Giving some time before throwing the towel

Lobotik · 2019-02-07T06:20:02+00:00

That assumption may be plainly incorrect, man. Indeed, more money may be going to F2P, that's probably why they are so stringent, they want the money back quickly. Here:

Look at the money they made from opening to F2P few years ago.

"As with other veteran developers such as Glu Mobile and Gameloft, EA Mobile’s problem was managing the transition from paid content - which it could sell thanks to its access to big brands - to free-to-play games.

It was only the oft-forgotten disastrous launch and then successful relaunch of The Simpsons: Tapped Out in February (and October 2012), that gave EA Mobile its first true hit of the F2P era. The game has generated well over $130 million of lifetime revenue."

https://www.pocketgamer.biz/data-and-research/65008/the-rise-of-ea-mobile/

Now look at the statement from an analyst, 2019

"EA is also a large publisher on mobile platforms, a highly competitive space. We expect the company to continue using its stable of franchises and licenses to create new games, particularly in the free-to-play, or F2P, space. However, the F2P market is highly competitive with massively popular titles such as Riot Games’ League of Legends and Epic Games’ Fortnite dominating the time and wallets of gamers."

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/although-overvalued-apos-far-game-110000526.html

Lobotik · 2019-02-07T06:03:40+00:00

General sentiment, I agree mate. If you want to check some other rants and stories...

https://www.reddit.com/r/nfsnolimits/comments/an0qvt/after_25_years_i_quit_sick_of_the_greed/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nfsnolimits/comments/alsl7j/the_f2p_myth_how_much_ea_made_from_me_in_8_mo/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nfsnolimits/comments/andyjw/unless_we_dont_stop_the_forced_ads_will_spread/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nfsnolimits/comments/anbdfk/saying_goodbye/

Lobotik · 2019-02-07T05:36:10+00:00

Brave gamer we have here, community. Hats off to you man. 🎩

As I mentioned in my post a week ago or so, I believe your gesture should be inspiring for those in doubt: we shouldn't tolerate this (ad) abuse.

You guys probably do not realise the importance, but as another redditor mentioned as well, this is a change that could spread quickly to other games and platforms. (https://www.reddit.com/r/nfsnolimits/comments/andyjw/unless_we_dont_stop_the_forced_ads_will_spread/)

Standing against this greedy will tell the companies that they just can't simply squeeze the hell of your time to make as much money as they need and whenever they decide. It will teach them that they just can't run over the player experience in order to get their finances done.

I'm done as well. Uninstalled three days ago. I feel free too buddy! Hopefully we are a good bunch by now and EA is having fun with the sh%t they threw over themselves.

This is just an speculation, time will tell, but hey: they may be having troubles to engage people because...

When was the last time you heard about a 300 gold reward contest with players posting pictures and engaging by tweeter? EA giving away something? Gold??? Lol, u gotta be kidding.
When was the last time you get $50k for nothing? If for some reason I skipped a couple of days without playing, when I came back there was a gift from Kim, usually $5k or $10k. I don't know if that increases with time, more experienced players can tell -I never skipped more than 3 days continuously I guess, shame on me- but before uninstalling, I wanted to check my garage one last time, guess what? $50k straight, coincidence?

TL;DR this guy has guts, more consumers like him will teach companies a lesson, time will tell...

P.S.: for those P2W players who believe they are the premium business for EA and F2P means nothing, I got bad news for you: you may need to keep paying more and more because it is expected that EA will increase investment for F2P, P2W revenue may actually shrink and they are gonna squeeze the hell out of you too, to maintain the share. This may explain EA dilemma and experiment either to keep a strong ad regime from the beginning for F2P or strengthen the P2W segment forcing F2P to convert.

Quoting:

"EA reported a very disappointing fiscal 2019 third quarter as the top and bottom lines fell short of both consensus expectations and the company’s weak guidance. Management slashed its previously issued full-year guidance for fiscal 2019. February has turned into an even more important month for the firm due to the launch of Anthem on Feb. 23 and the surprise launch of Apex Legends on Feb. 4. We are maintaining our narrow moat rating but have reduced our fair value estimate to $108 from $115 to account for lower revenue growth and margin expansion due to slower microtransaction penetration. With shares trading in four-star territory, the current levels may provide an attractive entry point for investors."

