Thoughts on Current FG Monetization and How to "FIX" it?

here4outbreak

Paladin Knight
Level 1
75%
Joined
Jan 6, 2025
Messages
81
Level up in
19 posts
Reaction score
123
Points
1,377
Title kinda explains itself really, Majin Obama been posting more recently and the newest upload actually covers something I've thought about for a while.

Personally I vibe with most of the points mentioned, however I wasn't around for the SF4 re-release style of updates so I'm curious if anyone else could chime in with their own thoughts from that perspective. Some stuff I wanna zero in on right now though are brainstorming some alternatives to the constant season pass cycle we currently have because I bought SF6 a while ago (before S3) yet hardly play it because I didn't shell out another 60 to be caught up on dlc so now I can't lab against them and that's kind of a dealbreaker for me.

I am kind of undermining the prompt though by saying that I actually don't mind the season pass structure so long as the base game is reasonably priced. SF6 is a game I think may be worth 60 on account of world tour but I don't really find that kind of stuff really all that interesting so it's why I'm iffy on that pricing. NRS titles do come with a full story mode (though the quality of the story is in question) and a few offline offerings for those that just want to engage with the game without the pressure of "getting good" if they don't want to which I think makes the purchase a little less questionable. It also helps that the previous releases tend to go on deep discounts once their support ends so if you want to get into an older title there's little reason not to within the confines of the game itself.

The way I see it, 20-25 seems fair for a basic and straightforward product like HxH and you can keep the season pass within that range as well so long as it isn't gonna get years and years of support. 30-40 for something like P4U2 or the Capcom bundles like the Marvel Collection makes sense to me since it's either an older game being let out of PS3 jail and bundled with everything or is a bunch of arcade era games in one. Once you get to 40+ though I think there needs to be serious efforts to make the experience feel complete or like a premium because I guess we (mainstream audience) forgot that 60 means top of the line and best in class experience so should therefore hold the games to that standard feature/package wise.

Like mentioned in the video, GBVR is probably the closest to a near perfect monetization model for a popular F2P release, however I don't like that the rotation of characters is so limited and changes as frequently as it does. You're given no way of permanently unlocking a character that you may like for that week you had to learn about them so you just have to pray they show up again in the rotation soon and the rotation itself tends to pick characters that placed well in certain events so you're just SOL if it's a bad one. I'll be honest these thoughts are from when the game first released so if there's been a change that addresses any of these criticisms then please mention it. The system itself isn't revolutionary since KI already had something like this in place and I know SMITE is like this as well but my knowledge on how it works in KI exactly isn't all that deep but I would imagine it's probably better on account of the full game being 30 instead of 50 like GBVR.

Another thing GBVR and to some extent SF6 is doing is battle passes and I for one just hate the concept altogether in how prevalent it is. This doesn't mean it's gonna go away so if the system is here to stay then at the very least I think you should be effectively refunded for the purchase if you complete it. Kind of like how Master Duel has it set up where the premium currency you earn within is enough to buy the next one so you don't have to actively pay for it while you're that invested in the game. Marvel Rivals I think has an okay system of giving you permanent access to said pass with a variety of skins and also has re-releases of an old one you can then buy permanently to ensure you get the cosmetics eventually; on top of all that it partially returns the amount paid at first to make the next pass "cheaper." I would prefer the former of the two because from what I remember of Granblue, the passes themselves were kinda barebones and you just wanted the skin at the very end. Rival's approach just isn't feasible for the average teams though I could see NRS/WB taking that kind of approach if they're even gonna make another game.

This doesn't really cover everything I want to say about the topic but I think it's a decent stopping point since the whole idea of a thread is to bounce ideas around for the fun of it.
 
Developing characters for a competitive game that wants to maintain any credibility, is an immense undertaking. Rigorous play testing at an elite level so it doesn't wreck the balance.
 
The new versions really refreshed the game, it was more than just a bare bones balance patch and a few characters. It was a fresh coat of paint; UI, music, stages, even some graphics would be changed or upgraded. Whole new modes would be added with more single player content for the casual players. The Season pass model isn't a better deal, you're paying the same amount for less content.
 
