Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?
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Franchise doesn’t really make them any money outside of the cost of the game itself. Why would they spend more time on something that doesn’t make them more money such as DD? Maybe franchise players need to come up with ideas that would bring in more money for SDS with franchise.
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Everyone knows that Franchise doesn't make them money, but the fact is that good customer service is a reason to work on it. In my opinion, the only hope for improvements to Franchise, is for SDS to have competition in the sim baseball market. As long as they have the market cornered, they have no motivation to fix Franchise. I came to this realization 5 years ago, many have before that.
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This is what happens when there is no competition. They are going down the road of Madden which is a disappointment to 10% of the fanbase but billions to the development team via online transactions
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@raylewissb47_psn said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
Franchise doesn’t really make them any money outside of the cost of the game itself. Why would they spend more time on something that doesn’t make them more money such as DD? Maybe franchise players need to come up with ideas that would bring in more money for SDS with franchise.
It's not on franchise players to do SDS' job for them. I keep seeing the "Franchise doesn't make them any money" argument but man people really do forget Franchise was one of the only things that made them money not too long ago. Until DD became a major player which was what, MLB 16? 15? They relied solely on Franchise and RTTS. If this game had a killer Franchise mode or if RTTS was good again, they would sell a ton more copies and people would play the game well past October when content starts to die down in DD.
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@iamfrenchfrey said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
@raylewissb47_psn said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
Franchise doesn’t really make them any money outside of the cost of the game itself. Why would they spend more time on something that doesn’t make them more money such as DD? Maybe franchise players need to come up with ideas that would bring in more money for SDS with franchise.
It's not on franchise players to do SDS' job for them. I keep seeing the "Franchise doesn't make them any money" argument but man people really do forget Franchise was one of the only things that made them money not too long ago. Until DD became a major player which was what, MLB 16? 15? They relied solely on Franchise and RTTS. If this game had a killer Franchise mode or if RTTS was good again, they would sell a ton more copies and people would play the game well past October when content starts to die down in DD.
The key part of your response is “was” one of the only things that made money and they “relied” solely on Franchise and RTTS. That’s not the case anymore. Gaming has changed a lot since then. They don’t make that much on the actual copy of the game. It’s the micro transactions that bring in the bulk of the revenue. So unless they start adding micro transactions to franchise and RTTS, don’t expect them to put much effort into it.
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@raylewissb47_psn said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
@iamfrenchfrey said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
@raylewissb47_psn said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
Franchise doesn’t really make them any money outside of the cost of the game itself. Why would they spend more time on something that doesn’t make them more money such as DD? Maybe franchise players need to come up with ideas that would bring in more money for SDS with franchise.
It's not on franchise players to do SDS' job for them. I keep seeing the "Franchise doesn't make them any money" argument but man people really do forget Franchise was one of the only things that made them money not too long ago. Until DD became a major player which was what, MLB 16? 15? They relied solely on Franchise and RTTS. If this game had a killer Franchise mode or if RTTS was good again, they would sell a ton more copies and people would play the game well past October when content starts to die down in DD.
The key part of your response is “was” one of the only things that made money and they “relied” solely on Franchise and RTTS. That’s not the case anymore. Gaming has changed a lot since then. They don’t make that much on the actual copy of the game. It’s the micro transactions that bring in the bulk of the revenue. So unless they start adding micro transactions to franchise and RTTS, don’t expect them to put much effort into it.
Great point. Whether we like it or not, the world changes around us out of our control. To quote BB: adapt or die.
If they want to do stadium creator right, have a base set of assets for free and then sell packs with others. Too late for the UFOs and dinosaurs but there are plenty of ideas out there that would microtransact.
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While I think money is a big part of it, I honestly believe that it is just lack of players playing the mode. Many years ago during their live streams they used to give us numbers on their most played modes. At that time it was RTTS in first, DD in second and then franchise and online franchise trailing (Online franchise by a large amount).
And while it becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy I think it boils down to resources. How much of their limited development time and staff do they want to devote to the least played, least profitable of the major game modes?
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@dolenz_psn said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
While I think money is a big part of it, I honestly believe that it is just lack of players playing the mode. Many years ago during their live streams they used to give us numbers on their most played modes. At that time it was RTTS in first, DD in second and then franchise and online franchise trailing (Online franchise by a large amount).
And while it becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy I think it boils down to resources. How much of their limited development time and staff do they want to devote to the least played of the major game modes?
