Unifying the Player Base

[The_Other_Club]

I made a video on how it will be important to unify the player base in BF1. This video covers everything from DLC to certain game modes. I have included a list of topics and when they appear in the video if you just want to jump to a specific area of discussion. Let me know what you think, lets get some discussion going.

[1:35] Expensive DLC can Divide the Player Base
[1:45] Financial Profitability of DLC–two scenarios
[2:53] Unify Player Base pre-DLC by eliminating superfluous/low traffic game modes.
[3:32] New Game Mode that redefines BF multiplayer experience–is it Operations?
[3:50]THE IDEA OF A CHALLENGING GAME MODE THAT IS DELIBERATELY DIFFICULT (Like Beta Walker Assault in SWB

[Timelord]

Appreciate the breakdown of the topics. Wish more youtubers would do that.

[Ben]

Great video! I like the educational tone, really clear what points you are getting across.

I hope DICE see this and consider acting on the points you brought up, I agree with most of them.

[Timelord]

@The_Other_Club

I made a video on how it will be important to unify the player base in BF1. This video covers everything from DLC to certain game modes. I have included a list of topics and when they appear in the video if you just want to jump to a specific area of discussion. Let me know what you think, lets get some discussion going.

[1:35] Expensive DLC can Divide the Player Base
[1:45] Financial Profitability of DLC–two scenarios
[2:53] Unify Player Base pre-DLC by eliminating superfluous/low traffic game modes.
[3:32] New Game Mode that redefines BF multiplayer experience–is it Operations?
[3:50]THE IDEA OF A CHALLENGING GAME MODE THAT IS DELIBERATELY DIFFICULT (Like Beta Walker Assault in SWB

- YouTube

Tweeted it out to the forums followers (over 2000), so hopefully you get some exposure for a good video

[Bnarsalah_97]

@The_Other_Club

I made a video on how it will be important to unify the player base in BF1. This video covers everything from DLC to certain game modes. I have included a list of topics and when they appear in the video if you just want to jump to a specific area of discussion. Let me know what you think, lets get some discussion going.

[1:35] Expensive DLC can Divide the Player Base
[1:45] Financial Profitability of DLC–two scenarios
[2:53] Unify Player Base pre-DLC by eliminating superfluous/low traffic game modes.
[3:32] New Game Mode that redefines BF multiplayer experience–is it Operations?
[3:50]THE IDEA OF A CHALLENGING GAME MODE THAT IS DELIBERATELY DIFFICULT (Like Beta Walker Assault in SWB

- YouTube

Great vid bro

[The_Other_Club]

@Timelord_

Tweeted it out to the forums followers (over 2000), so hopefully you get some exposure for a good video

Thank you so much man! I love making these videos. I have three more that I will post on here in the near future!

[Timelord]

@The_Other_Club

Thank you so much man! I love making these videos. I have three more that I will post on here in the near future!

Awesome man!

[Anzac]

Awesome vid mate, very informative and well done, thank you.

[Sawtooth75]

I’m not really sure if I agree with your point about dividing the player base. People have the tendency to want more for less money, that will always be something they need to deal with.

About paying more for the game and have the DLC’s for free VS paying less for the basegame and pay for each DLC seperately;
I think what you didn’t consider is the option of Premium/Season Pass. This basically allows customers have 3 options:
[LIST=1]
[]Buy the base game and nothing else
[]Buy the base game and all DLC’s you like
[*]Buy the base game PLUS all future DLC’s in advance for less money
[/LIST]

Obviously, if you’re a very active BF player and know you will want to experience the full game with everything it has to offer, chances are you’ll get premium from the get go (assuming you can afford it, but he, you had 3 years to save up, right?)

Making the game more expensive with free DLC’s will probably make the game a little less interesting for casual gamers. Lot’s of people buy the game, play it for a while and move on…you’ll be shocked by how many people are actually like that. They might not buy the game because maybe they’re not interested in the DLC’s or maybe even don’t play multiplayer. Current estimates are that BF4 sold about 17 million copies (maybe even more, no official numbers available) but according to BF4Stats.com only 700.000 people have been registered playing Multiplayer. Lets say that this is a serious underestimation and lets assume it’s more like 2.000.000 (I think Julian Manolv mentioned this figure once)

Then the ratio of Total Copies sold vs. Copies sold for Multiplayer is about 8:1. So for each 8 copies sold, only 1 copy will be used for multiplayer. That 1 copy might also make use of DLC’s (Since DLC’s in general are only Multiplayer focused).

