F2P eShop Title 'Omega Strikers' Ends Development Just Months After Launch

cant say i didnt expect this, given ive heard literally no one talk about it since its brief coverage in the direct

Sad indeed, but my brain briefly assumed gloomier upon reading the headline. Not getting shutdown is already more than many a freemium can claim after their devs and publishers feel the need to move on. Although it's a bit optimistic to expect an indie studio to keep legacy servers forever, too; I wish there was a way to just rework the game into something offline and retail down the road.

Pretty sad. I enjoyed it for what it is. Hopefully they'll revisit the IP in the future. Having Studio Trigger animating the trailer and OP sadly didn't help.

Well, at least its a pvz battle for neihborville situation instead of a Rumbleverse fiasco.

That’s so sad! I really enjoyed this game! It wasn’t popular sure but it was a really fun game and I thought it was a really cool game to play every now and then.

And the character designs were really enjoyable. I hope they find more success in whatever they do next.

I really loved this game for how original and fresh it was but I guess most people just aren't interested in it. It's a shame. Kudos to the devs for keeping the game playable at least.

I just hope they make a story-focused game such as a beat 'em up or RPG next. Characters like Kai, Ai.Mi, Asher, and Rasmus have such interesting storylines that I want more of in some capacity. Hope they can salvage it for a new game.

These stories are always painful to read. Smaller studios with passion and heart for what they're doing rarely stand a chance in the f2p sphere without the depth of funds necessary to keep the game promoted in the public eye. I understand why they keep trying their luck in the hopes of taking off as the next viral sensation but the odds of actually pulling the trick off seem phenomenally small to my mind. Hope everyone makes out okay and their next project yields more fruitful results.

Always sucks to see a game go under quickly.

As a counter to all this commiseration that's going on, I'm going to say I feel quite differently. I don't feel sorry for the studio, the developers, or any of the people involved in creating this predatory garbage. Let's not forget, the whole idea of the free-to-play model is to create and distribute a game which can be accessed for free, but to design the games systems in such a way that they encourage players with compulsive tendencies to grind away on a daily basis, and to manipulate as many of those players as possible, through these in-game systems, to plough excessive amounts of money into the game, via predatory microtransactions, season passes, battle passes etc.
I don't feel sorry that they failed in this aim. What they were doing was not some form of philanthropy that everyone else should admire. I'm glad they failed. Glad. Another one bites the dust.

Lesson learned: do not F2P if you don't know what you're into. Screw this "premium currency" bs and whatever they plan to stick in a form of microtransactions in the next game. This model needs to stay away from console gaming, and Omega Strikers was such a big waste of time and resources for that matter.

@WhiteUmbrella So? You gotta make money somehow. And if ou can't you're (ideally) not barred from having fun. I can guarantee you that if this game was straight paid, nobody would have tried it.

Nobody called F2P a philanthropy. It's just a cheaper way to access an online game.

This game was NOT good. It just didn't have a good look or interface, and really lacked charm. I tried hard to like it and played it a bit, but it wasn't there.
Hope this team learns from this and does great things in the future.
Bring back SEGA SOCCER SLAM!!!!!

They grew too fast, made silly marketing mistakes, burned tons of money and then icing on the cake, they got political.
Karma, Get what you deserve.

The thing I hate most about this news and their decisions to basically pull the plug is that they gave up too quickly. You have all these characters and a canvas to make dozens of different stories each season, questions that will never be answered but deserved to have some resolutions(Why is Obscura's goal need corestrike as an element? What exactly is Rasmus's endgame in his experiments? Do Luna and Atlus's parents ever come back from the depths of space?)and all of this and more will NOT be answered by this team and probably will only live on in people's fanfics and artwork.

Imma be real: they should have full stop made this a gacha hentai game from the start to bank on the character design appeal and the broader Japanese player market. At least Knockout city had the balls to last over 8-10 seasons before deciding to shut down.

