PlanetSide Arena
Been a while since I wrote anything here, but we got the biggest PlanetSide news in a long time today. I've been thinking about it all day, and I have some thoughts to share.
PlanetSide Spinoffs
First, I want to go over why this makes sense from a business perspective, and the idea of spinoffs and their value.
Creating a new game when you already have 90% of the engine and assets already done is far less work than creating a new game from scratch. It's also a way to get more value out of what you have already invested. H1Z1 was built off of PlanetSide2 with new assets and some new tech & UI on top. PlanetSide Arena is another such investment, only there's a lot less need for new assets. They can create new gun models for some variety and new character models so it looks different, but most of the terrain and other assets appear to be very much reused from PlanetSide 2. From a business perspective, this is a safe bet. You can build a new game with focus spent less on fundamentals and more on systems, UI, and gameplay, and with far less manpower.
So the idea of a PlanetSide spinoff is a good one, from a resource and investment perspective.
H1Z1 was one of the earlier Battle Royale games, and it was one of the most financially successful games for Daybreak in recent history. And over the last few years they have gotten even more popular, with games like Fortnite bringing in a billion dollars. If Daybreak can even get crumbs from that pie they will be in good shape, provided their investment was relatively small.
One of the most encouraging things was something Andy Sites said to Polygon:
"a stepping stone to what’s next. We’re absolutely planning for a future PlanetSide game."Andy was one of my favorite people at Daybreak (SOE when I was there), and he seemed to genuinely love PlanetSide. And he's rocking a great beard now, so I trust him when he says that they are planning for a future PlanetSide game.
So on the surface, you could say PlanetSide Arena is a safe investment to diversify Daybreak, develop their PlanetSide IP more, and get some cash infusion for further investment into the PlanetSide universe. That all seems pretty good to me, honestly. It's certainly better than the alternative - nothing happening at all and the IP dying. So there's hope for more PlanetSide into the future, even if this particular incarnation of it doesn't suit you.
But, PSA could be more than that.
PlanetSide Arena Abstract
In the simplest terms, you could say PlanetSide Arena is a play space that looks to be roughly the size of a PS2 continent, perhaps smaller (I hope it's smaller), with a pool of players, a set of classes, and a potential pool of game modes. In a lot of ways, this is like how Halo multiplayer works. There's a lobby with different game modes, some team-based, some not, with potentially new crazy game modes coming out all the time. That on its surface is not a bad idea, and certainly not a bad concept for a game. It's flexible.
If you look at PSA in those terms, with the Battle Royale aspect of it as simply one possible Game Mode, and perhaps the premier game mode, then there is still a lot of possibility for the game. I'm not particularly happy about the Battle Royale part of it. I think that's been done and there's definitely a lot of games and probably better ones than what DGC can make to do it. The's a few elements of PSA that I think bring uniqueness, potentially.
1) The Scale.
This is the defining PlanetSide characteristic, and it may be the only one in PSA.
2) The Game Modes.
PSA doesn't need to be a BR game. It could be a team deathmatch. It could have factional warfare like PS2. I hope there's a game mode called "The Crown" that is just a 3-way 24/7 Crown fight. That would be great.
3) The Vehicles. (Maybe?)
PlanetSide 2 had a lot of vehicle combat that is fairly polished now, and any of them can make appearances in PSA. This is something unique to PlanetSide that other Battle Royale style games don't really have, certainly not tanks and aircraft.
4) The Outfits. (Are they there?)
I have seen nothing about this, but I hope that's not because they aren't there. With team-deathmatch and other team-based approaches, there's a lot of potential to increase the social aspect and stickiness with player organizations like Outfits. I'd like to see multiple-outfit membership possible with a selectable "primary" one which shows the tag. IMO, Outfits are the end-game to any PlanetSide game.
I'm a bit uncertain how much of this they're actually doing, but the potential is there.
