One of the biggest booms in mmo gaming, and gaming in general, over the past few years, has been in free to play games. Currently, the European Commission are debating with game developers over whether or not a free to download game, with real money purchasables can truly be classified as free.
Charging for early access has started to become a regular practice in several AAA games, and the gaming community should not tolerate this.
Don’t uh… don’t pay for it then? 🤷♂️ It’s 3 days early, let people who can’t wait pony up to pay for early access. I’d hope people have more control over themselves if they don’t want to pay extra. I personally, do not see an issue with the option. If I’m hyped for a game and they give you early access, I’ll pay. If it’s something I can wait to play on “actual release” I won’t pay extra. It’s as simple as that.
Except your entirely mistaken if you think it's "early access"
Theyre just charging you extra to play it on release. So gullible.
"Theyre just charging you extra to play it on release. So gullible."
Not really.
In some cases, paying for early access will grant you access to play those games at the same time media outlets and reviewers are playing their copies.
Besides, it´s a single player game. It´s not like early access to MP competitive games like Battlefield which EA would grant a full week early access to those willing to pay; which gives a unfair advantage to those gamers and breaks the game´s balance.
It's not early access...it's playing on release...early access is when the game isn't finished and needs a little more time...you also get it months in advance.
Let's not get confused here..
Microsoft has been doing premium edition early access for awhile(Forza and Starfield recently) ...so why is it an issue now when Ubisoft does it?
It can't be the gamepass excuse as Ubisoft has day one subscriptions as well.
I´ve paid for Starfield´s Premium Edition to get early access to the game, plus Shattered Space expansion.
I don´t regret my decision and I mighty pay for it again to get early access to Fable and TESVI.
as long as people are paying for it, it will be a thing unfortunately.
the fear of missing out is ... huge. especially online.
Game industry working conditions are improving, but occupational burnout still runs amok. Studios and workers have the power to slow it down.
The acclaimed open world action RPG is "underperforming" where its sales are concerned, according to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad.
“Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Has Reportedly Sold About Half of What FF7 Remake Did in the Same Timeframe”
Makes sense to me since the current PS5 base is about half of what the PS4 base was when FFVII Remake released.
There were about 113 million PS4’s in consumers hands worldwide in 2020 when FFVII Remake was released (towards the beginning of COVID lockdown no less).
PS5 sales currently sits at about half of that (50-something million. We are not in COVID lockdown so many people are not as bored as they were 4 years ago and not in a rush to buy every video game coming out at release. Some PS4 owners may not have upgraded to PS5 yet and therefore can’t buy the sequel yet. And, of course, some who played Remake just might not be interested in Rebirth.
It just seems pretty disingenuous for an analyst to ‘analyze’ a situation when there are so many mitigating and unequal factors involved.
Yes, this and also finishing part 1 of the Final Fantasy Remake trilogy weighs heavily on it too. There's always a huge percentage of gamers who never finish the games they purchase. It's not always due to lack of enjoyment, but also life priorities etc. But factor that into the knowledge that Rebirth is a straight continuation of the story, and enjoyment lies heavily on having finished the first, you can begin to understand why not as many players jumped in. But absolutely too, the lesser install base of the PS5 played a huge role!
I started the game when it came out, played about 2/3 of the way through and finished the rest in the last month before rebirth came out. There are just too many games and too much adulting to do.
It sold about half... with about half as many PS5s available as PS4 had when it launched in 2020. So... the tie ratio is about the same. As PS5s continue to sale it should eventually match Remake. It's a really good game.
I think there's going to be another wave of buyers that purchase the game once the third part of the trilogy is released, especially if they release it as a bundle.
"Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad said this 🙄"
That guy is director of research & insights at Niko Partners.
https://nikopartners.com/
But he shouldn´t be trusted according to some "trust me bro" N4G random. Smh
Obscure Observer, so by your logic, we should also trust Pachter? Come on, it's like you're not even trying any more.
@Obscure
"We cover China, Chinese Taipei, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam."
Yepp, very trusted and the biggest areas for videogame sales.
@raWfodog You'd think an analyst would catch these facts, but just goes to show what gaming analysts are made of. We've only in the last year moved to PS5 only games, in addition to the install base cross-gen has been around for years. There are a lot of PS4 players still over there. It's amazing when people compare things whilst isolating all the significant facts.
And Rebirth being a direct sequel is also valid: anecdotally, I've just started FF7 Remake a week ago and I'm loving it, on Chapter 8, but I'm obviously not going to buy Rebirth until I complete the story which will take time.
