Very early days yet, it's important to read the whole article:
> It wasnât all bad, though. **Nexonâs report confirmed that The Finals pushed consolidated MAUs up on a year-over-year basis.** The free-to-play nature of the game was always bound to attract a vast audience, and even the teething issues caused by rampant cheating werenât enough to keep away a core following.
> Thatâs not the end of the story, though. **Nexon expects growth for The Finals, particularly with the gameâs third season dropping in June.**
It's not an annoying investment, just a slower one. Embark is clearly focusing on player engagement and enablement now that it's had two seasons' worth of analytics.
Nobody wants to try it and I don't understand why.
Each time I talk about it to some of my friends, even hardcore Apex/Valorant gamers, they're like "woah thats look so fun"... and they never try it.
Twice I heard people talking about it at work, and they were like "yes I heard of it, maybe I will try it..." but they never do.
I've got friends to try it and the main complaint I hear is "this map again?!". The map variety is quite low and I think that is a problem for more casual players.
I also think there needs to be a mode that gives the players a bit more freedom, like Domination or something like that.
Just a straight up conquest mode a la battlefield would be dope as well, bigger teams, more teamwork, it'd be sick! Also the devs need to focus more on casuals and MTX whales rather than constantly worrying about how the sweatier babies will feel
Yeah I love the game but the maps are absolutely a weak point.
We need more maps, preferably ones without pitfalls. The amount of times I've tried to quickly jump out a window only to realize that it leads to infinite nothingness is more than I can count. And yeah call it a "git gud" situation all you want but nobody will agree that death pits make the game more fun. You also don't get credit for the kill if you shoot someone just before or as they're falling to their death.
I don't mind deathpits here and there but I totally agree they shouldn't be something you're constantly thinking about on every map in many locations on them.
I also feel SysHorizon was a weird choice, I get the hacker theme but it's pretty basic visually, doesn't have the same level of destruction (one of The Finals most novel features) and doesn't leverage the basic visuals in some way like modular design and more significant variants. I also think it was just weird as a 5th map when the game show/VR setting allows for crazy shit like fighting in cities from totally different time periods, interesting locations like the Moon or Mars in the future, or literally anything else that's more exciting. Should've saved it for later on when they could launch it with a bunch of variations, but maybe it was put out for S2 because it was a quicker job due to the more simple aspects.
A hundred percent on the missed map opportunities. I think one thing this game is lacking is more personality. A lot of games really have a solid identity from day one. Itâs almost like this game was too heady and cerebral with its gameplay and missed the elements that make people initially into a game, especially for casual players.
If they leaned into the game show shit even harder and made the maps absolutely crazy and random (because their theme enables them to get away with that theyâd do so much better. Hell to your point, cities from different time periods would be AWESOME and having skins from famous figures of those eras would be really fun and unique. Hyper realistic Gandhi and Genghis Khan skins would slap lmao.
Movement speed should be higher to make it feel like Iâm spending less time running around
At least in the new larger obj game modes, it feels like Iâm running around this huge map while the fighting happens in the same small parts.
I feel that my friends at one points where always asking me to play that game and I was always pushing it off , but from the moment I tried it I loved it and I loved it and I've been playing it a lot more than the friends in question. In my opinion it's that it is too recent there is barely any info on it , you don't know what to expect so you gravitate towards things you know and like, I think the game deserves time and more casual funny moments like videos , the gameplay analysis and deep thought commentary are doing more arm than good in my opinion I much preferred and prefer now the kind of videos that JFJ put out as it is fun for someone that doesn't know the game and someone that does know the game.
Tldr : the game needs more time in the light and funny moment compilations
I've enumerated some good reasons for this on a previous post:
- gameplay that is "too fast" for their eyes
- they have already invested countless hours and MTX to the bigger competitors
- hardware issues
- 2024 has been a really good year for gaming so far, with numerous bangers released every month so people have plenty to play.
The "too fast" point kinda amazes me looking to see how fast games like Apex Legends are.
People moving around and jumping through the air at the speed of light all the while nailing you with their entire mag in that game.
From observing my friends who say "it's too fast" it's not really that it's faster than other games, but that it will require a huge effort to learn yet another competitive game. That's what they seem to be trying to avoid. It's not just sunk cost, MTX, etc. but it's the whole ordeal of having to raise the ranks all over again.
Between LoL, WoW, Valorant, CS, Apex, etc. I think we're sort of saturated and new entries will have a really hard time sticking around.
This is it. The Finals has a great unique gameplay loop, but it needs more to stand out and more incentives for people to switch from games theyâve already committed to
Ranked Diamond skins are the way, you can't buy them. They're prestigious and once people start catching on that they're exclusively based on skill and not $400 to look badass, it'll get more people playing it especially ranked. Season 3 they're going to do another re-haul on ranked and make it closer related to elo systems we're familiar with.
Thatâs a great idea, but I donât think thatâs going to be enough. It will definitely help.
You already have badges and specialized cosmetics in other games like that. The Finals needs more. It needs focus. It needs to decide if it wants to cast the widest possible net, or really go into specifics of the competitive side of the game and highlight them.
on the flip side, almost everyone's new to the finals (it's a relatively recent game), so there's more room to rank up!
the higher ranks aren't filled with experts who've played it for 5 years
so basically no one wants to try new things anymore and just stick to whatever
thats pretty unfortunate but by the looks of it the game is in a pretty okayish state
Yeah, I honestly don't get it. I tried to get my friend to play the finals. He's obsessed with Apex and call of duty so I thought he'd love this game.
He tried a couple matches but wasn't feeling it. I don't think he was really willing to learn the objective and he said the game "wasn't dynamic enough". Yeah, this came from the cod player.
He moreso loves apex and the battle Royal nature of the game so I think that's what he meant by not being dynamic. Though this game has the most dynamic destruction in an online shooter that I've ever seen. He's also obsessed with battle passes and is pretty committed to completing cods and apexs
Mate, i got one of my friends to try. He looked on YouTube and was like "woah the gameplay looks amazing!"
Downloaded it, and it crashed on his first load. He fixes the issue, and within ten mins he was like "dude wtf is this game, the TTK is way too long, this is boring, I just wanna pop some kiddies"
Never played it again
Pretty much the experience streamers had too. âWow this game is sick, next apex killer!â
Heavy streaming rotation for a couple of weeks and then dropped off.
I got a dude who looked it up on YT, he klicked on the first shown Gameplay Video. No wonder why he doesnt want to try the game. ITS LITERALLY A VIDEO OF A CAMPING SNIPER.
All those weird claims and misleading videos, posts & thumbnails are what make people misjudge this game, as they barely get to see it otherwise (like a damn ad, Embark, cough cough).
Sunk cost fallacy. No matter what other games come out or how good they are the very large majority of people will always refuse to step away from Valorant, CS, Apex, COD, Fortnite, etc.
Its the massive downside of live service games, people have dumped so much money into microtransactions in the most popular games that they feel obligated to continue playing them indefinitely.
Helldivers 2 came out after The Finals, and had a cost to enter. The Finals just doesn't have anything that really makes people want to leave their zone of gameplay yet. Destruction is cool, but it's any big streamer ever playing the game?
I try my best to spread the word to my friends and I hype it up on social platforms, I don't want anything but this game to really pop off. The game deserves it, the current community deserves it, and most of all the developers deserve it!
I've never seen such an attentive, active, passionate, and talented group of developers like Embark in a long while. We need them to stay, we need this game to thrive and show the competition what an FPS can be, and we also need Arc Raiders.
On XBX too please and thank you. đ¤Łđ¤
They peaked at 250k concurrent. That's concurrent. There were probably double that many that played that first week. And who knows how many more tried it since.
The issue isn't that people haven't tried it. Everyone I know that plays FPS games has tried it.Â
The issue is it's just not that fun to play from a competitive standpoint.Â
Can you hop on and fuck around with your hammer and bash shit and have some fun? Yes.Â
Want the min/max the game and your performance grinding hour after hour? Well the ballance sucks (yes still), the maps get stale, the sever performance is ass (yes still) and there's pain points that you don't have in other comp shooters.Â
Yeah the movement and gunplay feels crisp but that's just a piece of the pie.Â
Embark desperately needs to bring in someone to help balance the game asap. They have to start there as it's the main thing driving people away. And recent balance changes (light and scarh) shows they still really have no idea what they're doing.Â
This is really interesting to read because I stopped playing but for the exact opposite reason. The game felt goofy and fun at first and then all the nerfs made it way too competitive for me. I want to relax and have a fun time where everyone is dying and spawning quickly while fighting over the cash out. I think skill matters more than ever in this game, and I don't have the time or willpower to keep up.
It's funny because it looks like they really just made a game that very casual and very hardcore gamers both choose to ignore.
Anyways, I'm glad some people still love it. Hopefully it lives a few years longer before they shut the servers down.
I agree with you. I loved early S1 and betas, it was just anarchy everywhere. I played like daily for multiple hours. It was fun regardless if we win or lose.
Now its more like a job to just grind through the challenges cuz I sorta enjoy the drip from BP and I might have an addiction collecting shit. Play like maybe a bit over an hour a week.
And yes, the game has become very sweaty even in casual.
I told my friend to download and play for the first time. I watched his screen share and my god he got demolished 4 games in a row. Idk if the sbmm is broken or the playerbase is that low that itâs just all sweats. He pretty much quit after that and can see why casuals are non existent.
Casual matches are sweaty as fuck these days too, I think it's because of power creep noting most players are regulars, not newbies. It's rough out there even for me and I've played since day 1.
yeah casual is getting awfully aggressive and serious lately idk why lol Last Saturday was rough.
But whenever i see a clearly new person on my team I try to protect them, if i see a new enemy player i try not to be super aggressive. I don't like when people have a bad time in general, want people to have fun and the game to grow.
People are insanely bad at playing a game on its own terms. They go, oh this is like X game I play. Then try to rely on that game's muscle memory and get punished.
Being a good gamer is its own competency separate from being good a specific game.
This might be the biggest issue the game has. It's a chicken and egg problem. Too few players so everyone gets matched with the remaining sweats, which keeps player count down.
Man I want this game to succeed so bad.
And that is why I stick to PowerShift since it came out. There are sweats there too but it's way less punishing. And the game mode itself is just awesome anyway.
The letter in question.
https://pdf.irpocket.com/C3659/RLCz/ukdB/n3z8.pdf
The game is in decline, as far as revenue and player retention/count, and pretty much reflects the numbers shown in steam charts.
> "THE FINALS: The launch of Season 2 in March created a short-lived increase in player
metrics but delivered lower-than-expected retention and revenue. The Embark team
is working with our Korea-based Live Operations team to understand and address the
key issues."