Given the "old" model was what happened with street fighter 2 and lesser extent 3. That what "new games" also represented. Tekken 2 and 3 were more of iterations and balance/character updates to the game as they were sequels. To me, DLC monetization and seasons make bit more sense, bit less payment for "version upgrades". It is not nice, it gets shitty when "complete edition" of Tekken 7 is 120€ and stuff. Generally having to compare to model where every FG would have a 60-70€ "new game" ever 1-2 years, the current model is... Palpable.
 
Dead or Alive 5 was the first FG that did the F2P model and gave the option to buy individual characters to permanently unlock them. Of course, if you bought the cast by this method, the game would end up being more expensive than the base game but then the question becomes "why didn't you just buy the base game instead of piecemeal with the free version?"

As stated, the current version is better than the previous one, where you just had to buy a whole game for an upgrade. Bought SF2 for £60 but now want to play the bosses in SF2Turbo? That'll be another £60!
But there's no silver bullet for this problem. FGs want to keep player interest but by their nature, the games are pretty harsh and unforgiving when you play with others, which is how they were designed. Season passes are fine. They don't cost all that much and allows the developers to continue to working on the game and new characters are an easy way to keep the game feeling fresh.
FGs are constantly evolving with patches made to game balance to change things, sometimes in tiny ways, other times in massive game changing ways but you aren't forced to pay full price every time they do this.

The only real downside is the increasing cost if you want to keep up to date and unlock every character, but you don't need to.
 
It took SFV 4 years for it to be actually good and complete. I didn't buy until Champion Edition in 2020 for $30.

With the way monetization works for most fighting games now, I tend to not bother, outside of SF6, and Tokon upcoming this year. I have Tekken 8, but I have not touched that in almost a year now.

Fighting games are pretty much live-service games now. They have been since the mid 2010s and 2013 with Killer Instinct. That one was at least at a budge price at got lots of updates and free character rotations.
 
Here's a crazy idea... Release the game with all the characters on it and balance patches already applied (save bug fixes), give me an arcade mode with good enemy ai, a time attack mode, a survival mode (preferably with a good scoring system like DOA), combo trial mode, some sorta quality tutorial mode like xrd or uniclr, a good ass practice mode with frame data, move recording all that good shit, and online with simple ass lobbies with rollback netcode as a cherry on top. I would buy it (depending on personal taste of course) and we would be GOLDEN. None of this stupid ass live service bullshit.
 
i hope i don’t come off as lame on this, but i don’t really mind how dlc is released, if we count that as monetization. i much much MUUUUCH prefer major game balances being updates and having to pay $20-$25 per year over having to rebuy a whole ass game just for the same thing. i think the only time where i kinda hate it is with sf6, where u have to buy in game currency for a single character, over being able to buy it directly over a storefront, but really beyond that? i much MUUUUCH prefer what we got over before lol
Post automatically merged:

Title kinda explains itself really, Majin Obama been posting more recently and the newest upload actually covers something I've thought about for a while.

Personally I vibe with most of the points mentioned, however I wasn't around for the SF4 re-release style of updates so I'm curious if anyone else could chime in with their own thoughts from that perspective. Some stuff I wanna zero in on right now though are brainstorming some alternatives to the constant season pass cycle we currently have because I bought SF6 a while ago (before S3) yet hardly play it because I didn't shell out another 60 to be caught up on dlc so now I can't lab against them and that's kind of a dealbreaker for me.

I am kind of undermining the prompt though by saying that I actually don't mind the season pass structure so long as the base game is reasonably priced. SF6 is a game I think may be worth 60 on account of world tour but I don't really find that kind of stuff really all that interesting so it's why I'm iffy on that pricing. NRS titles do come with a full story mode (though the quality of the story is in question) and a few offline offerings for those that just want to engage with the game without the pressure of "getting good" if they don't want to which I think makes the purchase a little less questionable. It also helps that the previous releases tend to go on deep discounts once their support ends so if you want to get into an older title there's little reason not to within the confines of the game itself.