@FarTulip Political? I'm curious where they got Political in the game, because from what I've played and seen on its Twitter page, it's just dumb s**tposting and the only thing "Political" was the pride nameplate.

Kinda expected this cause the only people covering the game when it came out was YouTubers being sponsored by them and then absolutely no one cared after that

@Samalik "you gotta make money somehow". Would you say the same about drug cartels or armed robbery? Not that I would directly compare the two, but free to play is predicated on manipulation of people with tendencies toward compulsion, those that feel compelled to complete a collection, and those who are so compelled to complete, that they will spend vast amounts of money to circumnavigate the systems that have been designed to manipulate the player into feeling a need to get around them. These systems, designed with the assistance of psychologists, are frequently combined with gacha mechanics, and use the same tactics that gambling has used for decades, to the detriment of adults ... on children. The rise of these mobile styled games and the burgeoning epidemic of gambling among children are not a coincidence. You want to defend the exploitation of children, that's on you, but hey ... gotta make that money somehow, right?

@FarTulip bro is cooking nothing 💯💯🔥💀

Everytime a trash F2P game dies, an angel gets its wings.

@WhiteUmbrella

You know, you're right.

I enjoyed Omega Strikers, but what it was really missing was costing $60, like Mario Strikers.

That would've made it so much better when the game failed. Knowing that I'd lost MORE money to it.

@WhiteUmbrella

"You want to defend the exploitation of children, that's on you"

My god, wait until you figure out who Nintendo's primary audience is.

Trading a payment of money for a payment of time has always been foolish aside from when you're a kid and you think time is free. But now especially with these things drying up so fast, it's almost like a blight that soley exists to appear, steal the most valuable resource from gamers, and vanish in the night.

That's the gamble you make with F2P and live service games: some go on for years, many more die within a year; even the successful ones eventually go offline leaving you with nothing. I've come across Omega Strikers primarily through its soundtrack on Spotify (I've actually had several F2P game soundtracks on my recommended list). Nice soundtrack, liked the anime aesthetic, sad that it died such a quick death. Maybe selling the game at a reasonable price ($10-30) could have given it longer legs? Who knows?

I thought the characters were pretty cool in trailers, but it's pretty difficult to show that style with the gameplay. I think it's a hard game to sell (I know its F2P), but it just doesn't look all that snappy or fun.

@BLD Good call. If the game had been designed, from the ground up, to be sold for $60, it may well have been a success... but then, it would have been a different game. Let's not reach the point where we're suggesting that designing a product and then selling it for a single, fair price has somehow become an unworkable business model.

@BLD Firstly, the majority of Nintendo's audience are, according to their own research, in the 28 - 35 year age range. Secondly, selling a product for a fair price is not necessarily exploitative, but free-to-play mechanics certainly are. They're designed that way.

Well they shouldn't have gotten greedy and built their game on the free to play model hoping to be the next fortnite

"Would you say the same about drug cartels or armed robbery"
"You want to defend the exploitation of children, that's on you"

LOL. While your central premise isn't wrong - the FtP model often is exploitative and designed to be as addictive as possible - this kind of hyperbolic and self-righteous moralizing only undermines the rest of your argument.

You're also barking up the wrong tree here. There are no gacha mechanics in the game, and it's not pay to win. (Which is, sadly, probably one of the reasons it failed to make money for the studio.)

In fact, the developers of the game seem to agree with you about the more predatory elements of many FtP games:

"There's a truth about competitive games right now in that they can be difficult and they're not necessarily fun. It's toxic. There are dark patterns in the design just trying to trick your brain with gacha mechanics or loot boxes. But we don't have any of that stuff."

It honestly does suck that the team weren't able to make the game be as successful as they needed it to be because Omega Strikers is an awesome game, but it live-service games are just so hard to break into with only so many games being able to hold people's attention. I hope that the next game Odyssey creates is more so designed at being a full force game from the get go and maybe future content in the future (a fighting game with these characters would slap hard) because it does seem the team really cares about the characters and world they created and just wanted to make a super fun game with a competitive spirit (which I think they did do well) but just didn't hold the momentum they needed to keep it afloat for longer. Happy that they are still keeping it up so people can still play and enjoy it for the foreseeable future

Another day, another live service game dead. I really hope that the trend of trying to get whales into a game dies the same way as whaling IRL. There are only so many you can hunt before they become extinct.