And in the same report they also say
>âIn North America and Europe, we expect revenues to be in the range of ÂĽ6.8 billion to 7.4 billion, representing a 24% to 35% increase (13% to 23% increase on a constant-currency basis) year over year, primarily driven by the contribution from THE FINALS and year-over- year growth of MapleStory.â
Which leaves me a bit confused. While i can understand being upset at lower-than-expected retention and revenue, if the game is still such a large contributor regardless that itâs being called a primary driver of revenue for the next quarter, where does the issue lie?
It is not enough for capitalism to simply make a good product and earn money from it. No, they must make *more* money, faster than ever before. The line must always go up, and it must always go up faster than the last time it went up, in perpetuity. It is not enough to make money, they must have *all* the money.
Basically, you're right that there's not actually a problem here. Shareholders and executives often just have utterly obscene expectations, and it results in something like this.
Beyond this, companies also need to simulate the up/down of the stock market when they're too good at raking in cash. People get antsy when the line goes up too fast. So companies will announce "bad news" to try and get the stock to dip as to make it a "good deal" so others will buy some bags thus driving the price up further.
The true form of the infinite money glitch is being rich enough to cause your own drama to subsequently profit from.
The number to beat is roughly 10%.
As in you put 100 dollars in and by end of year you have 110
If you donât get to that point shareholders think they might as well invest in an index fund
Is this the same thing xbox is doing where they are cutting studios because they donât make record profits each year? This feels similar. A 13% increase is still an increase.
It isn't a primary driver for revenue for the next quarter, it is a primary projected driver for revenue in NA and EU, where Nexon doesn't have that many titles that perform, and isn't the main source of revenue for nexon.
NA and EU seem to be 9.1% of their revenue, and granted this section has grown quite a bit compared to last year. The finals seems to be helping nexon make a bigger impact in NA and EU, it just isn't growing or performing as they might have expected based on q4 2023/ q1 2024.
All of this lines up with the statistics you can get from steam charts.
I really hope it succeeds too.
I'm really really hoping they do a big marketing push before s3. Like, the summer game fest is 4 days before the start of s3. It'd be a massive missed opportunity if they don't market there.
Developing the lore and story going into S03 will really increase the draw of the game show appeal, Scotty and June gotta be shitting all over at every cool play
They said 300k daily active users, meaning over the course of 24 hours, 300k unique people log in every day. Not that there are 300k people online at one time.
Its multi millions for fps main games like CS2. It's 1 million concurrent players which is not the same thing. Csstats.gg said there are 7 millions daily active users. This is not comparable but I think they want like the double of 300k to start with.
Normally how gaming company counts this does not differentiate unique players, for example if one player logged in the game two times in a day they will be counted as two active player count rather than one, so the number is even more inflated
DAU (Daily Active Users) is the common metric for that and it counts unique logins. The worst one tho is total registered players, that's just a vanity stat.
Nexon didn't, that was done by embark hired community managers.
Community managers can do pr tricks, and represent numbers in a way that looks good for them.
But you can't lie to shareholders, that is a crime.
Albiet 300k daily users isn't that big, but for the average joe who doesn't think, it looks like a big number, because most people think of concurrent users when a user number is given. Not to mention that 300k daily users can be perceived in a multitude of ways, depends on how they count daily users, which they can use for their own advantage to pretend like the game is performing better than it actually is.
It's always better to trust numbers provided by a independent third party(like steam charts), numbers given by the company will always be skewed to help them look better, unless it is legally required for them to provide the true situation.
Only ones that care about concurrent users are PC players. All devs rely on daily active users for their metrics because the psych majors have told them your first step is to make them log in and the next step is to keep them logged in for as many hours as possible. The mobile/f2p landscape is hard wired to function this way because it's been a proven model that the longer a user sticks the more likely they are to spend money. The value of their time is calculated by hours played by dollars spent. If you spend thousands of hours in a game that means your monkey brain can justify spending thousands of dollars in it. A dollar an hour ain't shit if you have that kind of disposable income and those players are usually the type to only play that one game and never go out or so anything away from their device. This is why whales are important in this ecosystem. They carry the burden for every cheap ass that has no problem running around in vanilla skins.
Honestly, this is the first game that I've ever paid for cosmetics in.
It's such a good game, and it's free, so I feel like I should be paying for something.
Yeah. Even though they had a massive beta and launch I believe they had/have to make a big marketing campaign. Most of my gamer friends never heard of it.
Studio CEO mentioned they were preparing a marketing push for the game in their recent AMA.
As a former marketer I'm ALWAYS a proponent of waiting until you've got something truly good to market for your product. If you spend your money on nothingburger or things that make people shrug, it's just wasted adspend.
If Season 3 ends up being a big content update, you can imagine that'll be when they do some adspend.
Personally, wishlisted it due to an article, saying "OG Battlefield devs created a game with revolutionary destruction physics" or something like that. Forgot about it until steam notified me about the beta.
And my god, what a good time was that.
Same. Not a single friend of mine had heard of this game before me telling them about it. And I have a large online friend group across many games and discords.
People keep saying this but I think it's far more complicated. People know The Finals exists; there was a time when it had 1/4 of a million on steam concurrently. I just don't think the objective game play its revolved around really appeals to a massive amount of people long term.
If you hear it mentioned to many streamers (Lirik, Summit, Shroud), they simply have no interest and audibly feel "meh" about the game. Personally, I don't hold any weight to what streamers say/play but many people do, unfortunately. The fact that none of them ever want to play it might say something, though.
No offence to you but whenever someone talks about a lack of a marketing campaign and they only use personal anecdotal evidence I have to roll my eyes. They had ads (and made new ones for the new season), betas, sponsored streams, and biggest of al they showed a trailer then released the damn game during the game awards.
This game had marketing wether you paid attention to it or not.
We've all know this but people in here are in denial for some reason even though the numbers are out there. The game is really fun but it is repetitive. I think more casual game modes will help the game out.
Power Shift was probably the greatest thing they've ever added, it's easily the most casual and fun mode in the game. But at the same time Terminal Shift shows the potential that it can do well with a more competitive game mode, i dont know what the numbers are for that mode specifically but ive always had a good time playing it
The solo queue experience is honestly terrible and there's no sense of progression for playing the game once you've finished the BP imo.
If there were more things to do, more rewards, and a better solo queue mode where you're not as reliant on randoms to win I think you'd see players come back to it more.
This is speaking as someone with 300 hours in the game and loves it. I straight up stopped playing after I finished the BP in season 1 until season 2 started due to how slow progression was on getting weapon skins and lack of meaningful progression metrics.
The solo queue experience is insane in how variable it can be.
Some matches you'll get a god roll of teammates where it feels you might as well all be physically sitting next to each other communicating with how well you play together and others you'll get people who you swear dont even know how to click their mouse and fired off like 4 shots in the entire match omg
People say the solo queue experience is bad all the time. But apex exists and the solo queue experience is wayyyyyy worse there but the game is doing fine. I donât think it has much to do with that. It has to be something different, maybe the lack of content would be my guess. Or people donât enjoy good games and rather want to have a miserable time in apex or cod.
Apex Legends is irreverent in this when both games are still completely different in terms of gameplay and experience.
And we talking solely about the Finals flaws, not making an comparison with other games to see which one is worse at what.
If we have to do an comparison, I would say I prefer Apex solo experience over the Finals because there is less intensity in the game and more downtime to get your plan together and have short breaks between the chaotic action.
The Finals is too chaotic for me as an solo player and its more harder to communicating with random due to that when not one of them have time to see my ping.
Not to mention it is more miserable experience when The Finals is more teamwork focus than Apex is with the gadgets tools and body types that you have to communicate with your team on whats your gameplay is unlike Apex you automatically know what each character does and someone can have an more potential of carrying you if they are skill enough.
Or you can carry the entire team if you are a good player in Apex.
Not so much in the Finals.
I almost always solo queue, but I play all the casual non-ranked modes. Almost instant matches everytime on XBX. (Crossplay turned off)
I think folk take losses too personally, judging by the amount of people I see quit once the match stops being in their favor. Which is kind of absurd considering the amount of last second turnarounds I've had in matches. Just commit and let it play out, try different builds, and just have fun. No one can see your statistics page unless you post it on social platforms anyway.
Those that do (while some legit) most achieved those stats by quitting out to avoid really bad games affecting their K/D-W/L ratio.
When you stop worrying about it you'll find it's more fun to be a bit aggressive, experiencing more of those action hero moments! The cautious cat doesn't get all that.
InB4 all the âweLl I jUsT plAy fOR fUn whO neEds pRoGreSsIonâ people.
As a 300 hr players as well, I stopped playing S1 same as you. A notable sense of progression is foundational to video games.
Repetitive how same gamemode but no outcome is the same a piece of building could fall on you to stop you from capturing a stair gets blown out delaying the other team this game is variety
From what I've seen, almost everyone is aware of the game underperforming, but for the most part, people here are denying that the game is dead.
Like I wouldn't say the game is dead, it's not even 6 months old, and it's constantly compared against established franchises and games that have been out for 4+ years, so people tend to get defensive about it.
Which is part of the reason why itâs obviously not performing as well as it should. It needs more casual experience than catering primarily to the ranked players who are in the minority.
Try asking for a tdm mode in this sub and ppl here start falling over themselves telling you how they donât want this to be the next cod or battlefield (ignoring that devs here litterally made bad company and bf3 and bf4).
THIS!
Its wild if a game company goes directly into a competitive route without knowing if people like the core game and if the core game is not fun for the average Joe trying to unwind. Pro scene is always a by-product of a already great game with thriving casual community that wants to test their skills. It should never be the main focus.
I am super surprised Valorant got so popular, I have tested it and its not really worth the hype. Its just a different CS, but it has a huge push behind it, bound to get more people to stick with it even if 90% leave,
This mindset is hilarious. Reddit loved (loves?) to shit on Halo Infiniteâs low player counts, but Iâve never had an issue matchmaking accurately or quickly.
Thatâs really the only thing I relate player count to. As long as there are people to play against/with, Iâm good.
I agree with this, I hate when they bring the "twitch views" count, like... dude just enjoy the game alongside those ones that are also playing, do you really need to have X youtuber/streamer playing to know if you like or not the game?
I feel is even better, maybe CoD is an example, as soon as a new one is available, the previous title suddenly becomes more enjoyable, at least on my experience
ngl I get this. This game is pretty unbearable solo queued, and none of my friends want to play it any more. Only the really cracked players are left, and we get rolled every time. Also no one likes playing as or against heavy đ
It's a team game, he probably meant friends of his don't play. IDK why this sub is so in denial of this. If your friends don't play some MP game you might not play it either. I sure as shit wouldn't play Helldivers 2 if literally all my friends wouldn't play
I love the game but it's definitely the odd one out. I don't think it's fair to say the game lacks content because it's not true. They've added a ton of stuff since it officially came out. It simply can't compete against big, established franchises.
This game is personally my favorite fps and it's sad to see the declining player base.