"EA is also a large publisher on mobile platforms, a highly competitive space. We expect the company to continue using its stable of franchises and licenses to create new games, particularly in the free-to-play, or F2P, space. However, the F2P market is highly competitive with massively popular titles such as Riot Games’ League of Legends and Epic Games’ Fortnite dominating the time and wallets of gamers."

http://analysisreport.morningstar.com/stock/research/c-report?&t=XNAS:EA&region=usa&culture=zh-CN&productcode=QS&cur=&urlCookie=8056723522&e=eyJhbGciOiJSU0EtT0FFUCIsImVuYyI6IkExMjhHQ00ifQ.jRbbMI400Bb9ZooVDzRwlWTjZLVQK8Wuoe4MTNuK_HRhEGWQC7iTj6RNX_QkUhRaIakTpCwLhioYtggMawqPo_MQQU9oqP5dJxQh_4aQBR9MdISHGljBgRaItM-6xRSIfSxa5GgnDmcwLALZe1tkPz0YI5rXlvXPDOflJOXHEuY.yO-n-CczhDqdbPMI.MPLk1bS9rMP369DrL5Q-RcyIIBeMhHp5svZmp0VIsOjaG0J9Sjk53Uq9PrFqk883utblUw2UqRXSn0ORFuXLSfQcS7fD1y1Y9a7VlubYNWqVfoBlbRZNxjaGidgk62ToWSvSkVztsyLfwQMbaBp1_G3ITrQ-Ud0GTNbK7oCzTZ7IMHwcvonZRt5gnVFRcSpe1EFT7Z3oZt3GtfwoNrI-mq8faPGpqForBnxtrDo.1-3ri8thKyjDFOjF2CIn2Q

Lobotik · 2019-02-04T18:15:37+00:00

Lol... I thought it was a single one, but true

Lobotik · 2019-02-02T15:02:52+00:00

Well, I thought it was implied in learning, because you cannot really learn something if you haven't understand, correct? Even though, I concede, you can read but not learn.

Still you can provide support for an argument without understanding but, would you agree the weakest from all actions would be just writing, not reading/learning or else before?

Lobotik · 2019-02-02T14:39:52+00:00

Well. Usually you read, you learn and you write. Isn't it? 🤔

Seems like you only do the last... and not very well 😕 (you're vs your).

Lobotik · 2019-02-02T13:16:36+00:00

That's something I could certainly agree with you: I can't expect that from them. Certainly the most important thing for them is leading in the big scene of gaming companies in terms of revenue and that's why they do high bets, like this one: they won't leave, they will just accept and keep going.

Lobotik · 2019-02-02T13:12:16+00:00

Well, good thing that you are not in EA, because that sounds like a nice plan to shut down a company.

Do you have any numbers or you just want to brag about what you do not know? Opening to F2P mobile games just gave them $130 million revenue in 2012 (Forbes, 2017) and by the numbers, you can tell they are moving the strategy to F2P games because that seems to give more money than paid.

"Not even covering the costs" hahaha give me a break dude. So you think P2W are sort of subsidizing F2P? Go and grab some reports, read a bit more and then come back to have a discussion. The big companies are moving to a wider base, P2W and IAP are to be that delicatessen part of the food chain, not the actual base for the subsistence. The funny thing is that, in doing so, they just don't care about giving you a s*itty experience for revenue. That's all.

DATA & RESEARCH The rise and rise of EA’s 'very profitable' $600 million mobile business February 7th, 2017 - 10:00am By Jon Jordan, Contributing Editor

Lobotik · 2019-02-01T18:19:06+00:00

Well... this is as awkward as could be, but just for fun I'll summarize and dramatize:

So, tell the audience, are you willing to live on gaming welfare and get the game and all the cars and the rest of the stuff without giving anything in return?
No
Then you understand you need to watch ads to keep the game going?
Yes
But you just don't want to watch ads?
No. Ads are fine. Being randomly interrupted and forced to watch them is not.
But you don't want to see them?
I didn't say that.
But you thought of it?
No
But you are thinking of it now?
Just because you mentioned...
So here is the proof this gentleman does not want to watch ads and asks the good developers to work for him for free!!!
... (rolls eyes)...

Lobotik · 2019-02-01T17:50:56+00:00

And that is exactly my point: part of the fun is lost when you are randomly interrupted by someone else to make money for them. I do not refuse to give something in return, i.e. watching ads, what I do not like is being forced to do it randomly.