It does make you wonder if this would’ve had more success as a paid game with either free or paid dlc down the line. There’s just too many f2p games as it is, so I feel like it’s hard to carve out an audience and take them away from other f2p games.

Aw man that’s a shame that they’re not working on omega strike anymore. While I haven’t played it since launch I still thought that the characters while really likeable and had neat designs and I’m hoping that the developers make another game with the same cast.

@WhiteUmbrella you're comparing something like candy crush to a game that wasn't even aimed at kids. Not to mentions if they genuinely were using psychologists as you keep saying, the game wouldn't have died apparently. But they did so that goes against what your saying

Seriously, to try to compare entertainment to armed robbery is nuts. By all means, getting aimlessly moralistic about F2P isn't gonna make me wanna stop playing, it's gonna make me encourage it more out of spite of what your saying because you're not keeping your lines straight.

@WhiteUmbrella dude… the only thing you can get for real money is cosmetics. If anything F2P games that make their money off cosmetics instead of bonuses and buffs is actually a better alternative then games that have you spend 20$ to get a new character. Also are you really comparing live service games to organized crime?

@Sondheimist you forgot to tag

@Dakotastomp I went to the video and in the description they said that they want to make more games in the omega strikers universe. So who knows. Maybe some of them might tie up any loose ends.

@Greatluigi good to know. Perhaps the devs can find a model that works for them in the future.

@Samalik can I join you? (In the whole encourage it thing)

@Ryu_Niiyama no prob! 👍

I tried it when it first came out and if I'm honest it did very little for me. My main issue was how slow everything felt despite the premise feeling "high energy". It was very strange.

I wish the studio the best, but I'm not shocked at another F2P/live service title not making an impact, running out of gas way too quickly and fading into nothing.

Damn, that was too quick. Unfortunate news.

@Greatluigi I know they're planning to make Strikersverse games, but I just don't see why Odyssey can't make a new game while also adding content from that game into Omega strikers and more skins and events that keep players coming back. Again, I think they gave up too quickly simply because the player base dropped. Aesop and his team should have been more committed to sticking to their guns and making more for the people who stuck to it till the end. Just my opinion.

@WhiteUmbrella There are now many great F2P games out there right now that are not predatory at all. You can play them completely F2P and don't have to worry about spending in the game unless you really want to.

And this is coming from someone who is not a fan with most F2P games. (But there is now a increase in quality with these new ones that are coming out that it actually feels they are not doing it just for a "cash grab and run.")

@rushiosan It'll go away when paid online for console gaming goes away.

I am definitely part of the problem. I wanted to give this game a try, but I had this feeling it wouldn't be around for super long and didn't want to invest the time in something that would be going away soon

@IceEarthGuard I can vouch that what you said is very true. One of the gacha games that I’m playing is honestly pretty generous with its premium currency to the point I almost have enough to go for 4 pity pulls.

@Greatluigi as long as the gacha rates are fair, sure!

