The future of the true Galaxy on Fire series You are absolutely right, Bloodangel! Many dedicated hardcore Galaxy on Fire fans have been waiting for Galaxy on Fire 3, the true predecessor to the series. There's nothing worse than losing a portion of your fanbase; you have to keep your fanbase happy above all else. Tobi@Fishlabs I understand that monetization is important for big project like these, but have you thought about taking some additional risks for your fanbase? If the fans love the developer, they will support the developer. You already have a revenue stream coming from Galaxy on Fire Alliances; why not double-up and make Galaxy on Fire 3 - Manticore/Manticore Rising an additional source of revenue in order to complete the game that we REALLY WANT-----the true premium Galaxy on Fire 3 game that lives up to the series. You do realize that many of us are willing to pay waaay over $9.99 (USD or equivalent) for the game that we've been waiting YEARS for, right? I wholeheartedly support the idea of adding DLC over time (like GOF2 did) for a fixed price; you could constantly keep the game updated with content this way, and you can rest assured that we fans WILL pay for it. ^: So, all in all, you could have used as much revenue as possible for the most important project; the Galaxy on Fire series was FISHLAB's most praised creation. We appreciate Deep Silver FISHLABS bringing back the series, but the changes that made the series what it was has suffered a change too drastic. Pretty graphics mean nothing if core gameplay is not fun. About ONLINE CONNECTIVITY REQUIREMENT Why not just require online connectivity for online-specific situations? What if I just want to play the game purely single-player for now, and then maybe later decide to give the multiplayer coop a try? It's all part of the freedom that we want; we want to play ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, unhindered by a constant internet connection (even EDGE). If the gameplay takes place on the device itself, then why not save all data locally and let the game run offline when there's no online-specific events happening? Gameloft's Dungeon Hunter 4 game ran both online and offline; it asked the user to connect for online-specific situations. Despite them being a greedy company (as you may already know), I was still satisfied with the fact that I could at least PLAY the core game without the need for a persistent internet connection. This means a lot to players, and it can make or break a sale in a heartbeat. FREEMIUM games usually are "endless", and don't have a complete story, just a bunch of mundane "missions" that don't offer any true depth like a PREMIUM game (GOF1 and GOF2); we all fell in love with Keith T. Maxwell, and the fans still go on about him today! In closing, the worst part of this FREEMIUM game monetization scheme is the fact that once you decide to shut the servers down, Galaxy on Fire 3 - Manticore (iOS) will no longer be playable. All money customers spent on the game would be gone, and so would the game. Do big companies have any idea how that makes people feel? I think that if this the future of the game, Deep Silver FISHLABS should AT LEAST plan to remove all online requirements (allowing players to play offline) before shutting down the servers. At the same time, you could monetize from this very action by including an "OFFLINE PLAY IAP". You gotta take more risks for your fanbase!
Thanks for taking the time to sit down and write the full explanation since till now with all the information I had got provided last year I had assumed that Fishlabs was working indeed back in Germany on two Games Galaxy on Fire 3 - Manticore which would be an port of the Apple TV Build and not the full blown up Freemium Mobile Video Game we are now getting and an Open World Galaxy on Fire 3 which would be very similar to Galaxy on Fire 1/2. I should have probably asked my contact at Deep Silver a second time before I put up my thread where I mentioned that Galaxy on Fire 3 - Manticore and Galaxy on Fire 3 were two different Games while indeed there are the same Game and I had only read the Information the wrong way I had gotten back then from Deep Silver. Sorry for that. I have learned my lesson I did update my thread to indicate the new Information that you had provided. Thanks again for taking the time.
Sorry guys, I can't spin this positively. It's like my opinion man. This sucks bad. I mean seriously how did you think it was a good idea to destroy the basis of GoF - being an open world and trading simulation. At least in past GoF games that didnt feature this were named differently. This is suppose to be 3 tho? Wow, no thanks! Thank god others have stepped up to the plate over the last couple years. Oh and No Man Sky will be pretty rad I guess. Good luck FL. Despite everything stated above I hope the best for you.