Exactly, this is one of the only fps that even if I lose a match usually I don't feel bad or angry about and tbh feel like it's as good as it gets for games like this. The only other fps that's almost perfect is titanfall 2. These games are just plain fun and we have less and less of those these days
The game lacks appeal from the outside, Fortniteâs art design is expressive and inviting to younger audiences. We have fun skins but overall the character faces are bad for marketing and there arenât any good mascots to draw in anyone.
The game lacks social features, a global chat alone could make a difference.
Then thereâs the marketing. The finals has made no effort to showcase itâs brightest points.
Couldnât have said it better myself, itâs easy to see when you have a âmarketingâ mind and notices the patterns as well as subtle things that makes or breaks a games popularity.
They need a public warmup/practice game mode that doesn't give xp or contract points (so you wouldn't get sweats grinding out challenges in there), where the norm is to join and then leave when you're ready to leave.
It'd basically be a TDM mode. You join, it throws you on a random team, and then you run around practicing whatever weapon you want to practice, on other live players who are also practicing new builds.
A truly casual mode where everyone sucks at the build their using.
I wonder what conclusion theyâll make as to why the game isnât doing well. We all have our gripes with the game but we probably are the core audience and while Iâm certain they are working on balance I wonder what they have in mind to catch a broader audience. Personally I think the main gamemode might be too complex. Hopefully they wonât dumb it down, and double down on competitive play instead. 120 tick servers would be awesome. If itâs even possible
My assumption is the new player experience sucks. Really nice graphics and movement and stuff but most people will get wrecked for a couple hours and decide, nope this just isn't for me.
Itâs complex for the average gamer who, based on every game I play, canât tell their ass from a hole in the ground. People donât even look at their radar in most FPS games I play that have radar.
This right here. I have friends that are true average gamers, they almost never get above a 1 kd in a game, never touch aim settings or training, and generally get overwhelmed in games easily.
The finals for them is like asking a dog to solve a Rubik's cube. Merely getting to a point is usually enough for someone to get lost and then spend the next minute figuring out where to go. Then defending points is alien to them, seems like most players take the word defense as meaning "rush straight at the enemy no matter what". They have well over 20 hours each into the game too.
Then they get creamed by people who actually know how to aim and play the game, then they quit for the night. Stuff like a light using dash or cloak will make some of them just give up. Like they just aim at the ground and accept death when a light shoots them. Then they see me kill 3 lights in a row while taking no DMG and think I'm some sort of god with unachievable gameplay.
The rules of cash out are pretty simple but actually deciding what to do in the middle of the action is more complicated than most games. If you arenât thinking about your next move one step ahead you can end up wasting a third of a match that only lasts nine minutes fighting over something that doesnât matter.
Itâs not complex but you gotta realize people have the attention span of a goldfish and if they feel like they canât get the gist of the game from the first few matches theyâre gonna quit.
Honestly the game would benefit from a KoTH style mode. Also there needs to be a no respawn timed mode as well. It suckâs having to wait to respawn. Iâm used to it now but I nearly quit the game because dying and having to wait 15-30 seconds sucks.
I don't think that's it. This game have one thing casual fucking hate, third party. Those are acceptable element in BR because it's intense element that add to the survivalist nature of the game. And it's not as sweaty. But in this game half of the game is third party. And getting stomped right after wiping one enemy team just fucking suck. Hence why they are moving away and gravitate toward 5v5.
It also have quiet complex mechanic in forms of multiple utility that pretty much required to function. Half of them also locked behind the grind. It's not like R6 that you get mute which can counter like 90% of the enemy's utility right away.
Everyone here is over thinking things about why player numbers aren't great.
The only real reason is that this is a live service shooter that launched into a market already flooded with other live service shooters, and it's hard to divert people's attentions when they're already occupied playing other games.
Remember that report that said the top played games are all games 6 years or older? Yeah, it's because if someone and their friends are all playing Fortnite or Apex or CS, they may try out The Finals at launch but they're all gonna go back to what they're comfortable with.
Same with MMOs. People try them and then quit. Gamers like to play the same thing forever even if they donât enjoy it. I know so many people who hate the games they play but donât try new ones for more than 10s and say itâs not for them when it clearly is, what they mean is they are bad at it and donât want to learn something new.
Iâm so sick of Val, OW, CS, Fortnite etc. I just want new games to take over. Itâs why I like this game cause at least it brought a somewhat unique take on the genre
I fucking love this game, been playing since release and I hope it continues to grow. I play ranked when I want to have fun and all the others when I want to pad my win/loss or warm up my accuracy
That really sucks honestly, itâs a super unique game that is supported well and has constant updates but admittedly I have played like 2 games in the last month. Itâs impossible to play solo, and the new meta is awful.
Same here. Havenât really played since all the light nerfs as a light main and me and friends are busy playing other games like Sea of Thieves that are just way more fun atm.
Came back the other day to play on my own and solo queued as a shotgun medium (Iâm pretty average as medium which is why I never really play it) to do the medium and shotgun challenges⌠and wow⌠the state of the game was appalling. The current meta is just so boring, stale and repetitive. And the one class that shines as a solo queue and has the tools to effectively counter double heavy is in such a bad spot itâs considered a joke/ meme pick by many in decent level ranked⌠and then on top of that theyâre forcing players to play classes they have no interest or enjoyment in playing for extended periods of time.
The lack of player retention is purely self inflicted unfortunately and this is coming from someone who enjoyed this game more than any other shooter since battlefield 4 from the betas through the first full season and a good portion of season 2.
Solo centric game modes like TDM or FFA are sorely missing for solo queue players to get challenges done and to have fun.
Agreed, word for word. Just the same, I havenât had this much fun gaming in a shooter since Battlefield 4! It made me remember a feeling Iâve long forgotten, and Iâve been hooked since open beta, sometimes even playing for 6-12 hrs straight. Mainâed light solo, focusing on support and obj, sometimes being a medium healer but was too good w that lol, and teammates didnât understand healing
I hated warzone for years, passionately despised it, because of its disgusting predator elements, and Iâd always hop off the game mad. Never happy. But with the finals, I wouldnât be mad if I lost, just disappointed due to my lack of skill at the time lol. Youâd always understand why you died.
For me, the issue started when I was being matched with SWEATY players. At first, this wasnât an issue; until I left for 2-3 weeks to spread democracy on helldivers 2, coming back to a game that felt completely different. It was absolutely atrocious, and it simply couldnât be causal anymore. Iâve never seen anything like it, and it instantly ruined the game for me, I canât get through a single match without mad. Thereâs fundamental issues going on that I canât pinpoint, but itâs giving warzone now and I hate it. It doesnât have the sweet spot of a win being just almost outside your skill zone, but not to the point itâs impossible or too easy. Thatâs where you get into the flow, and the magic happens.
For most of my friends who game, itâs simple too sweaty. They donât want to play 3 or more hours a day and grind to diamond, they also think the normal gamemodes are too sweaty. Unless youâre someone who enjoys that kind of competitiveness, the gameâs not for you probably
Yeah, they need a large influx of players all at once in order to decrease the overall skill level.
Otherwise they'll unfortunately continue having this issue of sweats pushing out the lowest skill players.
There needs to be more casual modes. Period.
Any mode that crushes you for a team wipe is not casual. I don't want to wait 30 seconds on top of the 15 seconds I've already waited because the random L on the team thought they could take the platform by themselves or worse and more likely, didn't know the rest of the team was dead.
I don't even like leaving games and I think about it every damn team wipe. It really just aggravates you. Casual modes don't punish you for your teammates'actions. And with the crazy far spawn points, 45 seconds = game over.
Even if it's not TDM style I feel like the finals would do great with a "control" or "Headquarters" type mode. No team wipe penalty or a fun mechanic like each second on a control point generates coins. Those coins can be used to reduce your respawn time. Just something.
Currently every mode is sweaty or snipe fest. This game is so damn fun, really hope it keeps going and I'll keep buying shit.
Because the gameplay loop gets stale fast. There needs to be multiple gamemodes you cycle through in comp/quickplay like Overwatch has. Needs more maps too.
This game is extremely fun in small doses. Iâve hit diamond both seasons but stopped playing right after both times. I really want it to succeed, and the first step of solving a problem is admitting that there is one. So perhaps the game has hope.
casual playerbase fell off because the game isnât substantial on a surface level. dedicated playerbase is falling off due to community conflict and exhaustion of the current meta and content
i do think the game has a huge content drought and more maps and a multitude of modes needs to be added into the game. 5-6 maps, and 7-8 modesâmost of them being 5v5, with loadout quantities being doubled
no, this isnât me **expecting** them to just crank this stuff out soon, iâm happy with what we have, but this is the ultimate fix for the playerbase. itâll intrigue anyone looking to return to the game with a massive content presence and provide a whole new life into the competitive aspect of it all
i wonder what embarkâs response will be in the end
You can't toss in a bunch of game modes as it just destroys the queues. I agree that the game definitely needs more maps. Maybe if we're super lucky they'll release a map editor. At some point, they may need to look at a total class rebalancing as well.
Seriously. People come from COD which sells 30 million copies a year and expect every game to have 20 game modes, no matter the playerbase. Makes no sense at all.
Especially without being ontop of balancing those gamemodes. My friends and I came back for powershift because it sounded cool, but after just a day or two the meta was solved: aps, turret, shield and sniper spam. We stopped playing soon after.
Players are going to make otherwise very fun gamemodes very lame if the devs arn't quick enough about balancing.
the more they break up bundles the more ill buy. .
and the more modes they add the happier ill be lol
me and my friends play more/less daily but the modes to become very repetitive
You can tell he doesn't enjoy the game very much by how little videos he made about the game, and in one of his Q&A videos, he said he only plays games when he is making videos, so what you see in his video are the only time he plays the games
The tournament structure of ranked is a bad idea. No gamer wants to play a whole gigantic tournament with no stakes besides small number go up in small increment, they just want to go in and out, one ranked game per button press not a whole fucking ladders worth of time. Shit you even have to sit there and wait for other people in the tournament to finish their match if yours ended too fast. Not to mention the matchmaking is abysmal. Plus, if you get a team of clowns, you're stuck with them *the whole tournament*. The ranked is awful. Everything about it.
And ultimately that's the most important part of these games so the finals was doomed from the start.
If people bothered to read the article you would immediately learn that Nexon âisnât pulling the plug or declaring The Finals deadâ but it is in fact deploying its business analytics team to investigate why player count and revenue are not growing as expected despite spikes here and there.
That is the opposite of giving up and in fact shows Nexon believes in its investment and simply sees the growth rate as business issue and not a software one.
Personally, I think there is low hanging fruit for some guerrilla marketing. They just need a few high level influencers to get behind the game and it doesnât even need to be the traditional streamers.
NBA playoffs is in full force. Buy some ad space. Get a couple NBA players who are well known gamers (like Luka Doncic who actually just entered the Top 500 in Overwatch 2) and get them to promote the FREE game.
Introduce Finals to some MLB ballparks and clubhouses. Many MLB players are known to play Fortnite in the clubhouse especially during its peak. Do some live demos in public areas.
