Why Is EA's Latest Shooter Already Dying?

Sometimes not even just making a good game is enough and developers are beholden to the decisions of their publisher.

[ArchangelMike]

It should have been F2P.

[Tacoboto]

Then maybe people would've heard of it. I didn't know this thing existed. And now that I know it's not F2P... Meh

[sho0ok360]

I tried the game rocket arena and liked it to be honest.. but only issue is can't find any players to play with any more.

I asked for a refund.

I think the free to play model would have worked better for them.

[neomahi]

Should be free to play to compete with other games but EA wants $29.99 for an arena shooter.... Morons.

[Knightofelemia]

Because EA sucks

[Muzikguy]

That was going to be my initial response as well. I'm not turned on to F2P games so that wouldn't have helped for me either

[Godmars290]

because people are - finally - getting tired of shooters?

[SyntheticForm]

I don't see shooters dying anytime soon.

They're competitive and people love them. I also don't think the rest of the world is content to let Fortnite dominate. They all want to make the next big thing, so they'll keep playing the one-upmanship game, forever.

[L7CHAPEL]

agreed.
and I think Apex did a really good job of iterating on it, but at the same time there's only two sides to a coin , eh ?

[CorndogBurglar]

Its not shooters themselves that people are tired of. Its the lack of any innovation and companies following the latest trends. This is an arena shooter, which are a dime a dozen now. Yet Doom did very well. If it was shooters in general then Doom would have gone tits up at launch, but it didn't.

If a game is interesting and genuinely fun to play, then people will play it, regardless of genre.

[SyntheticForm]

Agreed, and by the looks of it this is another safe, cookie-cutter shooter with "colorful characters" joining an already crowded sea of them.

This game does absolutely nothing new - nothing at all.

[L7CHAPEL]

agreed.
right now there are those select few that are making the argument that ghost of tsushima, doesn't do anything significantly different.
and that's sort of the whole point (the one you just made)
it doesn't need to.
if the world characters and function are interesting enough you want to spend as much time in that world
as you can, it's that it's a quality experience that's immersive, that's all it has to be.
and this is coming from an Xbox guy.

[Godmars290]

Think you mean lack of actual, in game, story and corresponding gameplay. That Overwatch has rich world setting that players - and fans - have just run away with to turn it into a practical social sub-genre. That's what everyone else is trying to copy.

[BISHOP-BRASIL]

@SyntheticForm

Not dissing at you at all, but I love the irony of how we went from past gen's "screw all these sepia military games" to now "please not another colorful shooter"... Next gen we'll all be hating on the pretentious monochromatic noir violence simulators!

[Edgelordsupreme]

Doom 2016 sold on the strength of the SP, not the MP and Doom Eternal does not have an arena style mp.

[Mithan]

I think this is partly true, I rarely play them anymore (I am 43) and I used to play them ALL THE TIME. These days I would rather puke. However, I think I am in a tiny minority.

[spicelicka]

The same multiplayer only clone shooters? I hope so. But shooters as a genre? No.

[Knightofelemia]

@Godmars290

I am not sick of shooters I am waiting for a new Resistance for PS5 and a better Killzone for PS5 as well. The reason why this game is tanking is because EA does not understand the word free. They want people to pay for the game and yet still pay for loot boxes and microtransactions. You can follow the Fortnite pattern to a T but where Fortnite is beating this game is that it is free so it attracts people and people will pay for loot boxes and microtransactions for the game. Paying for a Fortnite clone then having people pay for loot boxes and microtransactions tends to point people to the better option which is Fortnite because it's free.

[Masterchief_thegoat]

Ea is nothing but a joke. and love to scam dumb peoples for their money.

[Inverno]

EA has the habbit of putting out unoriginal multiplayer games that die before release due to lack of marketing, and/or post release support or just shaky development.

Remember Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville? Dont blame ya if you don't. Look at how they treated Titanfall 2. Battlefield V died after a year, Apex rode the hype train for as long as it could but its mostly irrelevant now. Anthem? Dead on arrival.

[Edgelordsupreme]

Apex does just fine, whats irrelevant about it?

[Inverno]

Not much buzz around it, attention, EA never gave it much care either. Compared to it's first couple of months no one really talks about it. When EA constantly preaches about multiplayer being the future, yet with the obvious success that Apex became from the get go they've done much of nothing with it. Instead they push out more failures to persue what they actually succeeded in getting with Apex

[Edgelordsupreme]

"No one really talks about it"

Thats an incredibly narrow and anecdotal kind of evidence. I don't know why everyone started thinking that if a game isn't #1 in users playing than its "irrelevant". Apex is doing just fine and Rocket Arena is an EA Partners game, not an internally developed title.