@senkoujin: Unfortuantely, things aren't that easy. Of course, a lot of people tell us that they'd gladly pay 10 bucks upfront for a new GOF game. But in this day and age, the number of people who'd really do that is vanishingly small compared to the number of people who are instantly put off by such a price tag. Believe me, we have done all the numbers and played every scenario through. But in the end, it all boils down to this: Either make GOF3 as a free app with in-app purchases or not make GOF3 (or any other GOF game) at all. Sounds harsh, but that's how it is. And there is one thing you cannot leave out of the picture. Galaxy on Fire 2 is indeed our biggest hit and the game everyone thinks of when they hear the name of our studio. But all that glory lies way in the past. Six years are an eternity on mobile and the landscape has changed completely in the meantime. In this day and age, releasing the next GOF game similar to how we released GOF2 would be suicide for us. Sorry. This being said, we will do everything we can to make GOF3 a fun, engaging game for old and new players alike. We still have a long journey ahead of us and we will make a ton of changes along the way. So don't be disappointed when you stumble upon something that puts you off in the current build. We review all user feedback carefully and adjust the set screws on the basis of the player echo we get. As for the online connectivity requirement, I unfortunately lack the understanding to discuss the technical side of it with you. in detail But one thing I can assure you. We don't plan to take GOF3 offline again anytime soon. And I'm talking about years here, not months. So you really don't have to worry that your progress will be lost and the game will be gone from one day to another. This is simply not gonna happen, neither in the foreseeable nor in the very distant future. @Sanuku! And don't worry. We know that the whole affair around Manticore RISING and Galaxy on Fire 3 - Manticore is quite confusing.^^
I've follow almost every information about GoF3 and feel OK with the new GoF with more social or maybe multiplayer concept. But after 2 hour trying the game, i feel it's just the wingman system is that all the "multiplayer thing" and you guy didn't even have a chat or something like that If the multiplayer you guys want to be like this, why not make the game is playable offline and making like a arena for player pvp (online only, iap require connection too) I think people will not like this wingman system (they ram my ship a lot too )
I can understand that nowadays premium games are risky for gaming companies, as many people ara only onto freemium games. I can understand the games with advertisments, as long as there is an IAP to remove them. I even think that IAP are not so bad, if they do not affect the gameplay or the experience. I can barely understand the always online requirement. BUT, what I cannot understand is the lack of the exploration and trading gamingm modes... Please, bring them back!! By the way, is syncing between devices working? I have installed it on my iphone & ipad, and it is not syncing. I have ios 10 beta installed though...
TA is a little bit of an echo-chamber when it comes to paying for premium titles, I would bet. Just because 50 people on TA will pay 10 bucks a title doesn't necessarily project to the broader market.
I just talked to our devs. Synchronisation between iPhone and iPad is currently not possible, but they are already working on it and will add it soon. Though fully functional and playable, the version of GOF3 that is currently available on the Dutch App Store will still be adjusted, improved and expanded a lot before we are ready to release it globally. As for exploration and trading, all I can say at this point is this: They will not be in the game from day one. But there is always the chance that these, or similar, features will be added at a later stage. I can't promise anything early one, but I can assure you that we listen to all your feedback carefully -- no matter whether it is positive or negative, nice or harsh -- and use it as the basis on which we decide the direction our game will take in the future.
Wow! I have fond memories of GOF2 on my phone when I was going through a particularly rough breakup. I was locked away on some island playing the game night and day - it kept my mind off things and was just an amazing game! After GOF Alliances, I wasn't expecting too much from Fish Labs but this is like a slap in the face. Yes I would gladly pay $15-$20 for it or whatever you charged. If you gave us an expanded experience of GOF2. Tobi: I will not be responding to your message, but honestly, if it was the choice between making freemium crap and not making it at all, I wish you would have done the honorable thing and not made it at all. People would have remembered you as a premium developer with a great product instead of another crappy gameloft who no one cares about anymore. Anyway, glad to know all this rather than even wasting time downloading it. Enjoy the IAP money it brings you.
