Killer Instinct is "Not Free-to-Play"

[StewShearerOld]

Killer Instinct is "Not Free-to-Play"

Microsoft says that Killer Instinct is "the world's most generous demo."

There were more than a few fighting fans disappointed to discover that the long-awaited reboot of Killer Instinct, announced at Microsoft's E3 press conference, will be a free-to-play title that comes packaged with one playable fighter and charges players <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127031-Killer-Instinct-Characters-Cost-5-Each>five dollars for each additional character they want to unlock. According to Microsoft however, the game isn't actually free-to-play at all, but rather, is "the world's most generous demo."

Elaborating on the subject Ken Lobb, who is working as the creative director behind Microsoft's first party Xbox One titles, affirmed the company's position on the game. "Some people are like, 'oh, free-to-play.' No. It's not free-to-play." According to Lobb, a free-to-play game is "a thing you really can't ever own." He would peg Killer Instinct as being the direct opposite. "Day one, if you want to buy our game, buy it. You own it. There's no grind for little coins that unlock things later. None of that."

The free part of the game, according to Lobb, is just available to "get as many people playing" as possible. That version's extremely limited nature, in turn, supposedly disqualifies it from counting as a free-to-play title. Likewise, Lobb believes that Killer Instinct's plan to have players pay for individual characters is very much different from what real free-to-play titles do. "If you buy the $40 pack, there are a couple of other little things you'll be able to buy, but you're done. It's not like there's some buy coins to unlock thing. That's why I've always said this is not a free-to-play game." Whether or not gamers will agree, however, and how their opinions will affect Killer Instinct's success, is the real question.

Source: <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-08-27-microsoft-killer-instinct-the-worlds-most-generous-demo>Eurogamer


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[Tanakh]

"Day one, if you want to buy our game, buy it. You own it. There's no grind for little coins that unlock things later. None of that."

Good enough for me, I might actually play LoL if they had this scheme. Hate PvP based games in which you either grind, pay way more cash than a normal game would cost or be locked out of in game items that affect the gameplay.

 

[sid]

Thaaaaaaat's how you pack it. Now rename the unlock all characters thing to "full game" and no harm was done

How was that a generous demo? Seen plenty of fighting games with a larger demo-paid character ratio than 1 of 6. Still a good ratio, just that big words always hurt Microsoft more than anything

 

[BrotherRool]

I was part of the pile-on against all this kind of stuff. But I will now confess, that's because I'm a Sony fanboy and was taking a very wrong glee in it all.

This is actually a really neat idea and fighting games are the perfect sort of game for this, because it's all about very discrete figures. There will be kinks to work out (specifically character imbalances online) but if they really do work out a nice 'buy everything' reasonably priced deal, then that eliminates one of the truly bad things about free-to-play, the way they game always niggles and bothers you trying to get you to pay up.

It works well in LoL and I think it will work well here, and if it's not for you they offer a way to forget about it completely

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Microsoft says that Killer Instinct is "the world's most generous demo."

When I read that I was under the immediate impression this would be a full AAA-game bundled for free with every xboner.
After reading the article, it just leaves me dumbfounded!

Remember a time when you'd have at least half of the cast unlocked in a fighting game demo, Microsoft???
Remember demo's AT ALL?????
No, no you do not. It's as clear as day. Sighhhhhhhhhh

 

[sirjeffofshort]

I don't have a problem with this, but I really hope it doesn't mark a trend to kill my favorite part of old fighting games (really the only part I liked because I'm terrible at them), wherein you would unlock secret characters by beating the game and meeting certain requirements.

It was always so much more of a personal achievement to turn to your friends and be like "Yeah, I unlocked the boxing kangaroo by beating the game with every character" (full disclosure, probably not accurate), and it would be a shame to have it replaced with "Yeah, I really wanted that crazy character... so I paid five bucks and now I have him."

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

So it isn't a F2P title at all, just a very crappy demo?

That's good to know I guess.

 

[Atary77]

My issues with the game aside, if this was never intended to be a Free-to-play game to begin with then why did so many people believe it was?

Because of the massive screw ups Microsoft was having trying to get the message across about Xbone and any of it's titles. To me this is another example of how folks behind the scenes have had to come out and set the record straight because Microsoft's PR did an incredibly terrible job of properly explaining to consumers and investors alike just what the heck any of these games were supposed to be.

Either that or it's just one of many 180's being pulled because of fan back lash which if you ask me either way Microsoft's PR brought upon themselves.

 

[FinalDream]

So it's free-to-pay?