So if they would raise the price of each copy to include free DLC’s, some singleplayer focussed customers might play Multiplayer because of the free DLC’s, but that won’t be many. At the same time, some people might not pick up a copy because it’s to expensive for a Single Player experience alone. So what they do is make the game accessible to both Single Player as well as Multi player focused costumers. The Multiplayer customers can get more out of the experience by buying the DLC’s and expand the options and don’t get bored.

This is a very valid marketing strategy that makes sense. The whole discussion about splitting player base is completely Multiplayer Focussed, which is basically only a fraction of the potential customers…

Does that make sense?

[The_Other_Club]

@Sawtooth75

I’m not really sure if I agree with your point about dividing the player base. People have the tendency to want more for less money, that will always be something they need to deal with.

About paying more for the game and have the DLC’s for free VS paying less for the basegame and pay for each DLC seperately;
I think what you didn’t consider is the option of Premium/Season Pass. This basically allows customers have 3 options:
[LIST=1]
[]Buy the base game and nothing else
[]Buy the base game and all DLC’s you like
[*]Buy the base game PLUS all future DLC’s in advance for less money
[/LIST]

Obviously, if you’re a very active BF player and know you will want to experience the full game with everything it has to offer, chances are you’ll get premium from the get go (assuming you can afford it, but he, you had 3 years to save up, right?)

Making the game more expensive with free DLC’s will probably make the game a little less interesting for casual gamers. Lot’s of people buy the game, play it for a while and move on…you’ll be shocked by how many people are actually like that. They might not buy the game because maybe they’re not interested in the DLC’s or maybe even don’t play multiplayer. Current estimates are that BF4 sold about 17 million copies (maybe even more, no official numbers available) but according to BF4Stats.com only 700.000 people have been registered playing Multiplayer. Lets say that this is a serious underestimation and lets assume it’s more like 2.000.000 (I think Julian Manolv mentioned this figure once)

Then the ratio of Total Copies sold vs. Copies sold for Multiplayer is about 8:1. So for each 8 copies sold, only 1 copy will be used for multiplayer. That 1 copy might also make use of DLC’s (Since DLC’s in general are only Multiplayer focused).

So if they would raise the price of each copy to include free DLC’s, some singleplayer focussed customers might play Multiplayer because of the free DLC’s, but that won’t be many. At the same time, some people might not pick up a copy because it’s to expensive for a Single Player experience alone. So what they do is make the game accessible to both Single Player as well as Multi player focused costumers. The Multiplayer customers can get more out of the experience by buying the DLC’s and expand the options and don’t get bored.

This is a very valid marketing strategy that makes sense. The whole discussion about splitting player base is completely Multiplayer Focussed, which is basically only a fraction of the potential customers…

Does that make sense?

Makes complete sense. That was primarily what I was concerned about in this video–splitting the multiplayer player base. But here is an interesting point:

7 million bought BF4. Only about 1.6 purchased the season pass. My point is consumers will be less price sensitive at $70 or $75 at the outset when the game is hyped, fresh and new–then $50 up front or $60 down stream (if you buy 4 15$ DLC’s as they come out individually)

[Sawtooth75]

@The_Other_Club

Makes complete sense. That was primarily what I was concerned about in this video–splitting the multiplayer player base. But here is an interesting point:

7 million bought BF4. Only about 1.6 purchased the season pass. My point is consumers will be less price sensitive at $70 or $75 at the outset when the game is hyped, fresh and new–then $50 up front or $60 down stream (if you buy 4 15$ DLC’s as they come out individually)

Those figures come from BF4Central, hardly a reliable source. Next to that, they’re from early 2014 and are based on reports from the past Fiscal Quarter., making them even older. The 7 million is an absolute minimum, and I’m sure I’ve seen the number 15 million somewhere…now I only need to find where it was…LOL

[Sawtooth75]

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=battlefield+4
14 million copies and those numbers aren’t even complete. 0 copies sold in Japan for PC and XONE?

[Timelord]

@Sawtooth75

I’m not really sure if I agree with your point about dividing the player base. People have the tendency to want more for less money, that will always be something they need to deal with.