The way I see it, 20-25 seems fair for a basic and straightforward product like HxH and you can keep the season pass within that range as well so long as it isn't gonna get years and years of support. 30-40 for something like P4U2 or the Capcom bundles like the Marvel Collection makes sense to me since it's either an older game being let out of PS3 jail and bundled with everything or is a bunch of arcade era games in one. Once you get to 40+ though I think there needs to be serious efforts to make the experience feel complete or like a premium because I guess we (mainstream audience) forgot that 60 means top of the line and best in class experience so should therefore hold the games to that standard feature/package wise.

Like mentioned in the video, GBVR is probably the closest to a near perfect monetization model for a popular F2P release, however I don't like that the rotation of characters is so limited and changes as frequently as it does. You're given no way of permanently unlocking a character that you may like for that week you had to learn about them so you just have to pray they show up again in the rotation soon and the rotation itself tends to pick characters that placed well in certain events so you're just SOL if it's a bad one. I'll be honest these thoughts are from when the game first released so if there's been a change that addresses any of these criticisms then please mention it. The system itself isn't revolutionary since KI already had something like this in place and I know SMITE is like this as well but my knowledge on how it works in KI exactly isn't all that deep but I would imagine it's probably better on account of the full game being 30 instead of 50 like GBVR.

Another thing GBVR and to some extent SF6 is doing is battle passes and I for one just hate the concept altogether in how prevalent it is. This doesn't mean it's gonna go away so if the system is here to stay then at the very least I think you should be effectively refunded for the purchase if you complete it. Kind of like how Master Duel has it set up where the premium currency you earn within is enough to buy the next one so you don't have to actively pay for it while you're that invested in the game. Marvel Rivals I think has an okay system of giving you permanent access to said pass with a variety of skins and also has re-releases of an old one you can then buy permanently to ensure you get the cosmetics eventually; on top of all that it partially returns the amount paid at first to make the next pass "cheaper." I would prefer the former of the two because from what I remember of Granblue, the passes themselves were kinda barebones and you just wanted the skin at the very end. Rival's approach just isn't feasible for the average teams though I could see NRS/WB taking that kind of approach if they're even gonna make another game.

This doesn't really cover everything I want to say about the topic but I think it's a decent stopping point since the whole idea of a thread is to bounce ideas around for the fun of it.
i don’t really hate battle passes in them thaaaat much LMAO, i think with what they’re charging, like with them being at most $4-$5, ehhhhhh it doesn’t feel too bad! idk maybe it’s just me lol
 
i don’t really hate battle passes in them thaaaat much LMAO, i think with what they’re charging, like with them being at most $4-$5, ehhhhhh it doesn’t feel too bad! idk maybe it’s just me lol
i think the battle pass system is fine in a vacuum but when you consider that people paid full price for a live service title it makes it a little annoying. i think this is just indicative of fighting games trying to be like mainstream releases when they dont have a mainstream release structure.
 
Make fighting games physical only and have all the characters unlockable by playing the damn game. Charge a single retail price. Space out releases for sequels so people have enough time to get good. Leave all the glitches in the game. No updates. Let people have fun while they get good and discover new broken mechanics. MAKE A NEW MVC!
 
In my opinion seaons pass is worse and more greedy than gacha and loot boxes.

And also you asking me 69.99 for a game then another 29.99-39.99 for dlc character.

100+ euro for a fighting game. Like chill your only replay value is multiplayer sell the game for 39.99 and let me unlock new character by playing the game.
 
In my opinion seaons pass is worse and more greedy than gacha and loot boxes.

And also you asking me 69.99 for a game then another 29.99-39.99 for dlc character.

100+ euro for a fighting game. Like chill your only replay value is multiplayer sell the game for 39.99 and let me unlock new character by playing the game.
they're both bad
 
In my opinion seaons pass is worse and more greedy than gacha and loot boxes.

