is this game doomed already?

[Bryan]

1.5k players on steam shortly after release, free weekend didn't help either, thats beyond terrible, is the game gonna die within 1 year?

[Jimmy Hunter]

A. Crossplay.
B. Stop staring at player numbers trying to make some connection between now and 12 months from now.
C. You only need a dozen players for a match at most. 1.5k players on Steam alone is plenty for that small game size.

[MessiahofMelons]

within a year? Maybe but tbh a year lifespan is pretty good

[LizardDood]

The game has cross-play. As long as there are a few hundred active players that is all this game needs because of the lobby sizes. This isn't some BR clone that is going to die in a few weeks. They have also made $2m so far. One day they may remove the initial purchase price entirely but even then the skins and battle-pass are nice enough to spend the few bucks for. Not to mention the battle-pass does not expire...

[Marbar]

Crossplay. I match at all times in under 10 seconds, stop worrying about "game dying" and just enjoy it

[Lugs]

I'll be honest, I'd rather this game be free to play and to have the ability to buy cosmetics. LoL and Fortnite were free to play and I did recall dropping hundreds for a lot of skins.

[raspberrisung]

1.5k people is still a lot for a game of this size/marketing

[Fennel]

Games never last forever. The question is whether you enjoy playing it or not -- if you do, enjoy it while it lasts.

[Eric Clapped 'Em]

Publicado originalmente por Jimmy Hunter:

A. Crossplay.
B. Stop staring at player numbers trying to make some connection between now and 12 months from now.
C. You only need a dozen players for a match at most. 1.5k players on Steam alone is plenty for that small game size.

A. Console players have the ability to turn off crossplay - which a lot do because they feel mouse and keyboard have too much of an advantage
B. You do realize that 95% of games out there have the most players available right after launch then die off within a couple of months. To think this game will have more players in a year without some sort of miracle from the developers is ignorant at best
C. This is a pretty dumb look at player counts considering how matchmaking in games work, and where everyone is located in the world. Whenever you play online games, you only get to play against a small fraction of the entire player base at any given time. Even with "worldwide matchmaking" checked, you are still put against a smaller group of players.

Publicado originalmente por bombastic side eye:

this game has a lot of potential and it's a very unique game, not much like it on the market atm. i hope it doesn't die out

It looks like it would be a very unique game, but in the end the players and developers don't treat it as such. People aren't sticking around to play it because they don't want to play a spy-themed Overwatch. People wanted to play an actual spy game - which this game is not. The developers themselves already committed this game to being an FPS first, so you see where their priorities lie with the game. That is also why all the "amazing" changes people wanted with the Misery update turned out to be nothingburgers. We all expected big changes which would force a more spy approach to the game, but that isn't what we got.

[Sonny]

Literally no one in this forum has the answer for this. Stop worrying about it just enjoy the game. It might do really well and last for years, or it might not. No one here has the answer. It's far too early to say. And that whole "games peak at launch" is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. There are plenty of games that massively expanded the playerbase months and sometimes years after launch.

[scorpionking from mummy returns]

yep dead game, guess you have to go uninstall and play fortnite for the rest of your life since it has big player number

[teler1k secret admirer]

Just put the matchmaking region to Worldwide. I can't tell when I'm on a server with high ping or low ping; I still win.

[BeaBurd]

Maybe, depends on the devs imo.

The free weekend showed a large chunk of players were interested in this game despite it not receiving the most marketing support. This implies there's a niche audience that crave a stealth action spy game. The subsequent drop however, also implies that the current iteration of the game failed expectations during the free weekend, as it did not retain interest.

Despite having spy aspects and being able to go into a more stealth-action type gameplay, the devs clearly are pointing the game in a more shooter-ish direction currently. I think this is the problem, as the FPS market is very oversaturated, and players can go to more established communities and refined gameplay if they want to scratch their FPS itch.

If the developers want to treat this game like a pet project with an FPS-first mentality, it will likely fail in the next year or two in my opinion. Hopefully it'll be a good learning period for them, but as consumers we'll probably be screwed.

If they want Deceive Inc. to enjoy sustained success, they'll need to start heavily leaning towards the stealth-action (emphasis on stealth) aspects of the game. This will mean more deceptive elements in the game, like more optional paths in maps like Hard Sell has (whereas Silver Reef is very constrained and linear), creative agents (that can do more than just shoot to win), etc.

They'll also need a renewable in-game progress system to keep players hooked, such as consumable items, ranking systems, etc. to give players the feeling of achievement regardless if they win or lose.

---

The worst part is they kind of need to do this stuff sooner rather than later, and with the update frequency they currently have, and their clear hesitation to go wild on changes (ex. current heat system), I'm worried they won't implement them fast enough before interest starts to wane from even the existing playerbase.

I hope they start implementing these changes though. I feel there's a market for spy games that no ones really capitilizing on, and this could be a successful product if pursued that way.

---

Edit:
I'll also mention that when I say they should lean more into the "stealth" aspects of the game, I'm not saying make the game slower. I'm just saying make more options to evade fights (tricky map pathing, new agent abilities, line of sight breaking gadgets/items (smoke screen anyone?). The game should be stealth + action, leaning slightly more towards stealth, but currently it's leaning way too far into the action side of things.

[Killian]

It's doomed like GTA V, and DBD. Wait what?
1,400 people on right now with Diablo 4 Server Slam going. Does this need updates? YES. Only thing slowing those updates are console verification I believe.

[Lugs]

Publicado originalmente por SleddingHedgehogs:

Console players have the ability to turn off crossplay - which a lot do because they feel mouse and keyboard have too much of an advantage

From what I've heard, controllers have aim assist which is actually pretty generous and gives controller players a bit of an advantage over people who have mouse and keyboard.

[PapaStoic]

Publicado originalmente por Bryan:

1.5k players on steam shortly after release, free weekend didn't help either, thats beyond terrible, is the game gonna die within 1 year?

We're all doomed... ageing slowly to the end of our brief and fleeting life... best to enjoy what you can while you can.