Phoenix Labs have introduced that they’re stripping loot containers from their free-to-play monster-hunting sport, Dauntless. They say that this isn’t “entirely reactive” to the current flip in opposition to the free-to-play system within the gaming public, however admit they’re “not deaf” to the backlash.
The previous few months has seen a large backlash in opposition to loot containers, significantly these in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Across the business, builders and organisations like PEGI, the FTC, and the UK Gambling Commission, are being requested to take a stand for or in opposition to loot containers. Phoenix Labs say that they had plans to take the system out of their sport earlier than this occurred.
“A couple of years ago we had taken loot boxes as a de facto choice and we hadn’t revisited it,” design director Chris Cleroux of Phoenix Labs informed us in a name final week. “One of the things that we felt was never really […] the best of experiences was having a loot box based monetisation.”
The staff is as an alternative transferring to a mannequin much like Warframe and Path of Exiles “where you choose the things that you’re purchasing.” The builders describe this strategy as “a lot more player-first.” Houston provides that the staff’s design philosophy has all the time been that Dauntless shouldn’t be pay-to-win.
When pressed on whether or not this transfer was a response to the backlash, Houston stated, “Yes and no. We’re not entirely reactive but we’re not deaf. A lot of the narrative right now focuses on the hybrid games, the ones that have a boxed product that costs $60 and then they want more dollars. To be clear, I’ve made that sort of game before. It was never done in a way of ‘How can we milk more money out of the player?’. Instead, it was ‘We have this new service that we’re offering that costs a lot more, can we offset some of that cost?’”
But whereas loot containers is perhaps extra acceptable in wholly free-to-play video games, like Dauntless, Houston says that he doesn’t need to “build a game that folks are okay with, I want to build a game where people get behind the choices that we make. I want the player to think that we are doing it for them to deliver a quality experience, that they will reward us with their money. I don’t want to build a company that is known for being able to extract capital out of them.”
“The reality is that I’m so excited as a business owner to be able to say honestly that our way of paying the bills is in harmony with them rewarding us for our effort,” Houston continues. “Years ago we talked about monetisation early, I wanted to fix the relationship that the developer has with the player. I feel like the $60 boxed model, without any demos or early access, puts the player in a relationship where I have to spend money before I even know if I’m going to like the game. Now you can download a game, if you fall in love with it then you’ll continue to play it, and hopefully, if they’re really good, and you continue to fall in love with it, then you, as a player, will reward us with money. That to me makes me warm and fuzzy. It’s not like when you go to a store and you’re buying a pair of shoes. You can try on the shoes, know if you’re going to like them or not, you create a relationship with a product. I want to go back to that in the videogame space. As we continue to evolve our monetisation strategy, we continue to have that as our primary motivator. We’re all gamers, we want to do things with integrity.”
I level out to Houston that after you purchase a pair of sneakers you personal these sneakers and don’t have the shoe firm urgent you to spend extra each mile you stroll in them. Houston argues that it’s extra such as you’re free to run so long as you want however you’ll be able to customise the sneakers with cooler laces.
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