[Inverno]

I'm not saying that it has to be #1, it's popular and it has its fanbase. I'm just saying that EA hasn't really done anything with it despite its success. Rocket Arena may be an EA Partners game but it doesn't excuse all their other failed attempts at shoving GaaS on all their games

[Gamist2dot0]

Because greed before creativity.

[Edgelordsupreme]

This is a partner game not a EA internal games.

[Garethvk]

They did very little hype or marketing on it as well.

[Cmoney007]

It is mediocre crap.

[Asuka]

this is a troll right?

[Killer73nova]

EA had a new shooter? 😂

[XxINFERNUSxX]

Poopy

[L7CHAPEL]

because EA sits on a ton of IP that people would much rather see,
and we're tired of them being deaf dumb and blind to what we their consumer base would like to see.
everyone's tired of this corporate mentality of "we'll sell you what WE want" and the whole approach to they're developing/ publishing being what they think is going to make them the most money, first,
and every other consideration and process is secondary
it shows for the majority of titles they make, how shoddy they are at release, the ridiculous microtransactions...
I could go on and on but I don't have to do I? there isn't anyone here that hasn't experienced that, it's synonymous with being an EA title.
"crap experiences,
it's in the game"

[phoenixwing]

i barely even saw any marketing for this game for one thing. secondly online gamers follow whatever is trending and not much else. sometimes even if an online game is quality it will not fare so well. If they had made a single player game with a good story and gameplay it would be a guarunteed success. however they're all enticed by that fortnite money to not even try anything else

[TheColbertinator]

Doom Eternal already set themselves up as the top dog. Unless EA wants to put in effort, which they don't, their servers for that game will shut down by March.

[Xavi4K]

they have a shooter?...that look like overwatch O.o

[Bismarn]

the answer is right here on N4G. Look at the bottom for related stories. There's a handful of articles about this game sitting at 60 degrees or less. The game isn't already dying, it never lived. How you buy a game you've never heard of?

[yardank]

This article practically has more heat than all of the others combined XD

[iofhua2]

Arena shooters are kind of an overdone fad at the moment. So many clones have gone up for sale in the past few years I think most players just tune them out when they browse a storefront.

Something like rocket league I would just skip over without giving a second thought. Nothing about makes it stand out.

At least with a RPG title I would stop and see if it has a good story or interesting characters. When it comes to arena shooters you walk in knowing there's not going to be a story or any character development at all.

[yardank]

If I were looking for a new arena shooter I’d probably skip rocket league too.

[coolastheycome]

Maybe it should have been on consoles too

[Miraak82]

It is on consoles

[Miraak82]

You'd think where we are technologically that developers would stop making these cartoony ass shooters , most fps this gen have been really disappointing . It's a shame that most of my favorite shooters from last gen like Unreal tournament , Resistance or a proper Killzone never came along this gen . I need my shooters nice and gritty and straight to the point ..... kill , what ever happen to a good ol deathmatch with like 8-16 people and no need for things like grinding for gear like destiny or whatever

[Edgelordsupreme]

"shooters from last gen like Unreal tournament"

Last gen like 1999?

[Miraak82]

Unreal tournament 3 came out in 2007 on ps3 and 360 so technically ya last gen

[Edgelordsupreme]

I know when Unreal Tournament 3 came out it was garbage, it looked like the Gears of War character design dump. The UT test they did with UE4 years ago was a more faithful recreation of UT than UT3 was, theres a reason UT3 had a shelf life of a month.

I guess I find it annoying when someone is such a pedant, that they refer to a game with a different art style as "cartoony". Especially when the constant refrain for years was "yuck all these bland brown video games". There are lots of "gritty" video games, every single one doesn't need to be "gritty".

[SamTheGamer]

Overpriced for a game like this and don’t know how much micro transactions will be hidden inside the game. EA will never learn

[Majors]

We need a new Unreal Tournament.. UT2k4 was awesome and i lost many nights sleep over that.

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

Multiplayer is dying.

[sprinterboy]

Because there is a billion other games just like it, if you dont get the hit, it fails automatically

[Games1st]

Late to the party and not f2p lol

[Miacosa]

There is a tremendous glut of Warzone / Battle Royal / Team Based / Asynchronous multiplayer games that are all basically the same with very minor differences. If you are launching a new one it better be something special. This for example apes the Fortnite / Overwatch cartoony look and is basically an old Quake rocket match. Nothing too overwhelmingly novel that will have a long-lasting impact on players other than a quick two-week tryst before going back to their game of choice where they have already spent many hours with established friend groups.

[Azurite]

Because people haven't heard about the game? I frequent N4G a lot but this is the first time I even notice a mention of it.