You are right of course (if they were telling the whole story). However it’s circular, as we know. As a development company, how can you justify choosing to make a better quality product that your core user base - those users who purchased year after year because the game’s roots were deep in the season-based modes (Season, RTTS and Franchise) - stayed loyal to, when your budget and bonuses are dependent on how much a game can make in micro transactions.
It’s a sad trend in all sports games that unfortunately SDS had to (again to paraphrase BB) adapt to or die, that messing with their users’ psychological well-being has become the business model of choice. ‘Gotta get the next reward’ and forcing players into mind-numbing grinding in order to do that is not fun, not healthy, and not what video games are about.
Having said all of that, a company using the user% drives funding for modes as an excuse to neglect its core user base is poor form. There is no reason that 10% of players (for example, maybe it’s less) should be denied a quality product just because the 60% mode makes 90% of the money. Distribution of wealth can occur quite easily so that everybody gets to enjoy the new game. Starting to get a bit socialist here.
To paraphrase Michael Moore in The Corporation (2004), the problem here is the profit motive; there’s no such thing as enough.
And that problem goes far beyond the coders, SDS, and even Sony. Society and governments are to blame for that one.
Well I just went off on a tangent, didn’t I! Don’t know what happened there!
I wonder if SDS reviews data on how many people are still playing Franchise mode in TS20, TS19 etc. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if TS20 and even 16 and 17 have a more active franchise player base than 21.
It’s cyclical anyway. At some stage in the future, Franchise modes will be the flavour and rewards will be stale and boring.
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Franchise mode doesn't have as many players as DD, because it's gone completely stale. I say it's at least 60/40 a revenue thing. Franchise players maybe the minority, but they are the unsilent minority, I'm seeing it everywhere people complaining for tears that it's not being touched.
Fact is, it will take competitors to try and come in and motivate them to improve Franchise mode. And it's just not going to happen.
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@nflman2033_mlbts said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
Franchise mode doesn't have as many players as DD, because it's gone completely stale. I say it's at least 60/40 a revenue thing. Franchise players maybe the minority, but they are the unsilent minority, I'm seeing it everywhere people complaining for tears that it's not being touched.
Fact is, it will take competitors to try and come in and motivate them to improve Franchise mode. And it's just not going to happen.
Another good point but it comes down again to the question ‘now that franchise players are a much smaller percentage of users than they used to be (and probably getting even smaller) and presently not an ongoing revenue stream, what is the financial impact if they stop buying our game and switch to a competitor?’
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@red_ted_is_back said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
@nflman2033_mlbts said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
Franchise mode doesn't have as many players as DD, because it's gone completely stale. I say it's at least 60/40 a revenue thing. Franchise players maybe the minority, but they are the unsilent minority, I'm seeing it everywhere people complaining for tears that it's not being touched.
Fact is, it will take competitors to try and come in and motivate them to improve Franchise mode. And it's just not going to happen.
Another good point but it comes down again to the question ‘now that franchise players are a much smaller percentage of users than they used to be (and probably getting even smaller) and presently not an ongoing revenue stream, what is the financial impact if they stop buying our game and switch to a competitor?’
If it's just for Franchise, not much at all, but if they can offer a fun competitive game. It could push SDS. I just want the option, I miss 2005 when we had at least 3 or 4 viable options to choose from for a base game.
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@nflman2033_mlbts said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
@red_ted_is_back said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
@nflman2033_mlbts said in Why Does SDS hate Franchise mode and its Players?:
Franchise mode doesn't have as many players as DD, because it's gone completely stale. I say it's at least 60/40 a revenue thing. Franchise players maybe the minority, but they are the unsilent minority, I'm seeing it everywhere people complaining for tears that it's not being touched.
Fact is, it will take competitors to try and come in and motivate them to improve Franchise mode. And it's just not going to happen.
Another good point but it comes down again to the question ‘now that franchise players are a much smaller percentage of users than they used to be (and probably getting even smaller) and presently not an ongoing revenue stream, what is the financial impact if they stop buying our game and switch to a competitor?’
If it's just for Franchise, not much at all, but if they can offer a fun competitive game. It could push SDS. I just want the option, I miss 2005 when we had at least 3 or 4 viable options to choose from for a base game.
The problem with a lack of competition is that now your fanbase ends up with extremely high expectations every year since you are the only game in town.
Choice is always a good thing. When we all had choices in 2004 and 2005, it became a lot easier to switch to a different baseball game if another studio was in the process of overhauling one of their modes (like SDS is with Franchise right now). Fans were able to have breathing room and tempered expectations when a studio decided to focus on something else for that year's development cycle.
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