Fighting Games—Punching Above Their Weight
I've always thought fighting games could be more popular. I'm sure I'm not alone. If you're a fan of the genre, you've probably noticed fighting game devs seem to continuously make the same blunders and stubbornly resist change. I'm going to use this blog post to expand on some of the ideas in the video as well as throw out a few disclaimers. Watch the video first and then read on:
I'm fairly certain this will be the most controversial video I've made (though maybe this isn't saying much, haha). I hope the video itself does a decent job of speaking for itself, but I think it'll be helpful to add a bit more context and explanation here. Let's start with a couple quick disclaimers:
I don't hate MOBAs, first-person shooters, or whatever else. While I think they're harder to spectate and enjoy (especially as a non-player) than fighting games, they're great games. They're popular for good reason!
This overlaps with point #1, but while I used DOTA 2's "The Play" as an example of something really inscrutable, inscrutable doesn't mean it's not interesting, not hype, etc.
In keeping with the theme of the first two points, I wasn't trying to dunk on any specific fighting game. Games like Guilty Gear Strive and King of Fighters XV are useful as recent examples of some of things I talk about, but my points apply to nearly every fighting game.
This disclaimer gets to be its own paragraph. I'm guessing that the most controversial bit of this video is that I advocate for a free-to-play business model for future fighting games. First off—while I do believe this, I don't think every fighting game needs to do this or should do this. Also, I think there are a number of possible variants that are all worth exploring:
The DOTA 2 model: DOTA 2 is completely free outside of cosmetic items. I think this is kind of the holy grail (where everything gameplay-related is free). However, this might be the riskiest model—if you don't get a big enough playerbase or just fail to sell enough cosmetic items, the game could flop hard.
The League of Legends model: the game is free-to-play, with a subset of their characters (currently 16) being free at any given time. The free characters rotate weekly. You can permanently unlock characters with either real money or currency you earn playing the game. This seems less risky than the DOTA 2 model.
The Overwatch model: Overwatch is not free-to-play, but it resembles DOTA 2: you buy the game once, but after that, all gameplay updates (new characters, maps, and modes) are free. All cosmetics can be unlocked through gameplay.
The Halo Infinite model: The campaign is sold as a full priced product (launching for $60), but the online multiplayer component is free-to-play. I could see a Mortal Kombat title succeeding with something like this (given the strength of its single-player content), but NRS is so financially successful with their existing model that it's hard to imagine them making a shift like this.
It's not hard to imagine some hybrid of the LoL and Overwatch models. You could have a free-to-play version with rotating free characters, and then alongside that, you could sell a version for $60 that has all gameplay-related stuff included. This would allow players to stick with a more traditional fighting game business model while still making the game more easily accessible to new players with a free-to-play version. I'm honestly very surprised that Street Fighter V didn't do this. I don't think Capcom would've done it day 1 back in 2016, but I would've bet good money that some sort of free-to-play version of SFV would eventually be available. I'm convinced it was planned but then scrapped for one reason or another.
If you're curious, this was the original Reddit post that got me thinking on this topic, and this was my initial reply to that poster. I know that a month or two ago, the whole "Should fighting games be free to play?" question was the thing to talk about in the FGC for a couple days. Maybe my timing could've been better, but it takes forever to make the kinds of videos I make, so I hope people still find this video worth watching.
Anyway, I plan on updating this to address questions/comments as they come in on the video, so stay tuned!