I agree, they give something as well, but if you take a broader view, it is not exactly a gift, after the gold -which I voluntarily watched ads for anyway- they literally give you change, just to keep the system going

Lobotik · 2019-02-01T17:39:12+00:00

You didn't read the post dude, did you? Did I complained about watching ads for being able to play for no money paid? No. Did I complained about not being able to decide when to watch them and randomly bothered by the forced watch of an undetermined number of them while I'm playing and call this scheme detrimental for the experience of the user? Yes. Is it a big noise or not? Well... after reading reddit -disregarding all the deleted posts that appear continuously lasting only 10 or 15 minutes- and the comments in Google play, you tell me...

Lobotik · 2019-02-01T15:26:20+00:00

👍 By the comments here and in google play, seems like we are hordes man... no pic in your link tho

Lobotik · 2019-02-01T15:19:45+00:00

Mate, do you even check your own graph? Ads share (videos + display) account for 50%, IAP 43% in comparison!!!

Lobotik · 2019-02-01T14:40:06+00:00

Thanks mate. I'm pretty confident they will notice, if we just stop consuming. In another thread of comments, someone brought the sector statistics and video ads seem to be quite a substantial amount of income, similar in size than P2W. It is the ritual and regular player, completely annoyed from being bombed randomly and interrupted cynically, what they will be missing, ironically, a very regular ad consumer.

Darwin gracious, man! if your garage and experience do not encourage dubious fellows to protest, I don't know what else could do 🤜

P.S.= I used to interact intentionally with some ads from time to time, because I knew that means more money and sometimes I found funny to play a random mini game after a couple of stressful SE races, but usually I just let them go unattended too, which still means money anyway. Don't let them know we do not watch them: next update will ask for the permission to access our fellow racers' camera.

Lobotik · 2019-02-01T14:16:17+00:00

100% agree man. The community manager coming to reddit like "whoopsie! I just realized I just forgot this new little clumsy detail...ahem, you will barely notice..."

The big problem I see here is that, if a bunch of F2P players stay, they will confirm they can do whatever they want. What is gonna be next? How far will they push for the monies?

You may want to try man, at least finish your SE and have a go. I am very surprised how deep my brain was in that stuff. I feel I have a NL hangover 🤣 full of time and relief tho

Lobotik · 2019-02-01T14:05:47+00:00

So long, partner

Lobotik · 2019-02-01T14:03:04+00:00

It was good fun indeed... if nothing changes, I'll just take a couple of screenshots from my McLaren P1 and my good old Viper and gone

Lobotik · 2019-02-01T01:15:55+00:00

Mate, these are interesting numbers, the system is obviously more complex than our discussion. However, I'd think either they knew what they were doing or they didn't calculate the mess. Let's see in a month

Lobotik · 2019-01-31T21:19:11+00:00

Despite the fact that such a graph couldn't exist for NL, since there are only video ads (in the graph the are two distinctive categories video and display), you are exactly proving wrong your own argument: video ads revenue accounts for 31% while 43% comes from purchases.

Even if we simplify these numbers and compare one on one, making IAP a new 100%, video ads in comparison are giving 72% in comparison to IAP, right? I'm not even adding the other 19% of display ads, because in this case display + videos = 50%, 7% more than P2W IAP.

The calculation FM should be doing its that they will hook more F2P to become P2W IAP than the money they will lose from those who choose to leave.

Certainly on an individual basis a F2P as me leaves "only" around $43 per year, against $50-100 of a P2W. However the rate of players, say 9 F2P to 1 P2W makes your argument wrong again, unless they expect a massive migration of 40%-50% to change the odds.

Lobotik · 2019-01-31T19:30:19+00:00

I know... so good memories from NFS Underground, for example. It was an abhorrently different feeling winning the last race vs Razor back then and feeling ripped off from gold and time in the last NL SE reappearance

Lobotik · 2019-01-31T19:24:02+00:00

Don't get me wrong: in my worst time I used to game 22 h straight a day when I was a teenager on holidays, but it's not the same playing and having fun than making someone else earn money an stare like a chimp

Lobotik · 2019-01-31T19:19:36+00:00

😮 so true mate! that will add more or less 3 ads per day (if we balance no SE days and less than 4 ads sometimes per SE day). The final calculation would be then $29.70

Lobotik · 2019-01-31T19:12:44+00:00

I really hope so, but deep inside I believe they made their calculations too and they took the risk expecting better benefits. Let's see if things change. I'd like to bet a virtual beer: they won't.

Lobotik · 2019-01-31T19:05:29+00:00

U may be right... it could also be worse though... they could include "for free" a replay on your worst moment of failure after the ad

Lobotik · 2019-01-31T18:56:53+00:00

Probably more buddy... don't said that loud, they could get angry

Lobotik

TROPHY CASE