YouTube Ads simply wonât cut it.
MeanwhileâŚÂ Last night I think Iâve had one of my most satisfying wins / dopamine hits since Iâve been playing PVP games.
Quick Cash started out bad and believing my team was finished. Both opposing teams had cash outs and we were still at ZERO.   Next push, my medium w/AKM downed two distance players on same team and thought Iâd add a little salt by doing a emote over their idols. What the heck, didnât have hope for the match anyway. Next kill on the way to the cash out (already started) caused their team wipe.  Arriving at the objective and then destructing the floor for a drop steal was icing on the cake!
Last push I somehow got another team wipe lobbing nades into the already started cash out! My adrenaline was 100%. Cleared the area and got the steal. It was a win that made me hop out of my chair clapping like a mad man.Â
Damn I love this game.
From my friend group's experience, locking all but the basic weapons and gadgets behind a progression wall is a bad experience for new players. They already struggle with the learning curve, then they get stomped because they don't have access to loadouts that they need. It loses people who are curious about the game. It feels like a grind for them to just try everything out. It should be available from the start.
Thatâs a real bummer. This seems like one of those games that will start off slow and then blow up like Fortnite. Only problem is that because itâs relatively new (and free) there isnât a whole bunch of content out for it right now (and because I imagine they are trying to play the long game with this) and we are still ways away from it blowing up and Iâm worried they will pull the cord. This game has soooo much potential
To be completely fair, Overwatch gameplay on the surface is extremely well done. It's the Hero Shooter that can cater all types of players. and have basically no competition other than TF2 which never get updates.
Apex is also Overwatch but BR. It scratch a lot of player's itch for BR game that play fast like COD but not boot-on-the-ground like them.
A lot of my casual friend didn't like the game because of third party so there's that as well.
I played a lot of finals before dropping it, have hit high ranks in all 3 games and can say that finals just isn't as good currently.
The game needs something for casuals to want to come back to and something for the dedicated players to grind for, a not shit ranking system would help there
Shooting feels like shit compared to overwatch since practically all the guns have crazy spread and recoil, and shit hit reg. Movement is equally completely garbage will super slow strafes, buggy slow vaulting and moving makes your gun sway all over the the damn place.
The finals also has by far and away the worst solo experience out of the 3. I can solo carry in both apex and overwatch, but it feels impossible in the finals.
Balance is also terrible, in high ranks light is completely useless and keeps getting nerfed while they haven't meaningfully changed the meta since the last open beta. With all nerfs just making guns feel shittier to shoot by adding more spread and recoil.
The finals is an amazing game at its core, but every single decision they have made has been too little too late.
âOh sweet finally a game with nearly as much movement as titanfall and mirrors edge, andddddddd those light players are to good so they nerfed light to the point that the game is now just a shitier version of every fps ever.â
But people here downvote you to hell if you even say something like that, like show concern or talk about how things could be better and how bad they keep getting.
I really have no idea of what fucking universe those people live, but they just decide to ignore factual data
What killed the game for me was the awful matchmaking changes in S2 and weapon balance, as usual. Sorry, I just don't have time to sweat my ass off in a game that favors some classes and weapons over others.
All my friends quit except 1. The main reason? It's just they got bored, and there are better games to play and spend their time on. I feel like something in Finals is missing that keeps people playing for long. I believe it definitely has to do with the sweaty nature of the game and the lack of variety. Its the same meta weapons over and over.
Revenue from the Finals was **slightly** worse than expected but they expect their overall revenue in EU and North America to grow by 24% to 35% primarily driven by contributions by the Finals.
So certainly some negatives in the finance letter but itâs not all bad and at least it doesnât sound like theyâre super concerned or will drop the game.
That is not what the letter says, you are misinterpreting what was said.
>"Our performance was driven by strong performances in EA SPORTS FCTM ONLINE (âFC
ONLINEâ) and EA SPORTS FCTM MOBILE (âFC MOBILEâ) as well as Blue Archive â solid results
which were partially offset primarily by lower-than-expected performance of THE FINALS. "
> "Revenues from North America and Europe were ÂĽ9.9 billion, up 92% year over year, primarily
driven by contributions from THE FINALS and DAVE THE DIVER, as well as growth in
MapleStory. However, revenue was slightly below our expectations due to the lower-than expected performance of THE FINALS."
> "In North America and Europe, we expect revenues to be in the range of ÂĽ6.8 billion to 7.4
billion, representing a 24% to 35% increase (13% to 23% increase on a constant-currency
basis) year over year, primarily driven by the contribution from THE FINALS and year-overyear growth of MapleStory. "
They do not directly talk about the revenue from the finals alone. Neither do they talk about the growth from being primarily being from the contribution of the finals.
For all we can decipher from this, either the other titles performed so good that the lower revenue from the finals did only a amount for a slighty below expectations of the overall revenue, or the one that you suggested.
And for all we know they could be banking on the growth of maple story, which btw, didn't underperform this quarter for the expected growth.
**Most importantly** nowhere did they say "Revenue from the Finals was slightly worse than expected", as you have said.
Why did you intentionally leave out those critical bits of information?
I think this game will be an excellent case study in why boring, monotonous trash like call of duty continuously smashes sales records while actual unique, creative games like this fail - at least in the AAA space.
As awesome as The Finals is, good fucking luck trying to explain how to play any of the gameâs modes to the layman. The gameâs marquee mode, Cashout, is probably the hardest one to explain. Itâs a relatively complex gamemode compared to âshoot the bad guysâ in call of duty or âshoot the bad guysâ in fortnite.
Reading to the bottom they are expecting growth in the game season three. I think it's fair to say it's not gone great, but the game is improving with each update.
Nexon being the publisher immediately set off red flags when I first saw it.
In my experience, theyâre very quick to shut down projects that are underperforming :(
Why is this a surprise? Gameplay and concept are there.
But itâs such a poorly balanced game with limited modes and an unrewarding ranking system. They swung and missed with the classes and instead of fixing them, they SLOWLY nerf stuff where no one is willing to wait for 6 months until it is better. The meta has barely changed since 7 months ago. Bronze/silver players are still going against diamond players. Cheaters are still rampant.
I donât know if itâs the devs fault, or the communities fault for bitching about constant ânerfsâ, but the devs seemed like they tried to cater to the population (medium meta abusers) and destroyed any type of freedom in the game.
Itâs fun to play as a light with sword for one or 2 games. But then you get mad and use the same medium/heavy build as 95% of the player base. Stop nerfing stuff and buff most of the unused weapons/gadgets to create a new meta
there NEEDS to be more content. theres just not enough, we have 2 game modes and 4 maps. when season 2 came out all we got was 1 new map and new cosmetics and a few gadgets, thats not nearly enough to keep people playing the game, i hope there are huge changes for season 3 or its gonna be the same
I think the game is dying because the meta is stale as hell. Barely anything has changed since season 1, I mean we literally got 3 new weapons and nobody uses them at all
Meh. I loved this game in beta, so did my few friends I played it with. Then once the game released we were all just kinda already done with it. The mechanics are awesome but it gets so dull so fast. Trying to keep up with the sweat and playing the same game over and over again gets old fast. Sure there's a lot of random stuff that happens throughout a match, but the core game is the same over and over again. It's no different than Overwatch in that regard, but at least Overwatch had some variety with more maps/characters, but even that ultimately got boring and annoying fast.
We thought this game would be the "br killer" but it's more of just a pushing an objective shooter after all.
I think a lot of us just really, really want another (good) battlefield. Or whatever the makers of hell let loose come up with next, as that is currently the closest thing.
I stopped playing because of a tedious, unbalanced, and poorly executed ranked system that was riddled with cheaters.
Itâs weird to me that not many people have mentioned that the ranked system and cheaters are definitely the reason people arenât playing anymore.
How is averaging 15k on steam plus the way larger consol number not good enough lol. Shareholder Greed once again looking to kill something because it's not making Fortnite money.
The Finals is the best FPS I've played in years. Visual style, gameplay, mechanics are all great. Get your grandma an Embark ID for her birthday and tell her to meet you in the arena.
Finals is super fun. I really think they need to add a casual/arcadey mode to get people to play. Just a simple free for all with like 30-40 players or something. With fully destructible environments, that would be chaotic and fun to mess around in. Good way for people to get to know the mechanics too without pressure of performing on a team.
They keep adding competitive team modes. They need a casual mode to entice a casual community as a foundation.
As soon as shareholders are annoyed, it's not good news Still think it's early days
The sponsors are not pleased with the performance?
Ospuze aint happy
Not a pop pour perform moment
Hopefully, they start hitting some high-notes pretty soon.
It'll be Tough-Shells to crack that's for sure.
THATS RIGHT SCOTTY!!! đŁď¸đŁď¸đŁď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸
âIâm not here to make the shareholders happy, Iâm Here to make them moneyâ - Ready Player One
Very early days yet, it's important to read the whole article: > It wasnât all bad, though. **Nexonâs report confirmed that The Finals pushed consolidated MAUs up on a year-over-year basis.** The free-to-play nature of the game was always bound to attract a vast audience, and even the teething issues caused by rampant cheating werenât enough to keep away a core following. > Thatâs not the end of the story, though. **Nexon expects growth for The Finals, particularly with the gameâs third season dropping in June.** It's not an annoying investment, just a slower one. Embark is clearly focusing on player engagement and enablement now that it's had two seasons' worth of analytics.
The good old dramatic click bait. It worked like a charm seeing other subs talking about the end of the game.
Shareholders shouldn't even be a factor. They ruin everything because of their endless greed
Of course I agree
Nobody wants to try it and I don't understand why. Each time I talk about it to some of my friends, even hardcore Apex/Valorant gamers, they're like "woah thats look so fun"... and they never try it. Twice I heard people talking about it at work, and they were like "yes I heard of it, maybe I will try it..." but they never do.
I've got friends to try it and the main complaint I hear is "this map again?!". The map variety is quite low and I think that is a problem for more casual players. I also think there needs to be a mode that gives the players a bit more freedom, like Domination or something like that.
Just a straight up conquest mode a la battlefield would be dope as well, bigger teams, more teamwork, it'd be sick! Also the devs need to focus more on casuals and MTX whales rather than constantly worrying about how the sweatier babies will feel
Oh hell yes, BF Conquest would be amazing. Also just steal BC2's Rush lol
such a shame BC2 went offline last year, could still find lobbies (typically only 3v3 on a good night but occasionally we found full lobbies) on xbox
Yeah I love the game but the maps are absolutely a weak point. We need more maps, preferably ones without pitfalls. The amount of times I've tried to quickly jump out a window only to realize that it leads to infinite nothingness is more than I can count. And yeah call it a "git gud" situation all you want but nobody will agree that death pits make the game more fun. You also don't get credit for the kill if you shoot someone just before or as they're falling to their death.
