10+ year game?

[zeech]

Ok, so it seems like KOF13 is doing pretty well.  The cast balance seems to be pretty good, and nothing terribly broken has been found.  In the face of lackluster competition, the popularity of this game is increasing steadily.

Do we think that this could be a 10+ year game, like ST, KOF98, 3S, KOF02, MvC2, etc?

Let me put it a different way.  Let's say SNKP faced a major crossroads and decided to choose between 1 of 2 strategies:

- Business as usual.  KOF14 coming soon.  New characters, new system, new balance. Pot luck whether it's better or worse.

- Let's pretend to be Blizzard.  Support KOF13 with very careful balance tweaks, bug fixes, feature updates, improved netcode, and other non-gameplay improvements, for the next 10 years.  Pay for it with cosmetic DLC if games sales & Climax arcade revenue isnt enough.  Port it to PC, OnLive, Wii U, and any other system it can run on.  Polish the game to perfection and spread it far and wide.


Which route would you prefer they take?

[Saitsuofleaves]

No, it can't be a 10+ year game because there will never be one again, just do to how things have changed within the community and the industry.

[Dandy J]

no

[nightmoves]

I'm going to have to say no. Things in the FGC have changed far too much for any recent FG to have that much lasting appeal. Even SF4 and MvC3 will eventually fade away once the next big thing comes, so even with how great a game it is, XIII will not last that long.

[baccano1932]

Seems pretty impractical nowadays with the variety of games available and given how often people change games, picking up new ones and dropping old ones, it really seems like if it were to happen it would be a very small core group of players but outside of that I really don't think there would be much of anything.

[Hungry Color]

It can happen, but it can't be forced by SNK.

It needs to be cultivated by the players.

SNK could make another Samurai Showdown or Fatal Fury, then they could bounce off of each other's awesomeness for quite awhile.

If not that, then they should do something more with Metal Slug other than portable games.

[JennyCage]

Things like that really depend on the quality of the game and the experience it delivers.  As long as XIII delivers something that other fighting games don't, there will be people playing it, just like there are still people playing 98 and 02.  KOF fans will play it for a long time and its popularity might increase as older KOF players migrate to it.

I still hope there will be a UM version with 20 more characters and a better online.  If that comes out (or XIV, assuming it's just as good), then a lot of people will move on to that.  But if SNKP disappeared tomorrow, I think people would still play XIII for years.

[Hungry Color]

Things like that really depend on the quality of the game and the experience it delivers.  As long as XIII delivers something that other fighting games don't, there will be people playing it, just like there are still people playing 98 and 02.  KOF fans will play it for a long time and its popularity might increase as older KOF players migrate to it.

I still hope there will be a UM version with 20 more characters and a better online.  If that comes out (or XIV, assuming it's just as good), then a lot of people will move on to that.  But if SNKP disappeared tomorrow, I think people would still play XIII for years.

This.

People still play Turbo and the game almost 20 years old for god's sake.
The game will be safe for future generations, I'm sure. 

[Mr Bakaboy]

I think most of it involves around what the next game will be like. The thing about all the games listed as 10+ games were each game was the apex of that style of fighting game. There wasn't anything better then it afterwards, or future games went in a new direction in some way.

If Playmore's new style, that is only 2 games old, peaks with KOF XIII then XIII will be the 10+ game we all end up playing.

[LouisCipher]

Does it have the makings of a classic fighter that will be consistently played for 10 years? Yes I think so. It's still young and being explored and people are still having fun with it.

Will it be a tournament standard for that long? Probably not just because there's many fighters coming out, but if for the next 10 years every new fighter is too niche or underperforms and the publisher can't buy it's way to tournaments than it has a decent chance.

SF4 is still popular but it's becoming less so among the die hards as people start to figure it out and people get tired of it's playstyle. Marvel might become passe' in the next few years once everything about it is figured out.

[Hungry Color]

Does it have the makings of a classic fighter that will be consistently played for 10 years? Yes I think so. It's still young and being explored and people are still having fun with it.

Will it be a tournament standard for that long? Probably not just because there's many fighters coming out, but if for the next 10 years every new fighter is too niche or underperforms and the publisher can't buy it's way to tournaments than it has a decent chance.

SF4 is still popular but it's becoming less so among the die hards as people start to figure it out and people get tired of it's playstyle. Marvel might become passe' in the next few years once everything about it is figured out.

The thing with Marvel 3 is, it's going to be dissected by the same people that played Marvel 2, and that is another 10 year game.

[solidshark]

I prefer to have KOFXIV and more. I'd rather not play XIII 10+ years because SNK stopped making more fighters. Like all the older KOFs, I'd still come back to XIII sometimes after newer fighters come along. Better to have options. Other ports are fine, but that's the extent I'd take your other option.

[LouisCipher]

I honestly think Marvel 3 is going to be figured out in the span of a year or 2. And when the players figure out how to consistently do TAC infinites against other people is where it's going to get interesting.

[diztron]

i wish the netcode was better tho cuase i can rarely get good games and with no scene i love playing it on arcade but get predictable after a while its up to the players if its a ten years plus game

[zeech]

Well, I guess one thing we havent talked about is SNK - we're mostly talking about how players will react.

If we look at KOF98 > KOF02 > KOF13 as games that have lasting potential, effectively SNK is wasting resources on around 2-3 games each time before getting things right.  (and each of these games are fairly true to the basic KOF style, unlike those that have strikers or tagging or whatever.)

Why not spend those resources improving these core games themselves, rather than experimental sequels that noone ended up liking?  As people say, there's already a glut of FGs being released. 

Would the KOF franchise be better off if SNK continually improved the features of KOF13, ported to more systems, etc, generally keeping it on people's radar?  After all, SNK (and japan in general) are pretty far behind in terms of technology.  I would like to see much more effort made on netcode, lobbies, replays, multiplayer features, offline tournaments, etc.

Or can KOF only grow and grab people's attention with more (possibly inferior) sequels?

(You can tell I don't trust SNK to consistently make great games - they seem to happen by accident mostly.)