And I feel like the type of players that the game is trying to attract has something to do with its slow growth too, the game is catered toward an Adult audience, and I don’t talk about age, I talk about mindset, Boundless is not a game that you’ll get any kind of instant gratification like a lot of other games does, it require time and effort to get the things that most advanced players have, even when you buy these, you still can’t produce them yourself, this game require a lot of patience and has a learning curve and most young players, which make most of the gaming mass, won’t have the patience nor the will to commit to such a game, especially when it ask you to work to get the stuff you want. But adults in the other hand does have this patience and will, even though they have a busy life.
that’s why I feel this game is having a slow growth, the audience that it is catered to does not represent the vast majority of today’s gaming communities and the game in of itself is in a niche genre, so of course player-base growth will be slower, but when there is people who do stay, they stay for real.
Sorry buddy but that website does not seem to count PS4 players at all, it’s about the same number as Steam is reporting and the Ninja website has about 50% more…
Also I wouldn’t put much trust into a website that hasn’t been updated in ages and is reporting that all regional servers are offline…
Seriously… this is a very bad habit that I got, looking up player number on these website and judging it by its current active player-count, all the more reason to stop using that junk imo…
The concurrent player count is even more than what is reported on http://boundless.ninja because it doesn’t seem to factor in players connected to exoplanets which we know to be non-zero.
I don’t play as much as I used to but I’ve been keeping an eye on the population trends and it’s definitely moving in the right direction, albeit very slowly.
Overall, retention is pretty good for people that committed to giving it a couple dozen of hours, but retaining anyone that doesn’t cross this sort of threshold seems problematic. I don’t know if it’s confusion, being overwhelmed, grind or a mix of all that but there is something you have to push through before the game hooks you and never lets go.
like I said above, I think it has to do with the kind of players this game is catered towards, it’s meant for adult gamers with lots of patience, not for your usual impatient gamer that want instant gratification out of the game he plays. Also the fact that it is a PvE only Sandbox MMO kinda add to the pile too. Most of these kind of games have an heavy emphasis on PvP, like Albion Online and EvE Online, so of course those who are competitive in nature won’t be attracted to Boundless because… there is none, it’s all based on cooperation and building things together. or like most EVE players would call it… It’s a game for carebears which is a title that I proudly wear
you see, I try to change my current mindset for that, it’s just really damn hard haha, especially when society has always thought me to worry about the future, even distant one
hum… dude, the devs are not the one choosing the rating you know xD ? to have mature rating you have to have gore, extreme violence, heavy alcohol use etc, I don’t think Boundless with these things would even contribute to the arstyle haha
besides, ESRB rate games on their own terms, it’s completely independent from the devs, they will rate a game based on its content.
From what I can tell, BL seems to be right on track - according to them.
Maybe BL signed a contract with Square Enix or another investor/incubator/company & have plenty of $ to keep trucking along. We don’t know.
There has been mentions of a marketing push in about a year. Maybe they wanted to get a bunch of content in the game & get all of the kinks worked out before then.
All this talk of marketing in a year I am pretty sure comes from players and not the developers. I think we repeat it so often we take it as true. If I was a developer I am not sure I would be telling my player base my marketing plans. Things change, problems occur, or other games may move into or out off the niche you are going for. They will do what they and their publisher think is right. We are just along for the ride.
When the game was launching there was discussion that they were making the content suitable for younger players to try and get the rating they did. They try to keep the language on official forums and discord family friendly. And in game when you do kill a mob, no blood or splatter. All this I think to make the game get a lower ESRP rating.
When talking about the game to people who become interested based on what I post about it, this is why I try to make a point of emphasizing - to come to us here if they need help, that there is a learning curve but to stick with it as it is so rewarding, and I’ll send them to videos like @majorvex’s wonderful ones to help them get off on the right foot. We’ve got such a great community here, just have to try to catch the newcomers, help them not fall through the cracks, make sure they know there is help here.
We’ve got such a great community here, just have to try to catch the newcomers, help them not fall through the cracks, make sure they know there is help here.