All the usual defences of free-to-play games are being wheeled out, yet again. "It's only cosmetic". This doesn't hold up, because everybody knows that the fact that the items are "only cosmetic" doesn't stop people being subject to the manipulation that results in them paying. A claim, directly quoting from the makers of the game, that the game doesn't include any predatory aspects in its design isn't worth giving the time of day. Also, anyone playing this garbage should take a step back and think just how easily manipulated they are, if someone stating valid objections to a morally bankrupt business model is enough to make you not only want to play it more, but encourage others to do so.
There are no benign free-to-play games. That's a myth. The whole enterprise is a pall on gaming. You can't have the "good" aspects of free-to-play without getting all of the worst aspects along with them. The more profit these games make, the further the bar is pushed. A games failure isn't evidence that it wasn't predatory. Destiny 2 is predicted to miss its targets by 45%, likely because the developers have pushed the monetisation and grind so far that the playerbase has revolted. The more money they make, the more money they want, and it's never enough money. There's no such thing as enough. They don't want some of the money, they want all of it. If a games balance has people playing and enough retention, the designers will shift the balance to squeeze even more money from the same group of players. This garbage has spread through the industry so rampantly that its now in full-priced games that are being sold for $70. Gran Turismo 7 is a good example of this. That game is horrible to play, specifically because it is designed for daily retention, with daily bonuses, microtransactions, gacha mechanics, and a progression system designed to push the vulnerable to purchase credits in an in game store. If you think that a game that follows this model and has huge success won't mean it spreads throughout the industry you're kidding yourself. How will the board justify not polluting the game design with this crap, to earn even more money, if no-one ever pushes back? Maybe you don't care about GT7 or other games that include this, but if people don't speak up against these practices, they'll soon be in a game you do care about.

I tried it for a couple of hours but the terrible interface and slow gameplay didn’t do it for me.
And I love these air hockey type of games

@WhiteUmbrella that’s completely different! I find microtransactions in F2P games acceptable BECAUSE how are you going to make money if your game is free? Oh wait you can’t! Microtransactions in paid games i will avoid like the plague because I agree that microtransactions shouldn’t be anywhere near a full priced game and the fact that some companies are doing that like 2K are indeed being scummy. But some people make their games F2P because they believe that more people will get into it because there’s no entry fee. Take limbus company. That game is a F2P gacha by the same people who made lobotomy corporation and library of ruina and its a F2P gacha mainly because the company that’s made it needs more funds to get more games out and its frequently called “a gacha game for gacha haters” because they’re generous towards F2players so F2P gamers can still enjoy it. And finally how does selling cosmetics count as being manipulative if their is no in game bonus aside from looking cool? I understand disliking F2P games since sometimes there are company’s that try to wring out every last penny from players but their are also developers and companies that want their game to appeal to everyone and don’t want players to feel like they have to pay to enjoy the game to the fullest and people are sympathizing with these developers since they can tell how much they love their players and the characters they made.

@Greatluigi I appreciate that there are free-to-play games that are more or less fair to their playerbase, but the argument that the microtransactions are needed doesn't really hold up. If you are making a product, it's necessary for it to be of sufficient quality and value for people to want to buy it. If the only way you can get people to engage with your product is to give it away, that is an argument for it not to exist, since if no-one is prepared to pay for it, why make it ... and if it is of sufficient quality, why not just sell it for a fixed fee?

@WhiteUmbrella well “giving it away” seems to work if games like Azur lane and arknights have a large fandom. plus you can still make a game with excellent quality if there is no “value”. heck Azur lane is still going strong even today despite being free. Plus there is always a chance that a free game could eventually get a full blow console spin-off game like Azur lane crosswave.

@WhiteUmbrella I feel like it must be hard for a live service game to have updates and collabs without having micro transactions, I'm not saying it’s not predatory because the idea in itself is, but games like falls guys used to be paid, but they weren’t making enough money to sustain it, and honestly ftp was just the better option, it’s not that people won’t pay for it, but can you be sure enough people will to support updates and continued development of the game?

@Snatcher don’t forget fantasy strike. That game was a paid game and they made it free to play.

@Greatluigi oh really? I didn’t know that! I thought it was always ftp lol! Also rocket league, all great games that couldn’t keep updating with being payed alone, im sure they’re much more but these two are great examples.

@WhiteUmbrella well, not everyone is willing to put down 60 bucks on your game, regardless of quality. And other games that are multiplayer only would feel like an even bigger rip off if they died because of a small player base if you had to pay for them.