Business Model
H1Z1 made a lot of its investment back with a box price on early access. It worked, and so they're doing that again. I suspect they will make back most of their new investment before the game actually launches. That's good, because hopefully it means the company makes enough to warrant further investment into the PlanetSide IP.Notice it isn't Free to Play? I'm not surprised. This is a really good thing, because it means you wont have paywalls behind content and the game developers won't be scraping by, spending all their time trying to monetize you, and making the game a grindy suckfest just to try to entice you into spending money. They already have your money, so instead they can focus on making the game more fun so you stick around and continue to give them more of it. Enough about the business model. It's good, and one I wish PS2 had from the start.
Essence of PlanetSide
So what is it to be a "PlanetSide" game. Well, we only have two so far, and with PSA that will change as they further develop the IP. But lets start with what we have.The key elements to me, of what makes PlanetSide unique and great, are what I described already in Why PlanetSide is Special.
The scale. The persistent world. The Pure PvP. I'd go a step further and add in Teamwork (Player Organization), and Faction based combat are also part of that identity and really go hand in hand with the scale. When you have so many players involved, teamwork becomes a defining element, and with that many opponents, and bringing the scale to life really involves faction warfare.
What does PSA have of PlanetSide? To be honest, not much. It has the scale. Sorta. And it has pure PvP. Both are there, but the persistent world is not, nor is the teamwork or faction identity. One of the most appealing aspects of the massive scale of Planetside and Planetside 2 is that I can play with ALL of my friends, anytime we want. No 16-player limits, no difficulty getting us onto the same team. We can just hop in and all play together no problem. That appears missing in Planetside Arena. The Teamwork could come back in, to a certain extent depending on game modes, but the lack of factions, the lack of any talk of outfits or player organization really hamstrings the scale value.
For now, the game looks to be Planetside In Name Only. It has the illusion of scale, but not much of the value that scale brings. It has PvP, but limited classes and abilities, so its not very broad. It has team-based modes but no factional identities to it and apparently not much of a team. The only thing that appears to be "PlanetSide" in this game are the familiar assets. I see nothing else that looks like PlanetSide.
My Take
My initial reaction was not good. I've warmed up a bit to it, especially when I look at the big picture. Scoping in on the little picture, my biggest concern is that they wont' put enough PlanetSide into PlanetSide arena and will be focused more on the Battle Royale aspect at the cost of all the other potential. I believe the removal of the factions is a huge mistake, both to the IP and PSA.Another aspect of this is the lack of respawning. This may be a Battle Royale game mode only aspect, but I fail to see how you're going to have a massive battle where everyone gets only one life, especially on a massive continent. I suspect it'll end up playing like a BR game with more players, over a larger area, so it doesn't end up really feeling all that massive. The Massive Clash sounds interesting, but without respawning it doesn't sound interesting at all. Like it has the potential to feel like a never-ending Crown fight, but it won't be. They can easily bring respawning into the game, so I'm not too upset about it really. It's one of the easier things they can fix.
I want to play with my friends and outfits. I want to be able to bring my friends into a fight and have team deathmatch with them. Will PlanetSide Arena give me that? I don't know. I hope so, but that's a pretty big selling point, so I think if it were there they would have mentioned it.
If they can create team game modes that feature respawning and offer us the good old massive PlanetSide 2 battles that we love without the problem of having to wait/find/create them, I think that's a winning formula. Unfortunately without the factions and more diverse classes, outfits, and vehicles I don't really see that happening. That's why I'm concerned that the Battle Royale focus is coming at the expensive of the rest of the game's potential.
So no respawning, no outfits or teamwork emphasis, no meaningful way to play with a large group of friends. That's what I see so far. It's a bit disappointing to be honest. Make no mistake though, I'm going to buy it, just on hope alone, and to help support my friends that work there. And I'll be hoping that it becomes something better, or at least helps fund the next real PlanetSide.
The concept is sound, and the base idea is one I like, but the design decisions are suspiciously tailored to one specific game mode. That may be because that's all they have time to do right before needing a cash infusion, and that's what they're focusing on for launch. I get it. I don't like it, but I understand it. It's the nature of the business. I hope they revisit them, and I hope they consider making the game far more social, with more real PlanetSide battles being possible.
Stepping back and looking at the big picture - this is really good news if you love PlanetSide, even if you don't like this particular game. It means there's hope for PlanetSide 3 and another Persistent-world faction based MMOFPS. I really want to see that.
