[Column] H1Z1 Season 6 and the Death Spiral Of Daybreak


H1Z1 is now in Season 6 and if you thought Daybreak couldn’t put any less effort into a season pass than the last time around, you are completely wrong.

I wanted to wait until Season 6 launched because I honestly didn’t believe Daybreak’s own website that listed out the rewards for this season. Season 6, for the 100% of my audience that no longer cares to personally keep up with the simmering dumpster fire that is H1Z1 and Daybreak overall, might just be the worst attempt at raising some extra cash that Daybreak has ever put forward in this game’s history. It is truly astonishing.

For $5, you get the premium reward track. For $12 you get the track plus 25 tiers. There are only 50 tiers of rewards for this season. For twenty bucks, you can just skip the season pass and get all fifty rewards. Twenty dollars and you don’t even have to suffer through extensive exposure to H1Z1’s increasingly broken systems and busted gameplay to get cosmetics for a game you probably got tired of supporting a year ago and whose QA and bug fixers probably got laid off about three rounds back. Don’t look for a list of patch notes or come into this update with expectations that Daybreak has fixed any of H1Z1’s problems. Rest assured they have not.

And let’s be clear, the rewards for season 6 are without a doubt not worth your $20. The free track offers 11 rewards;

  • 5 locked crate
  • 40 credits
  • 2 Unlocked crates

Wanna know what 40 credits will get you? Jack squat! The cheapest item I found available on the marketplace right now is 1200 freaking credits! You’ll need $2.50 worth of crowns (as crates are discounted to 50 crowns to unlock) just to unlock your free crates.

The PS+ track gives you;

  • 6 unlocked crates
  • 1000XP bonus
  • 100 credits

So a couple bucks worth of unlocked crates and a smidgen more worthless credits. And what do you get with the paid track?

  • 8 unlocked crates
  • 4 XP Boost
  • 1500XP bonus
  • 650 Credits

Are they seriously asking $20 to unlock all of this crap? It’s not even worth the initial five because you’d have to play the game more that Daybreak is unable to fix! I’d even like to tell you about the Thanksgiving event but it’s not up, the arcade mode doesn’t freaking work and H1Z1’s social media hasn’t even acknowledged the update going live over an hour later and I swear this game is going to give me a heart attack.

On the other hand, there is a horrible looking bacon ghillie suit that can be bought for $10! Hide yourself from H1Z1’s numerous bugs in an outdated meme!

I want to know Daybreak’s budget going into Season 6, because I’m willing to bet that my annual Disney+ subscription is more expensive. You could have just color-swapped some existing models and threw them on the reward list, it wouldn’t have been ideal but it would have at least been something outside of recycling your crates and calling it a day.

Icing on the cake, it doesn’t look like Daybreak even bothered to add in a challenge set this season. On the other hand, you’ll have over three months to slog through this at a snail’s pace to get what paltry rewards Daybreak could afford to cobble together.

I don’t think I have ever had less faith in Daybreak’s ability to exist as a company, and I say that knowing full well that I say this every time H1Z1 comes out with a new season.

Pathfinder's Backing Of Elder Scrolls Online


2013-12-17_00007

Goblinworks CEO Ryan Dancey found himself in the news this week by penning an editorial defending The Elder Scrolls Online and the game’s planned subscription system. In the op-ed, Dancey states his belief that not only are subscriptions responsible for more than $100 million a year in the west, but that it is hard to imagine that the revenue from microtransactions even approaches 50% of that figure. Now Dancey’s figures are hardly scientific, but the overall point that he seems to be making is that the optimal route for MMOs (particularly Elder Scrolls Online) to take is to launch with a box price and subscription to recuperate development costs and then switch over to a system based in microtransactions with an optional subscription intact once it makes sense.

I remain convinced that the market is going to continue to support subscriptions for these games regardless of budget so long as the subscriptions are intelligently linked to a microtransaction model as well.  The evidence of ongoing success with that model seems incontrovertible and the implication that there are millions of people happily paying for game subscriptions shouldn’t be controversial to anyone who digs into the numbers.

Whether or not you agree with Dancey’s conclusion, the editorial is still a great read. Check it out at the link below.

(Source: MMORPG.com)

Pathfinder’s Backing Of Elder Scrolls Online


2013-12-17_00007

Goblinworks CEO Ryan Dancey found himself in the news this week by penning an editorial defending The Elder Scrolls Online and the game’s planned subscription system. In the op-ed, Dancey states his belief that not only are subscriptions responsible for more than $100 million a year in the west, but that it is hard to imagine that the revenue from microtransactions even approaches 50% of that figure. Now Dancey’s figures are hardly scientific, but the overall point that he seems to be making is that the optimal route for MMOs (particularly Elder Scrolls Online) to take is to launch with a box price and subscription to recuperate development costs and then switch over to a system based in microtransactions with an optional subscription intact once it makes sense.

I remain convinced that the market is going to continue to support subscriptions for these games regardless of budget so long as the subscriptions are intelligently linked to a microtransaction model as well.  The evidence of ongoing success with that model seems incontrovertible and the implication that there are millions of people happily paying for game subscriptions shouldn’t be controversial to anyone who digs into the numbers.

Whether or not you agree with Dancey’s conclusion, the editorial is still a great read. Check it out at the link below.

(Source: MMORPG.com)