Galaxy on Fire 3 - FATE SEALED ^: I see, I guess you truly had no choice but to make it this way (from a business stand-point). I wonder....if Deep Silver FISHLABS actually DID have enough money to make the true predecessor to Galaxy on Fire 2 ---- "Galaxy on Fire 3", would they still do it for the fans? ^: I remember when FISHLABS were going through tough times, and I'm sure that Deep Silver FISHLABS is trying to prevent that from happening again, so I guess once again, you had no choice. ^: Thank you for your kindred words; we the fans will no doubt continue to observe the progress of Galaxy on Fire 3 - Manticore (mobile). ^: So it is written. This is an affirmation that Galaxy on Fire 3 - Manticore will always require a constant internet connection just to play the core game for the remainder of its lifespan. My concern isn't about losing progress now, my concern is about being able to play Galaxy on Fire 3 - Manticore offline BEFORE and/or AFTER the servers are shut down. Money is important, yes? You want to make more money, yes? Well take my suggestion and give us an IAP that grants us OFFLINE PLAY in situations that don't require ONLINE access (multiplayer, co-op, etc.); this is a single-player game at heart. Your developers should remove all online connectivity checks (aside from the really critical ones like wingmen/multiplayer, etc.), and allow the core game to run on the device and save the data locally (on the device). Does it really cost so much money just to implement such a feeble IAP? IAPs are designed for profit gains; why not implement this "OFFLINE PLAY" IAP? You would be doing yourselves ($$$) AND your fans a great service. If this is too technical for detailed explanations, then perhaps you can get some of your developers to read this topic and give some insight.
I concern about it too, because as i saw the only thing worth internet connection are for iap and wingman system (useless one) It'll be better if the game can be play offline with NPC wingman and if you want you can let the app download the information of other player whenever the player connect to internet for real-person wingman. Because it's just an AI controling somebody ship with their equipment, not actual co-op
Sorry, Phoenix. But you're not being reasonable here. It might be easy said for you, but for us "honorably" shutting down the lights and letting 90 employees off is not an option. Being "remembered as a premium developer", who failed to adapt to the way the market developed, does not pay anyone's rent and put food on the table. Sorry if I'm being a little touchy here, but I was actually around when this company had to file for insolvency. When from one day to another 1/3 of our colleagues were laid off. When the rest of us worked on cut wages. And when ultimately we just couldn't keep our head above the water anymore. Believe me, those weren't exactly the best of times. And knowing what we know now, we will definitely not make the same mistakes twice...
As for the connectivity issue, we will of course introduce more coop features besides the wingmen system along the way. As said earlier, we have just taken the first step of a long journey. As an on-going service, the game will constantly evolve and expand during live operation. We already find it really awesome in its current state. But there is so much more to come.
Well said Tobi, there's unfortunately a lot of people in this thread that are completely out of touch with reality. To those people I say, please take some time to educate yourselves on how the current mobile game landscape looks, and how for-profit organizations operate.
Deep Silver FISHLABS Marketing ^: So, you don't want to maximize profits? In one hand, you got a possible IAP ($$$), in the other hand, you have nothing. You would choose the hand with nothing? In this day and age, wouldn't most companies go for the hand that presents more possible revenue?
