In an interview following Hi-Rez Studios’ recent revival of Tribes Ascend, the free-to-play retake on the iconic FPS franchise, creative director Sean McBride has pointed to Blizzard’s launch of Diablo 3 as a factor in the death of the Tribes’ player base.
The long-ranging interview with PC Gamer comes after Tribes Ascend got its first patch since 2013, a patch that effectively reset or removed many of the inclusions to the game that infuriated, and eventually killed, the hardcore community.
But part of the reason why many of those inclusions, such as loadouts, nine player classes instead of the original light/medium/heavy builds, bloated weapons, imbalanced or useless perks and more, was because the community nearly vanished months after release.
Ascend didn’t have a stellar launch, and when Diablo 3 was pushed out a month later, McBride said it practically killed Ascend. “As soon as Diablo came out our numbers tanked and we never recovered from those numbers,” PC Gamer quotes McBride as saying.
“That definitely wasn’t the reason we didn’t take off. We were already starting to dip, but once you lose the players it’s hard to get them back.”
Timing is so often a crucial factor in the publication of games. It’s been the core complaint levelled against Rise of the Tomb Raider — why launch on the same day as Fallout 4 — and many indies, which fail to gain traction because they launch on the same week as long-awaited AAA releases.
It’ll be interesting to see just how much love and care Hi-Rez puts into Tribes now. Last time their efforts only lasted a year before the project was effectively dropped and focus shifted to SMITE. With Paladins on the horizon, could the same thing happen once more?
[PC Gamer]
Comments
7 responses to “Tribes Ascend Director Blames Diablo 3 For Their Player Base Tanking”
I think this part needs a re-write
the headline says he blames Diablo 3 but in the article it said Diablo 3 lead to a down turn of numbers but the next thing he says is “That definitely wasn’t the reason we didn’t take off.” Either that is a typo or the headline is misleading.
It’s a classic click bait title
They should be blaming their complete abandonment of the game for two whole years.
Also, it’s Tribes.
I mean I like Tribes, but its known to have a nieche audience as well as a high skill ceiling that would put off any but the most dedicated players.
Add to that the fact that it’s yet another F2P shooter with nothing to do but join matches and get stomped and then sure the player base will sink.
It could have been awesome but they ruined it with micro-transactions (heck, it even costs to change your name!!) and crap servers. Add to this the very slow response to hackers and cheats, barely any changes made to stop that happening etc. Then they shifted their focus to an entirely different game, SMITE, meaning they themselves lost interest in the game….
….what other reaction would you have expected from the community when you yourself abandon the game??? Of course they jumped ship! To blame it on anything other than your own mistakes is either naive or just simply ignorant.
New update? I’ll give it a try and see what it’s like… but seems like it will never be as great as the original.
So I gave it a play.. gameplay is still smooth.. gameplay still feels wonderful like the original but there is of course the ever present feeling of it all relying heavily on micro-transactions. Luckily for me, I have everything unlock from my Closed Beta days..
There’s certainly enough activity to get on and play..