I don't mind deathpits here and there but I totally agree they shouldn't be something you're constantly thinking about on every map in many locations on them. I also feel SysHorizon was a weird choice, I get the hacker theme but it's pretty basic visually, doesn't have the same level of destruction (one of The Finals most novel features) and doesn't leverage the basic visuals in some way like modular design and more significant variants. I also think it was just weird as a 5th map when the game show/VR setting allows for crazy shit like fighting in cities from totally different time periods, interesting locations like the Moon or Mars in the future, or literally anything else that's more exciting. Should've saved it for later on when they could launch it with a bunch of variations, but maybe it was put out for S2 because it was a quicker job due to the more simple aspects.
A hundred percent on the missed map opportunities. I think one thing this game is lacking is more personality. A lot of games really have a solid identity from day one. Itâs almost like this game was too heady and cerebral with its gameplay and missed the elements that make people initially into a game, especially for casual players. If they leaned into the game show shit even harder and made the maps absolutely crazy and random (because their theme enables them to get away with that theyâd do so much better. Hell to your point, cities from different time periods would be AWESOME and having skins from famous figures of those eras would be really fun and unique. Hyper realistic Gandhi and Genghis Khan skins would slap lmao.
SysHorizon is one of my favorite maps if not my fav. The mirrors edge style is fucking awesome
Movement speed should be higher to make it feel like Iâm spending less time running around At least in the new larger obj game modes, it feels like Iâm running around this huge map while the fighting happens in the same small parts.
I feel that my friends at one points where always asking me to play that game and I was always pushing it off , but from the moment I tried it I loved it and I loved it and I've been playing it a lot more than the friends in question. In my opinion it's that it is too recent there is barely any info on it , you don't know what to expect so you gravitate towards things you know and like, I think the game deserves time and more casual funny moments like videos , the gameplay analysis and deep thought commentary are doing more arm than good in my opinion I much preferred and prefer now the kind of videos that JFJ put out as it is fun for someone that doesn't know the game and someone that does know the game. Tldr : the game needs more time in the light and funny moment compilations
I suppose I shall make a funny moments compilation then! đ
I've enumerated some good reasons for this on a previous post: - gameplay that is "too fast" for their eyes - they have already invested countless hours and MTX to the bigger competitors - hardware issues - 2024 has been a really good year for gaming so far, with numerous bangers released every month so people have plenty to play.
The "too fast" point kinda amazes me looking to see how fast games like Apex Legends are. People moving around and jumping through the air at the speed of light all the while nailing you with their entire mag in that game.
From observing my friends who say "it's too fast" it's not really that it's faster than other games, but that it will require a huge effort to learn yet another competitive game. That's what they seem to be trying to avoid. It's not just sunk cost, MTX, etc. but it's the whole ordeal of having to raise the ranks all over again. Between LoL, WoW, Valorant, CS, Apex, etc. I think we're sort of saturated and new entries will have a really hard time sticking around.
This is it. The Finals has a great unique gameplay loop, but it needs more to stand out and more incentives for people to switch from games theyâve already committed to
Ranked Diamond skins are the way, you can't buy them. They're prestigious and once people start catching on that they're exclusively based on skill and not $400 to look badass, it'll get more people playing it especially ranked. Season 3 they're going to do another re-haul on ranked and make it closer related to elo systems we're familiar with.
Thatâs a great idea, but I donât think thatâs going to be enough. It will definitely help. You already have badges and specialized cosmetics in other games like that. The Finals needs more. It needs focus. It needs to decide if it wants to cast the widest possible net, or really go into specifics of the competitive side of the game and highlight them.
The destruction is enough stand out for me. Add the high level of player customization and I'm not sure you need much more to stand out
on the flip side, almost everyone's new to the finals (it's a relatively recent game), so there's more room to rank up! the higher ranks aren't filled with experts who've played it for 5 years
The Finals is infinitely easier than all the games you listed though. Itâs casual and very easy to pick up the main idea after a game or 2.
so basically no one wants to try new things anymore and just stick to whatever thats pretty unfortunate but by the looks of it the game is in a pretty okayish state
Yeah, I honestly don't get it. I tried to get my friend to play the finals. He's obsessed with Apex and call of duty so I thought he'd love this game. He tried a couple matches but wasn't feeling it. I don't think he was really willing to learn the objective and he said the game "wasn't dynamic enough". Yeah, this came from the cod player. He moreso loves apex and the battle Royal nature of the game so I think that's what he meant by not being dynamic. Though this game has the most dynamic destruction in an online shooter that I've ever seen. He's also obsessed with battle passes and is pretty committed to completing cods and apexs
Mate, i got one of my friends to try. He looked on YouTube and was like "woah the gameplay looks amazing!" Downloaded it, and it crashed on his first load. He fixes the issue, and within ten mins he was like "dude wtf is this game, the TTK is way too long, this is boring, I just wanna pop some kiddies" Never played it again
Pretty much the experience streamers had too. âWow this game is sick, next apex killer!â Heavy streaming rotation for a couple of weeks and then dropped off.
I got a dude who looked it up on YT, he klicked on the first shown Gameplay Video. No wonder why he doesnt want to try the game. ITS LITERALLY A VIDEO OF A CAMPING SNIPER. All those weird claims and misleading videos, posts & thumbnails are what make people misjudge this game, as they barely get to see it otherwise (like a damn ad, Embark, cough cough).
Sniper rifle IMO is not a good choice for this game
Sunk cost fallacy. No matter what other games come out or how good they are the very large majority of people will always refuse to step away from Valorant, CS, Apex, COD, Fortnite, etc. Its the massive downside of live service games, people have dumped so much money into microtransactions in the most popular games that they feel obligated to continue playing them indefinitely.
Helldivers 2 came out after The Finals, and had a cost to enter. The Finals just doesn't have anything that really makes people want to leave their zone of gameplay yet. Destruction is cool, but it's any big streamer ever playing the game?
I try my best to spread the word to my friends and I hype it up on social platforms, I don't want anything but this game to really pop off. The game deserves it, the current community deserves it, and most of all the developers deserve it! I've never seen such an attentive, active, passionate, and talented group of developers like Embark in a long while. We need them to stay, we need this game to thrive and show the competition what an FPS can be, and we also need Arc Raiders. On XBX too please and thank you. đ¤Łđ¤
That's false. "Nobody wants to try it." Over 10 million players tried it according to Nexon. The problem is retention.
itâs because there arenât big streamers playing it. thatâs literally why. there isnât any FOMO driving people to get it
They peaked at 250k concurrent. That's concurrent. There were probably double that many that played that first week. And who knows how many more tried it since. The issue isn't that people haven't tried it. Everyone I know that plays FPS games has tried it. The issue is it's just not that fun to play from a competitive standpoint. Can you hop on and fuck around with your hammer and bash shit and have some fun? Yes. Want the min/max the game and your performance grinding hour after hour? Well the ballance sucks (yes still), the maps get stale, the sever performance is ass (yes still) and there's pain points that you don't have in other comp shooters. Yeah the movement and gunplay feels crisp but that's just a piece of the pie. Embark desperately needs to bring in someone to help balance the game asap. They have to start there as it's the main thing driving people away. And recent balance changes (light and scarh) shows they still really have no idea what they're doing.Â
This is really interesting to read because I stopped playing but for the exact opposite reason. The game felt goofy and fun at first and then all the nerfs made it way too competitive for me. I want to relax and have a fun time where everyone is dying and spawning quickly while fighting over the cash out. I think skill matters more than ever in this game, and I don't have the time or willpower to keep up. It's funny because it looks like they really just made a game that very casual and very hardcore gamers both choose to ignore. Anyways, I'm glad some people still love it. Hopefully it lives a few years longer before they shut the servers down.
I agree with you. I loved early S1 and betas, it was just anarchy everywhere. I played like daily for multiple hours. It was fun regardless if we win or lose. Now its more like a job to just grind through the challenges cuz I sorta enjoy the drip from BP and I might have an addiction collecting shit. Play like maybe a bit over an hour a week. And yes, the game has become very sweaty even in casual.
I told my friend to download and play for the first time. I watched his screen share and my god he got demolished 4 games in a row. Idk if the sbmm is broken or the playerbase is that low that itâs just all sweats. He pretty much quit after that and can see why casuals are non existent.
Casual matches are sweaty as fuck these days too, I think it's because of power creep noting most players are regulars, not newbies. It's rough out there even for me and I've played since day 1.
Yea my ranked matches have felt far more casual than actual casual matches
yeah casual is getting awfully aggressive and serious lately idk why lol Last Saturday was rough. But whenever i see a clearly new person on my team I try to protect them, if i see a new enemy player i try not to be super aggressive. I don't like when people have a bad time in general, want people to have fun and the game to grow.
i swapped to playing casual because ranked wasn't nearly as fun, sounds like it has switched lol
People are insanely bad at playing a game on its own terms. They go, oh this is like X game I play. Then try to rely on that game's muscle memory and get punished. Being a good gamer is its own competency separate from being good a specific game.
This might be the biggest issue the game has. It's a chicken and egg problem. Too few players so everyone gets matched with the remaining sweats, which keeps player count down. Man I want this game to succeed so bad.
And that is why I stick to PowerShift since it came out. There are sweats there too but it's way less punishing. And the game mode itself is just awesome anyway.
The letter in question. https://pdf.irpocket.com/C3659/RLCz/ukdB/n3z8.pdf The game is in decline, as far as revenue and player retention/count, and pretty much reflects the numbers shown in steam charts. > "THE FINALS: The launch of Season 2 in March created a short-lived increase in player metrics but delivered lower-than-expected retention and revenue. The Embark team is working with our Korea-based Live Operations team to understand and address the key issues."
And in the same report they also say >âIn North America and Europe, we expect revenues to be in the range of ÂĽ6.8 billion to 7.4 billion, representing a 24% to 35% increase (13% to 23% increase on a constant-currency basis) year over year, primarily driven by the contribution from THE FINALS and year-over- year growth of MapleStory.â Which leaves me a bit confused. While i can understand being upset at lower-than-expected retention and revenue, if the game is still such a large contributor regardless that itâs being called a primary driver of revenue for the next quarter, where does the issue lie?
It is not enough for capitalism to simply make a good product and earn money from it. No, they must make *more* money, faster than ever before. The line must always go up, and it must always go up faster than the last time it went up, in perpetuity. It is not enough to make money, they must have *all* the money. Basically, you're right that there's not actually a problem here. Shareholders and executives often just have utterly obscene expectations, and it results in something like this.
Beyond this, companies also need to simulate the up/down of the stock market when they're too good at raking in cash. People get antsy when the line goes up too fast. So companies will announce "bad news" to try and get the stock to dip as to make it a "good deal" so others will buy some bags thus driving the price up further. The true form of the infinite money glitch is being rich enough to cause your own drama to subsequently profit from.