About paying more for the game and have the DLC’s for free VS paying less for the basegame and pay for each DLC seperately;
I think what you didn’t consider is the option of Premium/Season Pass. This basically allows customers have 3 options:
[LIST=1]
[]Buy the base game and nothing else
[]Buy the base game and all DLC’s you like
[*]Buy the base game PLUS all future DLC’s in advance for less money
[/LIST]

Obviously, if you’re a very active BF player and know you will want to experience the full game with everything it has to offer, chances are you’ll get premium from the get go (assuming you can afford it, but he, you had 3 years to save up, right?)

Making the game more expensive with free DLC’s will probably make the game a little less interesting for casual gamers. Lot’s of people buy the game, play it for a while and move on…you’ll be shocked by how many people are actually like that. They might not buy the game because maybe they’re not interested in the DLC’s or maybe even don’t play multiplayer. Current estimates are that BF4 sold about 17 million copies (maybe even more, no official numbers available) but according to BF4Stats.com only 700.000 people have been registered playing Multiplayer. Lets say that this is a serious underestimation and lets assume it’s more like 2.000.000 (I think Julian Manolv mentioned this figure once)

Then the ratio of Total Copies sold vs. Copies sold for Multiplayer is about 8:1. So for each 8 copies sold, only 1 copy will be used for multiplayer. That 1 copy might also make use of DLC’s (Since DLC’s in general are only Multiplayer focused).

So if they would raise the price of each copy to include free DLC’s, some singleplayer focussed customers might play Multiplayer because of the free DLC’s, but that won’t be many. At the same time, some people might not pick up a copy because it’s to expensive for a Single Player experience alone. So what they do is make the game accessible to both Single Player as well as Multi player focused costumers. The Multiplayer customers can get more out of the experience by buying the DLC’s and expand the options and don’t get bored.

This is a very valid marketing strategy that makes sense. The whole discussion about splitting player base is completely Multiplayer Focussed, which is basically only a fraction of the potential customers…

Does that make sense?

I for one like the concept of paid DLC. It encourages the developer to continually work on the game in order to earn more of our $$. If there were no DLC I could easily see developers push the product out the door, write 1-2 patches and move onto other projects.

If the game is a buggy mess, no one will open their wallets for DLC until the bugs have been squashed, which I think is part of the reason that Battlefield4 got the attention that it did to fix the release issues.

[Timelord]

@The_Other_Club

Makes complete sense. That was primarily what I was concerned about in this video–splitting the multiplayer player base. But here is an interesting point:

7 million bought BF4. Only about 1.6 purchased the season pass. My point is consumers will be less price sensitive at $70 or $75 at the outset when the game is hyped, fresh and new–then $50 up front or $60 down stream (if you buy 4 15$ DLC’s as they come out individually)

7 million seems SUPER low…

[Timelord]

@Sawtooth75

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=battlefield+4
14 million copies and those numbers aren’t even complete. 0 copies sold in Japan for PC and XONE?

That looks better. Add in Japan, and other APAC and I could see that hitting 16-17 million units sold.

[Blackburn]

Titanfall 2, all DLC will be free, why can’t all games be like this?

Maybe add some skins if you want anything extra but make it like Rainbow Six Siege, weapon skins cost $6 and it’s a set

Laurence of Arabia pack - $6 to make an example

[Timelord]

@Blackburn

Titanfall 2, all DLC will be free, why can’t all games be like this?

Maybe add some skins if you want anything extra but make it like Rainbow Six Siege, weapon skins cost $6 and it’s a set

Laurence of Arabia pack - $6 to make an example

They need to do everything they can to sell Titanfall if you ask me. Battlefield is a different beast.

[The_Other_Club]

@Timelord_

That looks better. Add in Japan, and other APAC and I could see that hitting 16-17 million units sold.

I think the ratio between number of units sold and number of Premium packages purchased would still be similar to 7 to 1 or 6 to 1.

[Timelord]

@The_Other_Club

I think the ratio between number of units sold and number of Premium packages purchased would still be similar to 7 to 1 or 6 to 1.

Yeah - that seems like a fair number to me.

[Sawtooth75]

This a graph published by Pstats a long time ago. It’s the number of unique players over a 7-day period. 1.8 million players for Battlefield 4 in Multiplayer…so this is the absolute minimum number of players who played BF4 multiplayer.

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