I am not totally turned off by F2P monetized games but i would rather pay once, though i can see that in todays market, it may not be feasible Glad that it isnt JUST me that couldnt get the ipad/iphone device sync working, but it seems like this may be something that is worked on. As this one thing is important to me
I wanted to stay out of this thread - just not very interested as I'd prefer another open-world game like GoF1/2 - but now I feel like I need to say a few things. So here goes: The potential inaccuracy of revenue prediction models aside for now (the "possible $$$" part), you are wrong on the "you have nothing" part: First of all, you have effort, which means costs. Let's be very very modest and assume one working day to get a "non-IAP offline gameplay" implemented (hint: almost certainly it's more). Manual testing that it didn't break anything: another very modest working day. Manual testing that everything works as expected: depending on game size, one day to one week - again a very low-end estimate. Setting up automated testing (I'll just assume Fishlabs belongs to the "good guys" and does that ) to make sure nothing breaks in future builds: A bit more difficult to estimate, as this is usually far from trivial (going by what I see at work). So let's say a week as minimum estimate. Documentation: another very low-end full day. Bugfixing, updating, making sure things keep working: Also, hard to estimate. Plus, all of those require engineering, testing, documentation etc. as well. Let's just say a month over the game's lifetime, for the sake of simplicity and illustration. So we are looking at an absolute minimum of - we'll round up a bit to leave a buffer - 6 weeks of one person working fulltime (hint: it's not that easy) . I'll skip calculations for how many units they have to sell at what price, and what the expected sales figures would be (hint: most likely not that good, else they wouldn't bother implementing IAP/F2P. That takes effort, too) . Doesn't aid making my point anyways. Which is: "in the other hand, you have nothing" is so far from reality, it's not even wrong anymore. You have a good chunk of work for unknown - and likely low - returns. That's what you have on the other hand. Done, thanks for watching, dear audience, the stage is yours again. P.S.: Please move the IAP etc. discussion somewhere else, and leave this thread for the actual game. Thank you.
I don't think you should have "honorably" shutdown GOF because of IAP. I think you should have, because this isn't GOF. You created a completely different game and slapped the GOF moniker on it. That by itself wouldn't cause such animosity towards FishLabs. It's the fact that you are throwing a 3 after GOF. This isn't a proper sequel. Hell, it's not even poor sequel. From the videoI've seen this looks like a fancy Facebook game. I'm no business expert. Maybe this will work for you. Maybe it won't. I can't figure how you guys came up with the theory that gutting the game AND adding IAP was going to be a commercial success.
Deep Silver FISHLABS Marketing [Clarified] ^: Please let me clarify, what I meant by "nothing in the other hand", was no additional profits/revenue gained if said IAP wasn't implemented. It's basically like saying "OFFER an IAP" for potential extra revenue OR don't offer it, which gains no potential extra revenue. I've already taken into account that the "ENABLE OFFLINE PLAY IAP" implementation should be thoroughly tested by the development team, and I'm sure that the team at Deep Silver FISHLABS could handle this task. There are MANY players out there (not just GOF fans) that would pay for this IAP, as it's a great convenience. Customers will pay for convenience; they will pay for the premium currency this game offers for convenience, the same goes for the ENABLE OFFLINE IAP----it's convenient. I don't work for Deep Silver FISHLABS, but I believe that at a cost of ~$4.99 (USD) or higher, Galaxy on Fire 3 - Manticore could see a surplus in revenue above the company's projected estimates. The work that the devs put in to implement the IAP would be paid for within the first or second year of release, and with the company's emphasis on the game being active for several YEARS, there would be more people downloading the game (new players alike) that would certainly consider paying for this kind of convenience. So, if we do a makeshift calculation: Galaxy on Fire 2 alone was reported to have received over 10,000,000 downloads Let's take a safe 20% out of that number: 2,000,000 customers Let's also say that these 2,000,000 customers are hardcore GOF fans and they are willing to support GOF 3 - Manticore (mobile) in every way (including purchasing the ENABLE OFFLINE PLAY IAP). Let's set the ENABLE OFFLINE IAP price to $4.99 (USD) for example. If they all pay for the IAP, Deep Silver FISHLABS will net a gross amount of: $9,980,000 (USD) ...after all other incurred fees (Apple, Google), the company may be looking at around $6,000,000+ (USD) in revenue from the IAP alone. This is from only 20% of the people that played GOF 2, and this calculation does not account for any new future players that may stumble upon this POPULAR game (series) somewhere within this game's long projected lifespan (several YEARS) and pay for the IAP. I honestly don't believe that it would cost over $6,000,000 to implement a single IAP like this in Galaxy on Fire 3 - Manticore (mobile) as it stands currently. I see this as an opportunity to not only cater to the players (your valued customers/fans), but it is also an opportunity to gain potential revenue.