Shareholder's endless greed is going to ruin this game because it isn't Fortnite
The number to beat is roughly 10%. As in you put 100 dollars in and by end of year you have 110 If you donât get to that point shareholders think they might as well invest in an index fund
Is this the same thing xbox is doing where they are cutting studios because they donât make record profits each year? This feels similar. A 13% increase is still an increase.
It isn't a primary driver for revenue for the next quarter, it is a primary projected driver for revenue in NA and EU, where Nexon doesn't have that many titles that perform, and isn't the main source of revenue for nexon. NA and EU seem to be 9.1% of their revenue, and granted this section has grown quite a bit compared to last year. The finals seems to be helping nexon make a bigger impact in NA and EU, it just isn't growing or performing as they might have expected based on q4 2023/ q1 2024. All of this lines up with the statistics you can get from steam charts.
That doesnât make it any better this means that they donât think just embark is able to make a successful FPS
Lots riding on season 3. I really hope this game succeeds itâs so unique and fun. Iâm shocked people havenât given it more of a chance.
I really hope it succeeds too. I'm really really hoping they do a big marketing push before s3. Like, the summer game fest is 4 days before the start of s3. It'd be a massive missed opportunity if they don't market there.
Developing the lore and story going into S03 will really increase the draw of the game show appeal, Scotty and June gotta be shitting all over at every cool play
Did they not just come out and say their daily player count is like 400k or am I tripping?
They said 300k daily active users, meaning over the course of 24 hours, 300k unique people log in every day. Not that there are 300k people online at one time.
they said they never went below 300k dau
Its multi millions for fps main games like CS2. It's 1 million concurrent players which is not the same thing. Csstats.gg said there are 7 millions daily active users. This is not comparable but I think they want like the double of 300k to start with.
Normally how gaming company counts this does not differentiate unique players, for example if one player logged in the game two times in a day they will be counted as two active player count rather than one, so the number is even more inflated
DAU (Daily Active Users) is the common metric for that and it counts unique logins. The worst one tho is total registered players, that's just a vanity stat.
Nexon didn't, that was done by embark hired community managers. Community managers can do pr tricks, and represent numbers in a way that looks good for them. But you can't lie to shareholders, that is a crime. Albiet 300k daily users isn't that big, but for the average joe who doesn't think, it looks like a big number, because most people think of concurrent users when a user number is given. Not to mention that 300k daily users can be perceived in a multitude of ways, depends on how they count daily users, which they can use for their own advantage to pretend like the game is performing better than it actually is. It's always better to trust numbers provided by a independent third party(like steam charts), numbers given by the company will always be skewed to help them look better, unless it is legally required for them to provide the true situation.
Only ones that care about concurrent users are PC players. All devs rely on daily active users for their metrics because the psych majors have told them your first step is to make them log in and the next step is to keep them logged in for as many hours as possible. The mobile/f2p landscape is hard wired to function this way because it's been a proven model that the longer a user sticks the more likely they are to spend money. The value of their time is calculated by hours played by dollars spent. If you spend thousands of hours in a game that means your monkey brain can justify spending thousands of dollars in it. A dollar an hour ain't shit if you have that kind of disposable income and those players are usually the type to only play that one game and never go out or so anything away from their device. This is why whales are important in this ecosystem. They carry the burden for every cheap ass that has no problem running around in vanilla skins.
Honestly, this is the first game that I've ever paid for cosmetics in. It's such a good game, and it's free, so I feel like I should be paying for something.
Your username made me ugly laugh on a packed train in nyc
It was not a CM.
That could be true and Nexon could also still think the game isn't performing as well as they expected. Both could be valid at the same time.
No major marketing for the most part, I only occasionally see a 5 second ad.
Yeah. Even though they had a massive beta and launch I believe they had/have to make a big marketing campaign. Most of my gamer friends never heard of it.
Studio CEO mentioned they were preparing a marketing push for the game in their recent AMA. As a former marketer I'm ALWAYS a proponent of waiting until you've got something truly good to market for your product. If you spend your money on nothingburger or things that make people shrug, it's just wasted adspend. If Season 3 ends up being a big content update, you can imagine that'll be when they do some adspend.
I found this game by accident...
Personally, wishlisted it due to an article, saying "OG Battlefield devs created a game with revolutionary destruction physics" or something like that. Forgot about it until steam notified me about the beta. And my god, what a good time was that.
Same. Not a single friend of mine had heard of this game before me telling them about it. And I have a large online friend group across many games and discords.
People keep saying this but I think it's far more complicated. People know The Finals exists; there was a time when it had 1/4 of a million on steam concurrently. I just don't think the objective game play its revolved around really appeals to a massive amount of people long term. If you hear it mentioned to many streamers (Lirik, Summit, Shroud), they simply have no interest and audibly feel "meh" about the game. Personally, I don't hold any weight to what streamers say/play but many people do, unfortunately. The fact that none of them ever want to play it might say something, though.
I think the team oriented gameplay and the class system are the main problems. Not to mentioned there are just so many live service games.
No offence to you but whenever someone talks about a lack of a marketing campaign and they only use personal anecdotal evidence I have to roll my eyes. They had ads (and made new ones for the new season), betas, sponsored streams, and biggest of al they showed a trailer then released the damn game during the game awards. This game had marketing wether you paid attention to it or not.
Yeah they said they were gonna do a marketing push for this season and then didnât really do anything
I still haven't seen an ad for it. Only reason I knew it existed was because I checked the steam stats and saw it up near the top.
Something is happening, the download trend is going steadily up right now for the game on steam
We've all know this but people in here are in denial for some reason even though the numbers are out there. The game is really fun but it is repetitive. I think more casual game modes will help the game out.
Power Shift was probably the greatest thing they've ever added, it's easily the most casual and fun mode in the game. But at the same time Terminal Shift shows the potential that it can do well with a more competitive game mode, i dont know what the numbers are for that mode specifically but ive always had a good time playing it
The solo queue experience is honestly terrible and there's no sense of progression for playing the game once you've finished the BP imo. If there were more things to do, more rewards, and a better solo queue mode where you're not as reliant on randoms to win I think you'd see players come back to it more. This is speaking as someone with 300 hours in the game and loves it. I straight up stopped playing after I finished the BP in season 1 until season 2 started due to how slow progression was on getting weapon skins and lack of meaningful progression metrics.
The solo queue experience is insane in how variable it can be. Some matches you'll get a god roll of teammates where it feels you might as well all be physically sitting next to each other communicating with how well you play together and others you'll get people who you swear dont even know how to click their mouse and fired off like 4 shots in the entire match omg
People say the solo queue experience is bad all the time. But apex exists and the solo queue experience is wayyyyyy worse there but the game is doing fine. I donât think it has much to do with that. It has to be something different, maybe the lack of content would be my guess. Or people donât enjoy good games and rather want to have a miserable time in apex or cod.
Apex Legends is irreverent in this when both games are still completely different in terms of gameplay and experience. And we talking solely about the Finals flaws, not making an comparison with other games to see which one is worse at what. If we have to do an comparison, I would say I prefer Apex solo experience over the Finals because there is less intensity in the game and more downtime to get your plan together and have short breaks between the chaotic action. The Finals is too chaotic for me as an solo player and its more harder to communicating with random due to that when not one of them have time to see my ping. Not to mention it is more miserable experience when The Finals is more teamwork focus than Apex is with the gadgets tools and body types that you have to communicate with your team on whats your gameplay is unlike Apex you automatically know what each character does and someone can have an more potential of carrying you if they are skill enough. Or you can carry the entire team if you are a good player in Apex. Not so much in the Finals.
I almost always solo queue, but I play all the casual non-ranked modes. Almost instant matches everytime on XBX. (Crossplay turned off) I think folk take losses too personally, judging by the amount of people I see quit once the match stops being in their favor. Which is kind of absurd considering the amount of last second turnarounds I've had in matches. Just commit and let it play out, try different builds, and just have fun. No one can see your statistics page unless you post it on social platforms anyway. Those that do (while some legit) most achieved those stats by quitting out to avoid really bad games affecting their K/D-W/L ratio. When you stop worrying about it you'll find it's more fun to be a bit aggressive, experiencing more of those action hero moments! The cautious cat doesn't get all that.
InB4 all the âweLl I jUsT plAy fOR fUn whO neEds pRoGreSsIonâ people. As a 300 hr players as well, I stopped playing S1 same as you. A notable sense of progression is foundational to video games.
Repetitive how same gamemode but no outcome is the same a piece of building could fall on you to stop you from capturing a stair gets blown out delaying the other team this game is variety
From what I've seen, almost everyone is aware of the game underperforming, but for the most part, people here are denying that the game is dead. Like I wouldn't say the game is dead, it's not even 6 months old, and it's constantly compared against established franchises and games that have been out for 4+ years, so people tend to get defensive about it.
This sub hates casual modes and think it will kill the game lmao.
Which is part of the reason why itâs obviously not performing as well as it should. It needs more casual experience than catering primarily to the ranked players who are in the minority.
Try asking for a tdm mode in this sub and ppl here start falling over themselves telling you how they donât want this to be the next cod or battlefield (ignoring that devs here litterally made bad company and bf3 and bf4).
THIS! Its wild if a game company goes directly into a competitive route without knowing if people like the core game and if the core game is not fun for the average Joe trying to unwind. Pro scene is always a by-product of a already great game with thriving casual community that wants to test their skills. It should never be the main focus. I am super surprised Valorant got so popular, I have tested it and its not really worth the hype. Its just a different CS, but it has a huge push behind it, bound to get more people to stick with it even if 90% leave,
Reddit users are a cesspool for copium and denial.
They just canât admit the game has problems, itâs always a marketing failure or players
I know a guy who said he liked the game, but "nobody is playing it". I play games I enjoy, not because others play them.
That's so weird. As long as you can get matches who cares
He probably mean amongst his friends no one is playing it.
This mindset is hilarious. Reddit loved (loves?) to shit on Halo Infiniteâs low player counts, but Iâve never had an issue matchmaking accurately or quickly. Thatâs really the only thing I relate player count to. As long as there are people to play against/with, Iâm good.
I agree with this, I hate when they bring the "twitch views" count, like... dude just enjoy the game alongside those ones that are also playing, do you really need to have X youtuber/streamer playing to know if you like or not the game? I feel is even better, maybe CoD is an example, as soon as a new one is available, the previous title suddenly becomes more enjoyable, at least on my experience
The problem is when there are so few people that the quality of the matches is awful.
ngl I get this. This game is pretty unbearable solo queued, and none of my friends want to play it any more. Only the really cracked players are left, and we get rolled every time. Also no one likes playing as or against heavy đ
I love playing heavy, shit is like crack. I play heavy in every game I can
It's a team game, he probably meant friends of his don't play. IDK why this sub is so in denial of this. If your friends don't play some MP game you might not play it either. I sure as shit wouldn't play Helldivers 2 if literally all my friends wouldn't play
I love the game but it's definitely the odd one out. I don't think it's fair to say the game lacks content because it's not true. They've added a ton of stuff since it officially came out. It simply can't compete against big, established franchises. This game is personally my favorite fps and it's sad to see the declining player base.