@Snatcher I'm old enough to remember a time when games were developed, completed, and then sold, back when all games came on a physical format. The point about Fall Guys not making enough money to sustain it, doesn't apply to a game that is sold, or at least it shouldn't. This phenomenon of needing "engagement" only exists because publishers want to continue to make money from a game after it has been sold, beyond the original sale price. That development time costs money, but that time and money could just as easily be spent on a new title or a sequel, as it could be on dlc or microtransactions. The only reason that developers would rather spend time creating dlc for a game that has already released is that they can make more money for less development time, that way. Logically, if this were not the case, there would be no reason not to just shift development to a new title, just as it used to be.
Multiplayer titles existed long before the efforts to monetise them, and there is a long list of highly regarded titles, that people played pretty much for as many years as those titles were available, just because they were great and enjoyable games. Nobody stopped playing Goldeneye, Timesplitters or Mario Kart just because there wasn't a season pass or microtransactions. This is back when games would allow you to unlock skins just by playing the game, before developers and publishers decided that should be stripped out of the game and then sold back to the players. There's a rot in the industry, and it's out of control, that's how I see it.

@WhiteUmbrella That’s fine you can have your opinion I don’t think you’re wrong I just can’t say I agree. I really enjoy ftp games and I love live service games! Sometimes it’s nice to play a game not worrying if I just wasted 60 bucks or not. I also don’t think developers have to stick to a specific gaming formula, some just want to continue their game. I prefer it over Nintendo drip feeding content over three years to artificially increase there lifecycle personally.

@WhiteUmbrella I've sunk thousands of hours in Free to play games without spending money on them, in some of them you can even pay the battle pass once and then pay the next one with the rewards of the season.

Free to play games are healthier experiences than a lot of full-priced games.

I liked it better when 'free to play' games were what you got on a cover tape/disk/CD on a magazine.

To be honest I liked it better when we had magazines and not the endless junk news cycle we have in gaming now.

/Old man shouting at clouds

Full priced games are the worst, nothing I hate more than spending $60 for a game and realizing I don't like it. The sooner they go away the better. They're just preying on people who don't know any better, as if we're all made of money. If you just want to play a game for 2 hours and never play it again, still costs $60 dollars. Feels like we're all whales.

@WhiteUmbrella Well I'm also old enough to remember when physical was the prime, and ya know what? That time period stunk. Only being allowed to have 12 games for your console of choice throughout its lifetime because your parents were stingy with what you can have. I would have welcomed a F2P game during that period to pass the time.

As for the engagement part, they are running servers for free. If nobody is using them, then it becomes pointless to keep the lights on. Less so for premium games that didn't need it of course, but free to play games need that long lasting spark. It's a matter of fundamentals.

That rot your talking about is far more limited and aimlessly pointed, as I've already said. You can argue that Bobby Kotick, EA and Epic's methods are toxic and I'd agree. But i'm not gonna generalize an entire business model because of a few large bad apples stunk up the pile...

@Nintendo_Thumb Maybe do a little research and play some demos before you buy?

@Samalik In his defense demos aren't nearly as common as they used to be, nowadays you're basically making a gamble since more often than not, there is no demo in the first place.

Where did they get the money for this?

@iLikeUrAttitude Is there a reason why we don’t have more demos? I kinda want every game to have a demo hoenstly, it would make deciding which games to get much easier. Probably because it cost money right?

@Snatcher it's partly because the focus on a demo can sacrifice time from core development, looking at just how much you're willing to give to the sampling customer. Especially if your game progresses more like spaghetti than a level to level experience.

@Samalik Ah ok that makes much more sense. I wish we could get demos more often but I understand.

I know I’m late to comment on this, but I don’t care.

I’m heartbroken over Omega Strikers pretty much being gone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that the servers are still online and everything, but the fact that there won’t be any new content, characters, story, etc. just makes me sad. Add the fact that garbage F2P games like Ninjala are doing better than this makes me mad, heck, even ticked off.

Let’s hope we can get more stories in this universe and maybe, just maybe have the game brought back when Odyssey is able to do so.