But it's hasn't sold as much the articles om Google stating bit so what if it hasn't the game is still great better than remake which tailed of in middle-of-the- game
Apologists always know what to say... 👍
Is it possible to squeeze in one more excuses for FF7 sales? Go for it!
@TheEroica Understand the meaning of the words you use or don't use them. An apologist argues in defense of something controversial or problematic. Pointing out relevant facts that an analysis or article did not take into account is constructive feedback and discussion. There are great movies, games and other forms of art that don't sell as expected, but later gain financial success.
Example? The Godfather Part 2 underperformed financially compared to its predecessor but is widely hailed as one of the greatest films and sequels of all time and is still influential to this day. And no, I'm not comparing Final Fantasy 7 to the Godfather, before you draw that strawman. There is one loose similarity however in that Rebirth is also overwhelmingly acclaimed and considered superior to the first.
Given the decision to split Final Fantasy VII into three separate games, of which Rebirth released exclusively for PS5 leaving the PS4 install base behind, and the final installment due in 2027, the sales performance is a bit more of a conversation than you're trying to make it out to be.
Didn't even mention price increases across the board for all games...this causes all people to be more picky and limit game purchases
Unfortunate but it's the reality of sequels. And I simply just don't hear much people talk about rebirth and even remake as these titles just seem too hard to get into with many newcomers and old fans that are upset with the many changes.
The games are really good and both acclaimed and Rebirth is even better than Remake with a 90+ metascore but if you don't want to 'hear' the praise... you probably wont.
It's kind of ridiculous how some people here are just making stuff up to explain the low sales. Just because you bought the game and you like it doesn't mean it sold better than it did. Same with FFXVI.
For me its cause now that i know it releases on pc.. id rather play it with mods on my pc than my ps5
well, according to some other reports, it had 2.1 mio. players in the first week.
so, who to believe now.
It's safe to say if it sold that Square would of made a sales milestone announcement like they did with past FF entries or other IPs in general. They did a FF16 sales update within 2 weeks after it launched for instance.
there is no way this game hasnt already sold more than remake.
there doesnt need to be an announcement for everything, especially not if they released several updates amd the ultimania.
people are too obsessed with sales
I think there’s a reason we haven’t seen a celebratory tweet from Square on the sales. It came out on Feb. 29th and it’s Apr. 13th right now… that ain’t a good sign. I think this one can reach 3 mill at some point but will be behind Remake, which when it comes to business, that ain’t good.
Doesn't the European Commission have something better to do? Maybe it's the fact I know very little about what the EC is, but it sounds like they could be doing something better...
Anyway, there really isn't a problem with the term "free to play" as it says what it means. You can play for free, but there are catches, hence why it's not just called free. However, even then we see that people define "free" differently on a fundamental level.
People call PlayStation Plus games "free", probably because it's the simplest way to talk about them, though they're just timed rentals (more or less) that will work for the duration of your subscription or subsequent subscriptions. While some people would not consider these things free, they're still referred to as such.
Another great example is Club Nintendo. On a fundamental level you can't get coins (in any quantity that matters) for free, though many argue that you buy the games and the coins are a bonus like the manual. Many more argue that having to fill out surveys make them closer to a payout program, but in many cases people still argue that you don't need to try on the surveys and the amount of effort is unimportant. In either case, some people define the program as free, where as others look at it as somewhat paid.
Anyway, my point is that there are a lot of ways to look at these things and I don't think Free to Play is entirely misleading.
Pay to win
If it doesn't require any money to play then it's free to play. I don't care about micro transactions since they're optional. I don't have to purchase them if I don't want to. If it requires money to play then it isn't. This isn't that hard to figure out.
Fack is the human race so damn stupid these days that crap like this really needs to be argued?
Free "TO PLAY" key damn words people.
Free to play does not mean free to get everything in the game for free, it means you can log onto and PLAY the game for free, to argue the term free to play is to argue the word play. As for people not knowing they are paying real money for things when they have to put in credit card information before the purchase and ignoring the fact it says the price in big bold facking letters right below the item name, anyone who is retarded enough not to know they are paying money, deserves to be ripped off.
Some pissed off kids need to bash a game doesn't suddenly change the definition of the word play.
As for calling games pay to win, that is equally stupid in MMOs, since there is no "end game" and PVP typically isnt the only function of the game. Even in games where PVP is a big thing, i have been playing Flyff for more than 8 years and have never spent a single penny on anything, prior to v19 i had some of the most powerful characters on the entire Lykan/clockworks server, had a PVP win rate of more than 1000-1 with kills against people twice my level. Pay to nothing, it is all about knowledge and dedication, paying may speed up the character building process a bit, but it doesn't do shat to help you win.
They should make them "Pay to Win" after all its what they are