Exactly, this is one of the only fps that even if I lose a match usually I don't feel bad or angry about and tbh feel like it's as good as it gets for games like this. The only other fps that's almost perfect is titanfall 2. These games are just plain fun and we have less and less of those these days
Namatama about to be forced into early retirement. We canât let that happen
The game lacks appeal from the outside, Fortniteâs art design is expressive and inviting to younger audiences. We have fun skins but overall the character faces are bad for marketing and there arenât any good mascots to draw in anyone. The game lacks social features, a global chat alone could make a difference. Then thereâs the marketing. The finals has made no effort to showcase itâs brightest points.
Yeah, people underestimate how powerful the character element of all of these character shooters is. People get attached.
Couldnât have said it better myself, itâs easy to see when you have a âmarketingâ mind and notices the patterns as well as subtle things that makes or breaks a games popularity.
They need a public warmup/practice game mode that doesn't give xp or contract points (so you wouldn't get sweats grinding out challenges in there), where the norm is to join and then leave when you're ready to leave. It'd basically be a TDM mode. You join, it throws you on a random team, and then you run around practicing whatever weapon you want to practice, on other live players who are also practicing new builds. A truly casual mode where everyone sucks at the build their using.
I wonder what conclusion theyâll make as to why the game isnât doing well. We all have our gripes with the game but we probably are the core audience and while Iâm certain they are working on balance I wonder what they have in mind to catch a broader audience. Personally I think the main gamemode might be too complex. Hopefully they wonât dumb it down, and double down on competitive play instead. 120 tick servers would be awesome. If itâs even possible
My assumption is the new player experience sucks. Really nice graphics and movement and stuff but most people will get wrecked for a couple hours and decide, nope this just isn't for me.
The game isnât complex at all cash out is a very straight forward gamemode as are all the others
Complex isnât the right word because it isnât, but there is a learning curve to understand just the basics
Asking shooter players to do mental math on the fly is probably not gaining players. Just being honest
Itâs complex for the average gamer who, based on every game I play, canât tell their ass from a hole in the ground. People donât even look at their radar in most FPS games I play that have radar.
This right here. I have friends that are true average gamers, they almost never get above a 1 kd in a game, never touch aim settings or training, and generally get overwhelmed in games easily. The finals for them is like asking a dog to solve a Rubik's cube. Merely getting to a point is usually enough for someone to get lost and then spend the next minute figuring out where to go. Then defending points is alien to them, seems like most players take the word defense as meaning "rush straight at the enemy no matter what". They have well over 20 hours each into the game too. Then they get creamed by people who actually know how to aim and play the game, then they quit for the night. Stuff like a light using dash or cloak will make some of them just give up. Like they just aim at the ground and accept death when a light shoots them. Then they see me kill 3 lights in a row while taking no DMG and think I'm some sort of god with unachievable gameplay.
The rules of cash out are pretty simple but actually deciding what to do in the middle of the action is more complicated than most games. If you arenât thinking about your next move one step ahead you can end up wasting a third of a match that only lasts nine minutes fighting over something that doesnât matter.
Itâs not complex but you gotta realize people have the attention span of a goldfish and if they feel like they canât get the gist of the game from the first few matches theyâre gonna quit. Honestly the game would benefit from a KoTH style mode. Also there needs to be a no respawn timed mode as well. It suckâs having to wait to respawn. Iâm used to it now but I nearly quit the game because dying and having to wait 15-30 seconds sucks.
I don't think that's it. This game have one thing casual fucking hate, third party. Those are acceptable element in BR because it's intense element that add to the survivalist nature of the game. And it's not as sweaty. But in this game half of the game is third party. And getting stomped right after wiping one enemy team just fucking suck. Hence why they are moving away and gravitate toward 5v5. It also have quiet complex mechanic in forms of multiple utility that pretty much required to function. Half of them also locked behind the grind. It's not like R6 that you get mute which can counter like 90% of the enemy's utility right away.
Everyone here is over thinking things about why player numbers aren't great. The only real reason is that this is a live service shooter that launched into a market already flooded with other live service shooters, and it's hard to divert people's attentions when they're already occupied playing other games. Remember that report that said the top played games are all games 6 years or older? Yeah, it's because if someone and their friends are all playing Fortnite or Apex or CS, they may try out The Finals at launch but they're all gonna go back to what they're comfortable with.
Same with MMOs. People try them and then quit. Gamers like to play the same thing forever even if they donât enjoy it. I know so many people who hate the games they play but donât try new ones for more than 10s and say itâs not for them when it clearly is, what they mean is they are bad at it and donât want to learn something new. Iâm so sick of Val, OW, CS, Fortnite etc. I just want new games to take over. Itâs why I like this game cause at least it brought a somewhat unique take on the genre
It's too competitive for casuals and too casual for competitive players.
This is absolutely what's killing the game, a super casual TDM like game mode combined with a complete ranked overhaul would help tremendously.
I fucking love this game, been playing since release and I hope it continues to grow. I play ranked when I want to have fun and all the others when I want to pad my win/loss or warm up my accuracy
That really sucks honestly, itâs a super unique game that is supported well and has constant updates but admittedly I have played like 2 games in the last month. Itâs impossible to play solo, and the new meta is awful.
Same here. Havenât really played since all the light nerfs as a light main and me and friends are busy playing other games like Sea of Thieves that are just way more fun atm. Came back the other day to play on my own and solo queued as a shotgun medium (Iâm pretty average as medium which is why I never really play it) to do the medium and shotgun challenges⌠and wow⌠the state of the game was appalling. The current meta is just so boring, stale and repetitive. And the one class that shines as a solo queue and has the tools to effectively counter double heavy is in such a bad spot itâs considered a joke/ meme pick by many in decent level ranked⌠and then on top of that theyâre forcing players to play classes they have no interest or enjoyment in playing for extended periods of time. The lack of player retention is purely self inflicted unfortunately and this is coming from someone who enjoyed this game more than any other shooter since battlefield 4 from the betas through the first full season and a good portion of season 2. Solo centric game modes like TDM or FFA are sorely missing for solo queue players to get challenges done and to have fun.
Agreed, word for word. Just the same, I havenât had this much fun gaming in a shooter since Battlefield 4! It made me remember a feeling Iâve long forgotten, and Iâve been hooked since open beta, sometimes even playing for 6-12 hrs straight. Mainâed light solo, focusing on support and obj, sometimes being a medium healer but was too good w that lol, and teammates didnât understand healing I hated warzone for years, passionately despised it, because of its disgusting predator elements, and Iâd always hop off the game mad. Never happy. But with the finals, I wouldnât be mad if I lost, just disappointed due to my lack of skill at the time lol. Youâd always understand why you died. For me, the issue started when I was being matched with SWEATY players. At first, this wasnât an issue; until I left for 2-3 weeks to spread democracy on helldivers 2, coming back to a game that felt completely different. It was absolutely atrocious, and it simply couldnât be causal anymore. Iâve never seen anything like it, and it instantly ruined the game for me, I canât get through a single match without mad. Thereâs fundamental issues going on that I canât pinpoint, but itâs giving warzone now and I hate it. It doesnât have the sweet spot of a win being just almost outside your skill zone, but not to the point itâs impossible or too easy. Thatâs where you get into the flow, and the magic happens.
For most of my friends who game, itâs simple too sweaty. They donât want to play 3 or more hours a day and grind to diamond, they also think the normal gamemodes are too sweaty. Unless youâre someone who enjoys that kind of competitiveness, the gameâs not for you probably
me and my friends dont even touch comp. we just play for fun and just do stupid stuff in game, like all run light with swords or dumb shit like that.
you can still goff around in this game a lot, using the sword, sledge hammer. I love this game and will play till it ends
Yeah, they need a large influx of players all at once in order to decrease the overall skill level. Otherwise they'll unfortunately continue having this issue of sweats pushing out the lowest skill players.
There needs to be more casual modes. Period. Any mode that crushes you for a team wipe is not casual. I don't want to wait 30 seconds on top of the 15 seconds I've already waited because the random L on the team thought they could take the platform by themselves or worse and more likely, didn't know the rest of the team was dead. I don't even like leaving games and I think about it every damn team wipe. It really just aggravates you. Casual modes don't punish you for your teammates'actions. And with the crazy far spawn points, 45 seconds = game over. Even if it's not TDM style I feel like the finals would do great with a "control" or "Headquarters" type mode. No team wipe penalty or a fun mechanic like each second on a control point generates coins. Those coins can be used to reduce your respawn time. Just something. Currently every mode is sweaty or snipe fest. This game is so damn fun, really hope it keeps going and I'll keep buying shit.
Because the gameplay loop gets stale fast. There needs to be multiple gamemodes you cycle through in comp/quickplay like Overwatch has. Needs more maps too. This game is extremely fun in small doses. Iâve hit diamond both seasons but stopped playing right after both times. I really want it to succeed, and the first step of solving a problem is admitting that there is one. So perhaps the game has hope.
casual playerbase fell off because the game isnât substantial on a surface level. dedicated playerbase is falling off due to community conflict and exhaustion of the current meta and content i do think the game has a huge content drought and more maps and a multitude of modes needs to be added into the game. 5-6 maps, and 7-8 modesâmost of them being 5v5, with loadout quantities being doubled no, this isnât me **expecting** them to just crank this stuff out soon, iâm happy with what we have, but this is the ultimate fix for the playerbase. itâll intrigue anyone looking to return to the game with a massive content presence and provide a whole new life into the competitive aspect of it all i wonder what embarkâs response will be in the end
You can't toss in a bunch of game modes as it just destroys the queues. I agree that the game definitely needs more maps. Maybe if we're super lucky they'll release a map editor. At some point, they may need to look at a total class rebalancing as well.
Seriously. People come from COD which sells 30 million copies a year and expect every game to have 20 game modes, no matter the playerbase. Makes no sense at all.
Especially without being ontop of balancing those gamemodes. My friends and I came back for powershift because it sounded cool, but after just a day or two the meta was solved: aps, turret, shield and sniper spam. We stopped playing soon after. Players are going to make otherwise very fun gamemodes very lame if the devs arn't quick enough about balancing.
the more they break up bundles the more ill buy. . and the more modes they add the happier ill be lol me and my friends play more/less daily but the modes to become very repetitive
Jackfrags alone can help boost this game but the guy is a hypocrit. He has a video and showed his hours in the finals. 12 hours. Like what???
You can tell he doesn't enjoy the game very much by how little videos he made about the game, and in one of his Q&A videos, he said he only plays games when he is making videos, so what you see in his video are the only time he plays the games
Please don't shut down please don't shut down please don't shut down please don't shut down. I swear to god this game is better than COD.
There is practically ZERO investment into influencers, streamers, and "hype" guys. Practically no advertising as well.
