deathofcows wrote:I'm not very abreast of Fortnite stuff but I'm presuming these are games that might not otherwise have existed except for Fortnite collab/part-funding? (a la Bayonetta 2/3 with Nintendo)
And it's probably not as bad as e.g. loading up Dreams to try something?
And they'll likely tempt people into the (apparently, increasingly generous and worthwhile) Fortnite ecosystem as intended (I've downloaded Fortnite that for first time)?
And they're free I'm guessing, which is Because Fortnite?
Might be wrong on some of the above! But though there might be some added friction in accessing it seems to me like it's still a player-positive/generally cool thing happening here?
Bolded I'm sure is very much the intention, which I'm also sure will work, and that annoys me! It's a very transparent attempt to push players into Fortnite rather than having free choice over what to download and play, and that kind of thing I can't help but be cynical about. I don't want to have Fortnite (or any game) pushed at me!
I've not played Dreams but I have played other games built around user generated content (like Little Big Planet) and that's different in that being the deal upfront and in that content coming from other players engaging with the creation tools. The alternative in that situation of someone making a game in Dreams only to have to publish it through the PS store doesn't really make sense. Where it does make sense is when a studio like Psyonix makes a new game.
Yes there will be some financial argument to the approach (I mean of course, that's why Epic are taking it) but could we go as far as saying these games wouldn't exist or be free to play if they weren't made to be included in Fortnite? I'm not convinced, especially in the case of Rocket Racing. Rocket League is a hugely popular standalone free-to-play game, it's not hard to imagine a Psyonix that stayed independent rather than being bought out by Epic putting out a game like Rocket Racing as a standalone free-to-play title.
That is really the example of why it annoys me too. I really like Rocket League and I'd be excited to try a new game from those devs. Finding out I have to download all of Fortnite and jump through it to play (while getting bombarded with microtransactions and the like) really knocks out my enthusiasm.
It's some level of entitlement on my part for sure, but my mind also goes to the extreme case of there being a handful of platform-games like Fortnite that the majority of new games release inside of. Would that be a desirable experience as a player or a desirable position for the industry to be in? I'd say no on both counts.
This approach by Epic is all about friction - decreasing the friction for getting players into their ecosystem, and increasing the friction for players wanting to leave it. For me that's not player-positive.