I can see their angle, it makes sense, quite the mature move to not turn it into something laden with grind.

 

[Ralphfromdk]

"Day one, if you want to buy our game, buy it. You own it. There's no grind for little coins that unlock things later. None of that."

Good enough for me, I might actually play LoL if they had this scheme. Hate PvP based games in which you either grind, pay way more cash than a normal game would cost or be locked out of in game items that affect the gameplay.

Yes, but League of Legends does a nice thing with the whole free thing. Every week they switch out 10 champions that are free for any one to use as they please. This way you can, in time, try out all the champs, learn them, get to know your favorites, and then buy said favorites with FREE ingame money that you earned from just playing.

What Microsoft is doing is giving you one character, and that's it. Wanna buy a new one? Well you better hope you like what you buy, because you will have no way of trying it out before hand. And that's with real money mind you.

Also, LoL doesn't allow you to buy any thing that can affect the game. Only Champs if you are in a hurry, and skins. That's it. Nothing that you can pay real money for will break the balance. What happens if some of the characters you have to pay for in Killer Instinct are OP? Seeing as you can only get them with real cash, that's a way more borked system.

 

[Fappy]

It still is F2P. Look at Smite as an example. You could buy all the characters EVER for a flat-fee ($30 when I got it) or you could buy them individually with in-game currency/real money. Sounds pretty similar to what these guys are doing, doesn't it?

 

[Mirrorknight]

My eyes are rolling so hard that engineers want to hook up wires to them and use them to power southern California for a year.

Go go bullshit rebranding.

 

[Easton Dark]

I said that in the other Killer Instinct news story, sounded more like a glorified demo than a free-to-play title. I like this style, overall it's cheaper than other new games, that's good.

 

[RJ 17]

Thaaaaaaat's how you pack it. Now rename the unlock all characters thing to "full game" and no harm was done

Pretty much my thoughts on the matter. They shouldn't have tried to spin it, just tell it like it is: it's a glorified demo.

How was that a generous demo? Seen plenty of fighting games with a larger demo-paid character ratio than 1 of 6. Still a good ratio, just that big words always hurt Microsoft more than anything

Well now that it's been reclassified as what it is - a "generous" demo - it's description actually is much more fitting. Sure, you can drop $40 to get (apparently) all the characters and unlock the full game. But if there's a fighter or two that you don't like/suck as/whatever, you don't have to get them. Suppose you know for a fact that you're only going to be using 3 of the 8 fighters, you now can just drop $15 and get what you want from the game without dropping the full $40.

 

[josemlopes]

Thaaaaaaat's how you pack it. Now rename the unlock all characters thing to "full game" and no harm was done

How was that a generous demo? Seen plenty of fighting games with a larger demo-paid character ratio than 1 of 6. Still a good ratio, just that big words always hurt Microsoft more than anything

I think its because you can do anything with that one character instead of the typical 3 arcade matches and back to the title screen or multiplayer against the only two characters available.

 

[Rad Party God]

*cue the whiners in 3... 2... 1...*

Really, I never saw this as "free to play" from the start, exactly more like a demo and nothing more, then people flipped out because of the $5 for each fighter (wich is still outrageous IMO) but didn't want to see that you can buy all of the fighters (or buy the game) for a mere $20... much less than many other fighting games could ask you to pay for.

Seriously, I don't plan on buying an Xbone, but sometimes I think that people just don't want to see the obvious and keep bashing the thing just for the sake of it.

 

[Gizen]

So, by that logic, is League of Legends ALSO not a free-to-play game? Since you can just throw down a ton of money at the start to just own everything right away? I think Microsoft's definition of free-to-play is questionable.

 

[Rad Party God]

It still is F2P. Look at Smite as an example. You could buy all the characters EVER for a flat-fee ($30 when I got it) or you could buy them individually with in-game currency/real money. Sounds pretty similar to what these guys are doing, doesn't it?

Smite and LoL let you buy all of the champions (or most of them in LoL's case), but as you said, you can still earn them simply by playing (a lot).

That's NOT the case here. There's no way to earn any of the fighters in KI any other than ponying up your hard earned cash for it.

Also, at the very least, both Smite and LoL has a rotation of free champions each week, here you can only play as Jago, tough luck if you want to buy a single fighter without having the option to trying it out before making any purchase.

So yeah, it's just exactly that, a demo not much different than Marvel vs Capcom 2* wich only let you to play as 6 characters before unlocking the rest by buying the full game.

[small]*By comparison, MvC2 has a more generous demo than this.[/small]

 

[Zer0Saber]

I just want to know what the total price for all of the content would be.