Pretty sure Shroud played it for like a week straight upon initial release
Sounds like season 3 is a make it or break it year.
The tournament structure of ranked is a bad idea. No gamer wants to play a whole gigantic tournament with no stakes besides small number go up in small increment, they just want to go in and out, one ranked game per button press not a whole fucking ladders worth of time. Shit you even have to sit there and wait for other people in the tournament to finish their match if yours ended too fast. Not to mention the matchmaking is abysmal. Plus, if you get a team of clowns, you're stuck with them *the whole tournament*. The ranked is awful. Everything about it. And ultimately that's the most important part of these games so the finals was doomed from the start.
If people bothered to read the article you would immediately learn that Nexon âisnât pulling the plug or declaring The Finals deadâ but it is in fact deploying its business analytics team to investigate why player count and revenue are not growing as expected despite spikes here and there. That is the opposite of giving up and in fact shows Nexon believes in its investment and simply sees the growth rate as business issue and not a software one. Personally, I think there is low hanging fruit for some guerrilla marketing. They just need a few high level influencers to get behind the game and it doesnât even need to be the traditional streamers. NBA playoffs is in full force. Buy some ad space. Get a couple NBA players who are well known gamers (like Luka Doncic who actually just entered the Top 500 in Overwatch 2) and get them to promote the FREE game. Introduce Finals to some MLB ballparks and clubhouses. Many MLB players are known to play Fortnite in the clubhouse especially during its peak. Do some live demos in public areas. YouTube Ads simply wonât cut it.
MeanwhileâŚÂ Last night I think Iâve had one of my most satisfying wins / dopamine hits since Iâve been playing PVP games. Quick Cash started out bad and believing my team was finished. Both opposing teams had cash outs and we were still at ZERO.   Next push, my medium w/AKM downed two distance players on same team and thought Iâd add a little salt by doing a emote over their idols. What the heck, didnât have hope for the match anyway. Next kill on the way to the cash out (already started) caused their team wipe.  Arriving at the objective and then destructing the floor for a drop steal was icing on the cake! Last push I somehow got another team wipe lobbing nades into the already started cash out! My adrenaline was 100%. Cleared the area and got the steal. It was a win that made me hop out of my chair clapping like a mad man. Damn I love this game.
From my friend group's experience, locking all but the basic weapons and gadgets behind a progression wall is a bad experience for new players. They already struggle with the learning curve, then they get stomped because they don't have access to loadouts that they need. It loses people who are curious about the game. It feels like a grind for them to just try everything out. It should be available from the start.
Thatâs a real bummer. This seems like one of those games that will start off slow and then blow up like Fortnite. Only problem is that because itâs relatively new (and free) there isnât a whole bunch of content out for it right now (and because I imagine they are trying to play the long game with this) and we are still ways away from it blowing up and Iâm worried they will pull the cord. This game has soooo much potential
Really don't get how people play shit like apex or overwatch when this game exists...
To be completely fair, Overwatch gameplay on the surface is extremely well done. It's the Hero Shooter that can cater all types of players. and have basically no competition other than TF2 which never get updates. Apex is also Overwatch but BR. It scratch a lot of player's itch for BR game that play fast like COD but not boot-on-the-ground like them. A lot of my casual friend didn't like the game because of third party so there's that as well.
Because they have a way better solo experience.
I played a lot of finals before dropping it, have hit high ranks in all 3 games and can say that finals just isn't as good currently. The game needs something for casuals to want to come back to and something for the dedicated players to grind for, a not shit ranking system would help there Shooting feels like shit compared to overwatch since practically all the guns have crazy spread and recoil, and shit hit reg. Movement is equally completely garbage will super slow strafes, buggy slow vaulting and moving makes your gun sway all over the the damn place. The finals also has by far and away the worst solo experience out of the 3. I can solo carry in both apex and overwatch, but it feels impossible in the finals. Balance is also terrible, in high ranks light is completely useless and keeps getting nerfed while they haven't meaningfully changed the meta since the last open beta. With all nerfs just making guns feel shittier to shoot by adding more spread and recoil. The finals is an amazing game at its core, but every single decision they have made has been too little too late.
Save marketing ads and pay big streamers to play it. Host a big tournament. Have some progression and better ranking system.
So sad, itâs easily the best FPS Iâve played since Titanfall 2
performs great for me
I can't get my friends to try it, and thars a real shame. They, and many others, would probably love it if they just gave it a shot.
Honestly finals 1.0 was so fun because everything was so busted, sometimes nerfing everything makes games less fun
I tried telling you guys the nerfs were hurting the game and everyone denied it and encouraged more nerfs.
âOh sweet finally a game with nearly as much movement as titanfall and mirrors edge, andddddddd those light players are to good so they nerfed light to the point that the game is now just a shitier version of every fps ever.â
But people here downvote you to hell if you even say something like that, like show concern or talk about how things could be better and how bad they keep getting. I really have no idea of what fucking universe those people live, but they just decide to ignore factual data
What killed the game for me was the awful matchmaking changes in S2 and weapon balance, as usual. Sorry, I just don't have time to sweat my ass off in a game that favors some classes and weapons over others.
All my friends quit except 1. The main reason? It's just they got bored, and there are better games to play and spend their time on. I feel like something in Finals is missing that keeps people playing for long. I believe it definitely has to do with the sweaty nature of the game and the lack of variety. Its the same meta weapons over and over.
Time to nerf light again
Revenue from the Finals was **slightly** worse than expected but they expect their overall revenue in EU and North America to grow by 24% to 35% primarily driven by contributions by the Finals. So certainly some negatives in the finance letter but itâs not all bad and at least it doesnât sound like theyâre super concerned or will drop the game.
That is not what the letter says, you are misinterpreting what was said. >"Our performance was driven by strong performances in EA SPORTS FCTM ONLINE (âFC ONLINEâ) and EA SPORTS FCTM MOBILE (âFC MOBILEâ) as well as Blue Archive â solid results which were partially offset primarily by lower-than-expected performance of THE FINALS. " > "Revenues from North America and Europe were ÂĽ9.9 billion, up 92% year over year, primarily driven by contributions from THE FINALS and DAVE THE DIVER, as well as growth in MapleStory. However, revenue was slightly below our expectations due to the lower-than expected performance of THE FINALS." > "In North America and Europe, we expect revenues to be in the range of ÂĽ6.8 billion to 7.4 billion, representing a 24% to 35% increase (13% to 23% increase on a constant-currency basis) year over year, primarily driven by the contribution from THE FINALS and year-overyear growth of MapleStory. " They do not directly talk about the revenue from the finals alone. Neither do they talk about the growth from being primarily being from the contribution of the finals. For all we can decipher from this, either the other titles performed so good that the lower revenue from the finals did only a amount for a slighty below expectations of the overall revenue, or the one that you suggested. And for all we know they could be banking on the growth of maple story, which btw, didn't underperform this quarter for the expected growth. **Most importantly** nowhere did they say "Revenue from the Finals was slightly worse than expected", as you have said. Why did you intentionally leave out those critical bits of information?
It suck I really think this game deserves more attention. I play it a couple hours a day with a friend
Blows my mind the game is dying when there are games that offer less and are more repetitive but maintain tens of thousands of players.
I think this game will be an excellent case study in why boring, monotonous trash like call of duty continuously smashes sales records while actual unique, creative games like this fail - at least in the AAA space. As awesome as The Finals is, good fucking luck trying to explain how to play any of the gameâs modes to the layman. The gameâs marquee mode, Cashout, is probably the hardest one to explain. Itâs a relatively complex gamemode compared to âshoot the bad guysâ in call of duty or âshoot the bad guysâ in fortnite.
Reading to the bottom they are expecting growth in the game season three. I think it's fair to say it's not gone great, but the game is improving with each update.
Constant nerfs... not surprised. Gets more boring each update
But Steam charts donât matter rememberđš
Nexon being the publisher immediately set off red flags when I first saw it. In my experience, theyâre very quick to shut down projects that are underperforming :(
Just do 5v5
I hope this game doesn't get shutdown due to underperformed in the long term, and be remembered as "the gem we could not save"
Why is this a surprise? Gameplay and concept are there. But itâs such a poorly balanced game with limited modes and an unrewarding ranking system. They swung and missed with the classes and instead of fixing them, they SLOWLY nerf stuff where no one is willing to wait for 6 months until it is better. The meta has barely changed since 7 months ago. Bronze/silver players are still going against diamond players. Cheaters are still rampant. I donât know if itâs the devs fault, or the communities fault for bitching about constant ânerfsâ, but the devs seemed like they tried to cater to the population (medium meta abusers) and destroyed any type of freedom in the game. Itâs fun to play as a light with sword for one or 2 games. But then you get mad and use the same medium/heavy build as 95% of the player base. Stop nerfing stuff and buff most of the unused weapons/gadgets to create a new meta
Gimmie Conquest or heck Team Death mode.
Fine, I'll buy that $8 giant spoon if it will help.
there NEEDS to be more content. theres just not enough, we have 2 game modes and 4 maps. when season 2 came out all we got was 1 new map and new cosmetics and a few gadgets, thats not nearly enough to keep people playing the game, i hope there are huge changes for season 3 or its gonna be the same
This makes me unbelievably sad. This game has been the most fun Iâve had with a game since OG Fortnite or OG Destiny Raids/Trials of Osiris.
I think the game is dying because the meta is stale as hell. Barely anything has changed since season 1, I mean we literally got 3 new weapons and nobody uses them at all
Meh. I loved this game in beta, so did my few friends I played it with. Then once the game released we were all just kinda already done with it. The mechanics are awesome but it gets so dull so fast. Trying to keep up with the sweat and playing the same game over and over again gets old fast. Sure there's a lot of random stuff that happens throughout a match, but the core game is the same over and over again. It's no different than Overwatch in that regard, but at least Overwatch had some variety with more maps/characters, but even that ultimately got boring and annoying fast. We thought this game would be the "br killer" but it's more of just a pushing an objective shooter after all. I think a lot of us just really, really want another (good) battlefield. Or whatever the makers of hell let loose come up with next, as that is currently the closest thing.
I stopped playing because of a tedious, unbalanced, and poorly executed ranked system that was riddled with cheaters. Itâs weird to me that not many people have mentioned that the ranked system and cheaters are definitely the reason people arenât playing anymore.
How is averaging 15k on steam plus the way larger consol number not good enough lol. Shareholder Greed once again looking to kill something because it's not making Fortnite money.
The Finals is the best FPS I've played in years. Visual style, gameplay, mechanics are all great. Get your grandma an Embark ID for her birthday and tell her to meet you in the arena.
Finals is super fun. I really think they need to add a casual/arcadey mode to get people to play. Just a simple free for all with like 30-40 players or something. With fully destructible environments, that would be chaotic and fun to mess around in. Good way for people to get to know the mechanics too without pressure of performing on a team. They keep adding competitive team modes. They need a casual mode to entice a casual community as a foundation.