Battle Royale has had a huge impact on gaming in the last few years. From Fortnite to Apex Legends to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the Battle Royale market has emerged as one of the leading Genres in gaming today. But with its success comes some core long-term problems. Battle Royale faces three critical issues that they will need to address if they want continue to dominate the gaming space:
- Battle Royale Games will need to move beyond purely vanity rewards as a driver for Players
- Battle Royale Games will need to have more features that Players engage with in the core loop than just the Battle Royale.
- Battle Royale Games will need to have multiple types of Gameplay other than just the Battle Royale
The Problem with Vanity Rewards
Vanity Rewards are a staple in many genres–From Casual to Sim to Puzzle and more. Vanity Items are particularly fitting in games with no or few progression-based systems, as Players won’t be looking to become stronger or better at any particular system. Vanity rewards are less effective in games with progression systems since they, by definition, do not help players progress. This doesn’t mean they can’t be useful in keeping players engaged, but it is less reliable than using progression to motivate players.
Vanity Rewards can also present many long-term problems. The Content Treadmill, for one, is a nightmare for many game studios. More importantly, is there a point at which vanity items no longer can drive player behavior? When you have dozens of awesome-looking skins, will another awesome-looking skin keep you engaged as you were before? Games go the distance by having content that keeps their player base engaged in the long run, and Vanity items may not be as successful in doing that as more progress-oriented content.
So to see Battle Royale games go the route of vanity-only rewards has been a little baffling, given that the gameplay warrants progressive systems. The Battle Pass may have been a godsend for engagement and retention in Battle Royale games, but it put a ton of pressure on game developers to produce a massive amount of vanity content, and costly content at that. With no progression systems, these games need to fill >100 reward slots every season. But thinking about the future, if you look forward 5-10 years, do you still imagine games like Fortnite continuing to rely on just Vanity items? Existing Battle Royale games need to ask themselves that and new Battle Royale games in development should look at innovating.
Battlepass is not a replacement for Core Loops.
I really like the Battlepass system. I think it gives players clear long term and short term goals, and it motivates players to engage in all systems of the game. But what if your game doesn’t have many systems within the core loop?
Hello Battle Royale games.
Battlepass has worked well for Battle Royale games mainly because it keeps players busy by having them do things in gameplay that they otherwise wouldn’t. And that is ok so long as vanity rewards are compelling enough. But what about when they aren’t?
Having other core systems that fit into a loop with the Battle Royale gameplay would be a big improvement because players playing battles would actually be working towards something that’s permanent, and not seasonal. Then, when you attach a Battle Pass on top of that, the Battle Pass Challenges can push players to engage all the core systems, and not just one. In return, the Battle Pass can reward things relating to the other core systems in addition to vanity items. The Battle Pass will be just as compelling as before, but there will be greater reward diversity and not as much of a content treadmill (depending on the art needs of the other core systems).
RPGs and Strategy games are a more natural fit for Battle Pass normally, since they have more systems that Battle Pass can utilize for its challenges. An RPG like RAID: Shadow Legends, for example, has TONS of challenges to choose from, and can easily use the Battle Pass to force engagement with systems that need more engagement.
Furthermore, RPGs and Strategy games have a wider array of rewards to choose from.
This is not to say that all RPGs and Strategy games should rush to implement Battle Pass. For one thing, there is a definitive value proposition problem with Battle Pass in RAID: Shadow Legends–mainly that Battle Pass gives too much value over time for what the initial cost is. Now, if an RPG or strategy game is looking for improvement on retention/engagement or improvement on first-time purchases, it may be worthwhile giving away too much value. But whale-driven games may want to avoid Battle Pass, at least in the same implementation as RAID. There may be other ways to do Battle Pass that are aligned with whale-driven games, but that’s a subject for a future post.
More Gameplay Modes are Necessary
When you think about a game lasting for 5-10 years or more, its hard to picture a game where there is just one type of game mode. RPGs and Strategy games have several types of game modes that keep players engaged. It stands to reason that Battle Royale should follow suit.
In general there are three categories of game modes:
- PvE
- PvP
- Event
Battle Royale should be compatible with all those modes. And yes, Battle Royale is technically PvP, but I think the dynamic is so different that you can have both a Battle Royale mode and a separate, more intense PvP mode. So a Battle Royale game should have the following:
With Battle Royale being the main game mode, and PvP/PvE/Events serving better as stat checks or some other progression check or challenge in the game.
What do these game modes look like? That is an answer that I’ll address in a future post. Over the next month or two, I’ll give examples of designs that could work for each of the 3 points I laid out about how the Battle Royale genre can evolve. Stay tuned!
That’s it for me. Thank you again for reading, and I’ll be back soon with another post! For more of my posts as well as other great articles, subscribe to ggDigest at www.ggdigest.com and get our Game Industry Newsletter each week!
Jeff
Principles of Free to Play Game Design 