Hunt's decline in player numbers

[Silen]

This it not another "hunt is dying" kinda thread. It's just factually true that the numbers are going down compared to a couple years prior.

We had 14k avg, 34k peak numbers with Hunt's supposed biggest event yet (and celebrity support to boot) compared to 23k avg and 43k peak in July 2023 and decreasing ever since. The 2.0 peak number of around 60k was the highest ever, but heavily inflated due to the f2p weekend and most potential buyers never returned as seen in the following month. We all know why ...

I'm just wondering whether you think it's because Crytek's decision to cater towards a younger audience/making things more casual in contrast to their on avg older exsisting player base was a gamble gone wrong or would the numbers be even worse regardless, because of deeper rooted issues?

[Weidmann]

i can you tell my points, why is stopped the game, after being active over nearly 7 years now as a pre early-access player with around 3000 hrs.

1) game lost his initial atmosphere (dark, fearful, etc. just watch the old E3 trailer)
2) game got more "casual" than back in the days, especially since David Fifield joined the team
3) game had a lot of potential but is filled with old and new bugs which some aren't fixed since 6 years now
4) new UI is complete horrible and not fun
5) store is overfilled with weapon skins and DLCs
6) cheaters are an issue
7) there server backend (hosted by leaseweb) was at anytime trash and was never addressed by crytek. People got called out "it is a you problem", etc. while tons of people could proof they were wrong and indeed the server provider is the main issue here (who has an awful reputation in the IT industry! btw.)
8) new game mechanics which totally denied the "hardcore shooter" element (revive bolt, regen shot, restore shot, bounty vision, etc. etc.)
9) a balance team which only can balance in two ways (fully overpowered or nerfed to death)
10) an upper management of crytek which sees "hunt showdown" only as an income-cashcow and not a game we all fell in love at some point
11) missing mission objectives, beside carrying the bounty out
12) introducing more and more custom ammo
13) more and more "hunters" and "gun"-skins which doesnt fit the atmosphere or the game!

i could do another 30 points, but i hope you get MY PERSONAL point, why i stopped playing before PM-Event.

the first 3-4 years i was very active on their discord and made a lot of suggestions for the game. In year 5-6 i critised more to get the game back in the right direction, while especially discord mods were banning people left and right, who all had all rights to be upset (ladder exploit was a thing were crytek never talked about till the community put out pitchforks and torches!). After year 6 and now 7 i decided for me, that i can not stand the games direction and the poor management and route crytek is putting the game.

I WOULD return at some point, if crytek would sell the game to another company who actually love to work on a game. Until than i will look for some alternative (beautiful light, Hunger, etc.)

[⛧Christ Of Waltz⛧]

Aye weirdman, those are all factual points.
These devs are a joke now.
Just skin pumping.
And not upgrading or getting better servers for the people.
I think this time next year the game will be so irrelevant that they would have to sell it.
Hunger looks amazing!

[RNG Enjoyer]

It's obvious that over the years the passion at crytek went away and they become fascinated with skin flipper market.

Their biggest mistake was not starting a new game that would accomodate their new goals, but trying to bent Hunt into that.

You can see clearly that the way Hunt is is holding them back. The theme doesn't allow for too much silliness they would love to monetize, or filling it with full-auto weapons that would attract the most causal crowd.

[Silen]

I dont think the more casual direction was a bad thing per se. I wouldn have picked up Hunt otherwise. When I first was invited for a free weekend, I think it was early 2020, the experience was brutal and I couldn get into it. When I was gifted the game late 2021 it was a lot more approachable and thats when I fell in love with the game. Thats also around the time when the player numbers really picked up in comparison to the early years. They heavily accelerated this process tho and thats where I think a lot of vets draw the line.

Also, for a company wanting to make money it totally fine, but I have to agree that it feels like its their sole driver now at the sacrifice of the integrity of the game.

A few points I would add to your list:

Lack of communication. Even tho they promised multiple times they would work on that.
I mean it took em almost three weeks to acknowledge the weekly quests being bugged and they havent found a way to compensate for the missed out BB until this day.

A sense of progression. Multiple of my friends stopped playing, because the gameplay loop wasnt enough to keep em going. They missed some form of progression.

The money eco is busted. They dont reset the dollar count and its just too easy to come by. Too many ppl are sitting on hundreds of thousands if not millions. Which makes balancing weapons around it pointless and there is hardly any incentive to go for the main objective.

Of course this has smth to do with removing the ability to earn BB thru playing the game. While I agree that they might have been a bit too generious completley removing it meant less incentive to "grind"/play the game towards unlocking skins and of course less incentive to get the bounty.

[Mindboggler]

Deciding to increase the spec requirements to actually run the game is the most counter intuitive thing I've seen towards increasing the playerbase in any game.

[ThuleWulf]

It's because we were promised a major overhaul that would take Hunt into a new era, enhancing its performance and addressing long-standing issues.
What we got was an inferior version. Now almost 6 months after 1896's launch we still don't have all the content we had in the original version.

Furthermore we had a dark gloomy PVPVE shooter with tons of atmosphere.
Now we have scream dude, post mallone and clowns walking around. They ripped the soul right out of this game.

Just my 2 cents.

[₦ | cpt.morgan]

the devs are just bad in that what they do. a game with a lot of potential, that was developed in the wrong direction by incompetent devs

back in the old days, there was many Input by community for bounty hunt monsters. none of them was ever implemented by crytek.

crytek ignored all things to make a great horror game.

The engine update that was supposed to bring new life into the game was just a DLSS upgrade with a new UI and with the same unfixed spaghetti code

the best thing is they sell the game to another developer studio that will continue their original work

[Dave]

To be fair at this time of night in the US Hunt has had between 6000-9000 players for years.

It's currently as I type: 8,514 In-Game

Hunt just doesn't seem to be that popular in the States.

[Eldritch Panda]

Hunt devs killed their dedicated hardcore playerbase in favor of "the modern audience" who will leave them after getting bored of post malone and call of duty style gameplay after a couple months.

There's a reason the best and well known players don't play this game anymore. Even the most toxic and well known people ditched this game.