A Future So Bright, We Gotta Wear Shades

Why No Top 10

At any given time on Twitch Fortnite, is averaging 200K viewers. Released 2 years ago it has generated over a 125 million downloads and hundreds of millions of dollars per month in revenue. Meanwhile Mortal Kombat 11 a game released 4 months and already quintupled MKX’s digital downloads, currently possesses 3.6K viewers. Why is there such a huge discrepancy, as some internet commentators would say, “Why is the FGC so poverty?” Let’s look at a few of reason for Fornite’s success with some old fashioned marketing strategies.

Marketing 101

A good way to understand your business and your competitors is a good old fashioned SWOT analysis. If you want to learn more about SWOT strategies click here. Instead of making you read multiple paragraph, two SWOT charts are provided below. Each will be split between the focus in the FPS/Battle Royale and Fighting Game genre respectively.

Shooter Success

The Blue Ocean

There is no denying Fortnite, Overwatch, and Apex are huge successes. Success owed to the free to play model, backed by large AAA developers, who can afford to invest in the future of their games. While Overwatch is not free to play, all heroes and maps are. Most fighting games suffer from having DLC characters behind a paywall. Players are barred from learning new characters in training mode, left at a competitive disadvantage; leading to disenfranchised players. The Free to Pay model buoyed by a blue ocean strategy; anyone and everyone can be a Fortnite player with no risk. The game is on PC, mobile, or console with crossplay functionality. That 0 risk commitment is enticing for players sitting on the fence.

Fractured Communities

Fighting games today are still segmented with console exclusivity; Street Fighter 5, Smash Ultimate, and Killer Instinct are exclusive to PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One respectively. As for the future of the genre no one game reigns forever, but the FPS/Battle Royale genre is in a healthy place right now; boosted by Twitch and YouTube personalities.

Where Are We Top Tier

Unmatched Personality

One of the strongest points fighting games posses is character diversity. Currently no other genre can create an instant connection with a character like fighting games. We’ve recently seen the fanfare for SFV’s Poison and Leroy’s Tekken introduction, the only shooter capable of that is Blizzard’s Overwatch. The ability for a player to resonate with a character creates a loyal fan base, similar to an iPhone or Tesla, which helps to reduce customer churn. The fan base enables the FGC to be a close knit community out of necessity.

Git Gud

Complex inputs and frame advantage automatically creates huge barriers to entry. Players instantly understand the difference between a shotgun and a sniper rifle; therefore community is needs to provide guidance and insight for each patch and update. While small the FGC can provide the most value to new players, but how can the FGC capitalize on this influx of casuals? Ultimately that is the real question how does the FGC capture the casual audience and retain it?

Best Timeline

DLC for Everyone

The best example of a fighting game preparing for the future is Street Fighter V. The introduction of Fight Money allow players to earn characters for free even though Fight Money accrual decreased in later seasons. Currently no other fighting game on the market gives players that option. Killer Instinct laid the groundwork with it’s Free to Play model, but still forces consumers to pay for DLC characters. The single player experience can still exist as an paid experience, but multiplayer needs to adapt to current market trends.

True Multiplayer

Active multiplayer is an opportunity for future growth. Right now multiplayer is a passive experience at the professional play level. Street Fighter League, while doing its best to bring the hype is not an active team game. Fight lobbies are still a wait your turn experience, where up to 75% percent of you time is waiting. Street Fighter x Tekken and DBFZ’s Party Mode showed us what a true team fighting game experience can be. Creating synergy not only between characters but players as well can create amazing stories, larger player pools, and prize pots. 1v1 will always be the core of fighting games, but an active multiplayer mode creates engagement on streaming sites to draw in new viewers.

Character Ownership

As mentioned previously players develop strong relationships with their favorite character. Mortal Kombat is taking that idea to the edge by allowing players to customize every facet of their character. Being able to instantly recognize SonicFox’s Cassie Cage is a amazing feature, but it can go further. Ghost data shows the possibilities to play versus your favorite pro player or send your character to earn more unlockable content or simulate potential match-ups for practice. Unlockable content such as flourishes on attacks or fireball permutations can be the fighting game season pass of content. Uploading your character for tournaments allows you to brand yourself and your content making you instantly recognizable to a larger audience.

Conclusion

All signs are pointing to the fighting game companies making the right moves to reach the casual. Each developer is contributing in their own way to the future of the FGC, but the most crucial component will always be the fans. Fans who are vocal, but still engage with the community and growing it. Sites like Matcherino, eFifght Pass, and our own shows what the strength of a grassroots community looks like and its potential.

September 19, 2019

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