And also you asking me 69.99 for a game then another 29.99-39.99 for dlc character.

100+ euro for a fighting game. Like chill your only replay value is multiplayer sell the game for 39.99 and let me unlock new character by playing the game.
Gacha and Loot Boxes incentivize gambling by the part of the player, while season pass only wants the player to return every day to play, the lesser of two evils in my eyes but still screw both of them and just release the games with everything in them.
 
Gacha and Loot Boxes incentivize gambling by the part of the player, while season pass only wants the player to return every day to play, the lesser of two evils in my eyes but still screw both of them and just release the games with everything in them.
Agree with that but they often do that as their f2p model.

Whule a 69.99 game plus 30-40 bucks also try to sell you season pass on top of that making game cost nearly 200 bucks.

Gacha games often five you so much free shit you dont need to pay a dime.

And in my honest opinion I take a free good gacha game over a 200 bucks complete game.
 
Agree with that but they often do that as their f2p model.

Whule a 69.99 game plus 30-40 bucks also try to sell you season pass on top of that making game cost nearly 200 bucks.

Gacha games often five you so much free shit you dont need to pay a dime.

And in my honest opinion I take a free good gacha game over a 200 bucks complete game.
"Free Shit" that should come in the game itself.
 
"Free Shit" that should come in the game itself.
just like DLC charters in every figheter game ? At least the free shit that should have come with the game is free not 29,99-39.99.

Take my favorite fighting game Granblue fantasy versus when it came I paid 49.99 euro on launch and if I want the charters tgar should been in the game from the start im paying another 64,98 euro.

So 114,97 euro for for a game + shit that´s should have come with the game it self.

So still which is better free shit that should come with the game or 64,98 euro for shit that should have come with the game.

Im not defending Gacha but at least one of them are less greedy on shit that should come with the game.

And I will tell you most fighting games they design most does charter at the same times as all the other they just cut out a few to sell you as DLC to make extra banking.

Games like genshin or wuwa and so on they design new charter and content over several years and give you it for free but you can pay money to skipp some RNG.

And as I say all F2P games must make money some how right ? And at least Gacha games are not like allot of mmo games that CHARGE you money for Fracking inventory space.

Gambling is never good and I wish they sold the games in stead with everything in it at launch but something I learned over past decades with mmo games going Pay to Play or Buy 2 play some times ends up killing your game while F2P save their asses.

More people are likely to play your game for a long time if it´s F2P + selling some things rather than you paying 100 euro from the get go.

Tera online save it´s own skin going F2P or that game would have died in 2015 instead of 2022.
 
Last edited:
I think $70 is totally fair for a full-fledged new fighting game, whether it has extensive single-player content or not. The real problem for me is the game-as-service approach. Not only do you have to pay for season passes or DLC, but the game becomes warped and unrecognizable over time due to power creep and overcorrection. Used to be that revisions of fighting games would be released as new, separate products, which may not have been super fair to the consumer at times, but at least it meant you could go back to previous versions if you didn't like the new one. Now, if a game like Dragon Ball FighterZ becomes some kind of insane kusoge monster over 8 years of updates, you can't go back to vanilla.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Connect with us

Support this Site

RGT relies on you to stay afloat. Help covering the site costs and get some pretty Level 7 perks too.

Featured Video

Latest Threads

Goblins

Twice is a coincidence, three's a pattern, and I've noticed an uptick in goblin employment over...
Read more

The "Death & Lead" Game Dev Situation is Crazy

Screenshot 2026-06-04 000832.png

Not news but an interesting watch about this "Kai Magazine" dev.

Read more

Has anyone read the Metroid manga?

Hey everyone,

I just started reading the Metroid manga from 2002 (published in Magazine-Z), and...
Read more

Online statistics

Members online
173
Guests online
2,052
Total visitors
2,225

Forum statistics

Threads
19,770
Messages
500,867
Members
926,735
Latest member
GamesFor3DS

Today's birthdays

Advertisers

Back
Top