the single player thing, that is actually one of the appeals of FGO for me as compared to other gacha games. There is no pressure to compete with other players, which can be a significant driver for people to put money down on it. Now obviously, they found other ways, but I has been pretty freeing for me, along with the ability to complete the game without the highest rarity servants.

Speaking about spending money on FGO - I've played on JPN server almost an year without spending money and decided to pour them because I were convinced that FGO aren't using power-creeps and treats every servant with love - if I would summon my waifu I would be able to use her in all battles and if she would need a strengthening, the devs would make one. E.g., Gilgamesh is still top-tier servant despite being released 3 years ago and Waver is still the awesome support servant.

Speaking about bronze servants - I haven't use them in the beggining but after an year or two I released that this is the best farm team IMHO. And god bless Arash, it still hurts when I remember Camelot events.

zrnzle500 wrote:

In terms of getting that one waifu (or husbando) in the window, yeah, FGO's percentages will be harsh

Yup, but hey - DW makes an 4* wellfares of most popular servants (Jeanne alter, Shuten Douji, Ishtar, Altera, Saber alter, Scathach etc.) that you could get for completing events.
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ThatMoonGuy



Joined: 13 Oct 2017
Posts: 364
PostPosted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 6:38 am Reply with quote
dark_bozu wrote:
Speaking about bronze servants - I haven't use them in the beggining but after an year or two I released that this is the best farm team IMHO. And god bless Arash, it still hurts when I remember Camelot events.


Well, three K-scopes isn't exactly the kind of thing every player has, is it no?
...said the (mostly) f2p guy with eight 5*, nearly thirty 4* (some at NP4) and three K-scopes.

I only ever spent money in FGO (NA) in the last GSSR gacha (which game Cu Alter) and I'm still debating wether I should do it this year or not. On the one hand, that damn game is easily the thing I've played the most in this last year, to the point I even started playing the japanese version, so I feel kinda obliged to contribute a bit. On the other hand, I've been lucky enough to get good SSR Servants in nearly every class and then some (I've got Waver, Illya and Tamamo). And if you count the 4*, I really don't need any servant in any class. Hell, even my very recent, totally f2p JP account has been extremely lucky. What with me getting Tamamo from a Ticket and Arturia from the Abby banner? And that's not counting the 4* I've gotten. Sure, the numbers themselves are low and it's all pure chance but, I dunno. Some are lucky in games, others in love, I guess?

As an aside, while I too love having a serialized Nasu story, I sort of wish he could just write the outlines of the narrative as a creative director so that he could go work on something that's not Fate. Like, I dunno, I heard something about a vampire princess and there's this one rumour about a guy without an arm. Was that just my head?


Last edited by ThatMoonGuy on Sun Nov 18, 2018 6:48 am; edited 1 time in total
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dark_bozu



Joined: 03 Sep 2012
Posts: 208
PostPosted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 6:45 am Reply with quote
ThatMoonGuy wrote:

Well, three K-scopes isn't exactly the kind of thing every player has, is it no?
...said the (mostly) f2p guy with eight 5*, nearly thirty 4* (some at NP4) and three K-scopes.

As an aside, while I too love having a serialized Nasu story, I sort of wish he could just write the outlines of the narrative as a creative director so that he could go work on something that's not Fate. Like, I dunno, I heard something about a vampire princess and there's this one rumour about a guy without an arm. Was that just my head?

1) Welp, it's not like you couldn't beat anything without K-scope - you could exchange them with any NP charge craft essence and the only difference would be is that you would need few more turns to beat the mission.

2) Not to mention rumours about guy with a gun and beautiful angel Smile
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yurihellsing





PostPosted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:27 am Reply with quote
Well I'm about £900 in now been playing over a year and my collection is as follows.
https://youtu.be/QmeEGIy1grc
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Raneth



Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 271
PostPosted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:46 am Reply with quote
Reasons I think gacha games do well:

1. Gambling. Love it or hate it, think its exploitative or not, it's scratching a gambling itch for a lot of people. Rolling for things is fun. The uncertainty introduced into a game can be exciting. And while not getting anything is disappointing, the high from getting that one rare thing can make your day.

2. Constant updates and new features. Unlike a lot of Triple AAA titles, gacha games keep adding new things, usually on the level of one new feature every week or two. For an audience who constantly wants more and more, the gacha model works well.

3. Nothing is ever nerfed. Since people are paying real money for things, developers cannot make those things less effective, only more. (They can, however, release things that powercreep them).

Reasons I think Fate Go in particular does well:

1. Story. The story chapters in the game are novella to novel length, and even the events have story and reasons why you're doing what you're doing. The stories capitalize on the huge roster of characters the Fate universe has.

2. Stamina bars don't let you burn out. The max stamina cap assures that you can do 2-3 runs of things before having to wait. Since the gameplay is more zen than exciting, this lessens burnout. You can use items to get more stamina if you want to grind more, of course.

3. Almost no powercreep. The difficulty in the game has stayed roughly the same, and has not invalidated any cards. The SSR you rolled day 1 is just as useful years later. They want you to use your favorites. The one exception to this (hence the almost) is Merlin, who is obscenely powerful and something the devs said they would not do again.

4. It's supported by a franchise. People know Fate. People have their favorite characters. Enough said, really.
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