I like to make jokes about this game, but the thing is, it wasn’t even that bad. I put my finger on one giant issue though. Ever since the first alphas started, the community has been complaining about things. The core gameplay loop just not connecting all that well, the maps being too big and sparse or at least the speed being too slow for them. The long waits between things happening. The sheer impossibility of achieving something on your own if you’re left with bad teammates and have to solo a bit. The game modes not being fun or varied enough.
A lot of this has circulated in the year or so before launch. Come 1.0 and… none of these things has been addressed. Not a single one. Again, I have no interest in dunking on the devs, but one has to wonder what these alphas and betas were good for (aside from the technical backend getting some hammering) if the main criticisms I’d read on Reddit, Era, etc. were in no way addressed. If the community isn’t enjoying themselves due to core issues, even all the Game Pass users won’t help much.
I think they should salvage some of the tech and ideas that worked from the game and use them for a new multiplayer game, unrelated to the Bleeding Edge name. This time, hopefully, learning from the mistakes and listening to their fans who were not enjoying the alpha and the beta and ended up not enjoying the full game too.
I honestly think it was all down to the small team and the reason why it’s blown up that it’s a huge failure or w/e is because it’s owned by MS now and it’s seen as another failure. If this was launching as just a Ninja Theory game it would’ve had the same fate and just faded away like it has now.
It’s probably going to happen to grounded too unless they keep up the updates on that game, which it seems like they will. The one thing Grounded has going for it is the game is actually really fun just need more content.
I don’t see it as a failure because Microsoft is involved or otherwise. But for a multiplayer-only game to virtually vanish off the face of the Earth after a few months, that can’t be good, small team or otherwise.
One huge difference with Grounded is that the latter’s core gameplay loop has been massively appreciated, despite the limited content so far and other issues that come with an Early Access launch. Bleeding Edge had a year or so of alphas and betas with a lot of naysaying, and then the full game came out and nothing really improved. Grounded started well and has a lot to aim for, still. Bleeding Edge really was unexciting for most since the beginning, if you look at the player and stream numbers.
I think if bleeding edge had stayed as a moba it would have played better. I look at a game like smite and say this works well but needs better combat. Which bleeding edge has instead they went the overwatch route but with only 2 objective types. This made the game feel very bare bones
I think game could be salvageable if there’s a major update, and move to F2P. I think F2P is the way this game will grow it’s base, and they can always do what every other game is doing and create a battle pass
Free to play for me (and many people in the BE community) is the way to go with Series launch or close to launch is the month coming before big first party comes.
Bleeding Edge as well as other first party of 2020 could use the slow game start of Series X | S to shine.
Would be a shame if they abandoned it. Pretty much the first NT game since Kung Fu Chaos that I actually enjoyed playing. One of those games that came out on Xbox this gen that had so much potential that may not be realized.
Feels a bit like malpractice to have launched the game in March instead of giving it 120 FPS support and more content to launch around Series X. I suppose at the time they were getting out of the way of Infinite free to play multiplayer /singletear
Personally I find it a ton of fun and still easy to get matches, I really hope they share a roadmap or a “we’re done updating” post one way or the other. The latter is probably more likely, but it would be great to get an optimized patch and news that a new mode or some other big addition is coming.
The melee focus was really refreshing to me, it’d be sad to see it die this fast.
I’m inclined to agree. And not just because I don’t care about Bleeding Edge. I felt the same way about Anthem and that was a game I did care about.
There’s this idea now that every game that stumbles out of the gate has to become No Man’s Sky with devs continuing to work on it for years until it eventually becomes good/complete. Every game has to be supported until the end of time even if it’s not a good game in the first place.
Some games just didn’t work out, and it would be better for everyone to move on and focus on something more worthwhile instead of beating the dead horse.
Crazy to think but i think they could fix a lot of my core issues with the game by releasing a MOBA style mode
Teams start at A and C and have to try and cap the others point.
Trash mobs spawn in from the camps and run towards the base for slow damage over time
I think this fixes the maps sizing issues if you have to decide to defend your base of control choke points towards it. Even bad players would be able to practice combos and fighting with the AI so it adds a more realistic floor to the combat loop and still retains the high ceiling for PvP .
I don’t know how feasible it would be but I think that would make a better spectacle and for actual strategy rather than just spawning and capping generic points
Bleeding Edge always had a Fuse feel to me. Like it probably started off as a great idea but the realities of current game development and budget constraints led to a pairing down of scope and chasing current(when development started) trends. They were basically 4 years late to the party.
Building a game like this is really risky and needs to be executed just right. And I think you need a bigger team to do it. Community support, content pipelines, world building, etc.