Can't wait for IB3. I have both games and the book and will get IB3 ASAP. I just hope it is premium and not freemium.
Guys I don't want to get off topic but what's the difference between freemium and premium? Heard about it lot on real racing 3 but never understood! What's so bad about freemium?
I don't think that reply from Eli was like "it was going to be FTP", but more like a guess. Chair/Epic or any other company wouldn't do something as stupid as telling only the press if a game will be FTP or not so early. And about the other link, you should remember GL. They also believe in casual games, but fans showed them that FTP destroys franchises. I mean, take a look at the response from the players about DH before and after becoming freemium. Or that Gangstar clone by GL (CLONECEPTION) that was a flop. And Chair already tried something with FTP. IB Cross with the help of Mobage. It was the first IB without exploration, missions and the gem system from IB 2. It was never released worldwide. That says quite a lot. Also, most of their money came from the premium IB games instead of that FTP experiment. They earned a lot by putting there IAP that wasn't needed at all. Last, crafting doesn't mean FTP. Minecraft, Monster Hunter... Lots of really cool games have heavy emphasis on crafting and most of them aren't FTP. I don't think IB3 will be FTP, but then I wasn't sure about RR3 being FTP and it was a huge disappointment...
Premium = paid game, most of the time with IAP that isn't needed at all. Think of Deus Ex The Fall. Freemium = free game, ALWAYS with paywalls (stupid difficulty spikes) which make you need to buy IAP in order to continue, otherwise really hard grinding which doesn't reward you at all. There are freemium games with timers, freemium online games where you can buy anything from the start so guys who pay get a really neat boost in leaderboards by paying real money, etc etc etc. tl;dr Premium is cool, freemium is a curse.
So that's what it is.Both Deus Ex and IB are premium and both are fabulous whereas Real Racing 3 really sucks!
Its a little bit ironic that in your case to say that IB3 won't be freemium, you've included the perfect example of why it will be. Namely the gem crafting system in IB2 being part of the blend in IB Cross. The example alone proves how close IB2 was to being a freemium game. With the smallest amount of tweaking, a little increase in price of equipment/gems here, a little reduction in the money drops there, paired with the already existing wait for combined gems to craft (freemium waiting timers by any other name), enemies that couldn't be defeated without certain weapons and gems along with what in reality was a massive grind that could be bypassed with iap. Even the fact that one of the updates of IB2 could in reality be considered a test of the boundaries of iap and freemium elements in the way it capped the resale value of gems that could have cost multiplies of their resale value to craft in the first place. Along with if you died on a later added path with gems attached, you lost them and had to go through the whole grind again to forge them again or buy iap. And that's just a few examples of what could easily now be considered freemium elements. Of course, IB1 and IB2 are still two of the greatest games ever on iOS but lets not blind ourselves to how easily the mechanics of the IB2 can be converted to freemium. Adding a second currency alone would do it. A second currency of which Dungeons did have and it was going to be freemium. There is not a sliver of doubt about that. The heavy emphasis on promoting the crafting system in it was merely the first step in preparing people for that eventuality. Numerous articles and numerous comments by senior people within the company declaring freemium the future (as quoted by JB as one example) also made it clear. And one final very clear example. Every company needs to make money. The question is do they want to make Clash of Clans money or Infinity Blade money? Because there is a substantial difference. In favour of Clash of Clans. Supercell (Clash of Clans dev), with two games is currently estimated at pulling in $700,000 per DAY after Apples 30% cut. That's $21.7 million per month (standard 31 day month). With two freemium games they can beat what it took the Infinty Blade series over a year to reach (december 2010 IB1 launch, statement relating to series making $30 million revenue released January 2012, whether Apple's 30% is included or not is unclear but it includes revenue from IB1, IB2, IB Awakening digital novella, original soundtrack and IB FX coin op arcade version) in less than two months (more or less). I'll leave it at that as the numbers speak for themselves and should make it very obvious what route they'll go. The Infinity Blade franchise is one of the few that has a chance of achieving and competing with Supercell's numbers.
Dont forget the fact that "consumable IAPs" in Infinity Blade are NOT really consumable. Everytime you start a new game+, the game syncs online and gives you your IAP-purchases AGAIN EACH TIME you start a new game plus. This strengthens the premium aspect of IB games. Of course, IB3 remains to be seen. But guess who's excited for IB3 right now and did a spazzy dance?
I got so frustrated with Infinity Blade II after the tutorial phase (the first time you meet the big dude, then die, then you start off with only 3 blocks instead of 99). I'm not so sure I can handle another game like that
I think they need to improve the whole repeating the game through bloodlines thing, that was one of the reasons I got bored so quickly of both infinity blades, there needs to be more of a difference each time you play it. The first time I got to the end of infinity blade 1 and then it took me back to the start '20 years later' I was so disappointed. They need to either get rid of the repeat system altogether or massively improve it
Did you know that each "some years later" a new path opens? It's still limited, but it looks like what you've been looking for.
As far as improvements go, I actually think there is no NEED to change the combat mechanics (but it would be a plus if they do enhance the experience), BUT i agree with most of the suggestions here that they should improve the exploration controls to a more manual and non-linear one. I wish i could into one area, go back to a previous area where i've been a while back, or choose a different path right before i meet one boss room or something like that. Actually, i've been thinking about one thing. Maybe they can use the top-down gameplay of IB Dungeons, meaning huge maps and nook and crannies, and when a battle occurs, zoom-in into the usual IB view. I know it might be more immersive in a behind the back view, but anything goes for me right now as long as they make the exploration more manual and non-linear.
@ Rip There are lots of other games that could do very well as freemium. Right now I can think of Modern Combat, yet it's still a premium franchise. Even while all your points are valid (but still, crafting doesn't mean freemium), Chair was already clear with their intentions for IB. They said that it's a big franchise, and that they will continue it with more games, books and such. Do you really think they would make a sequel for a big franchise where Chair put a lot of love in the story as a stupid freemium game? I don't know, it would be like Capcom making AA5 freemium. Freemium games can't be compared with premium games. Most of them, if not all, aren't about story, and just about plain gameplay. Some companies still try freemium with story-based franchises, but always as a spin-off, like IB Cross, which was about plain missions without any exploration nor story. I'm still sure that IB3 won't be freemium, and I won't change my thoughts unless it's confirmed that IB3 will be freemium. Oh, and for people that don't know what things could make IB3 better than IB2, http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/930210-New-Updated-IB3-Wishlist-with-Voting-System-Support!
Okay, fair enough. The only real purpose of my post was to show how easily (and it'd be very easy) IB2 could be converted to freemium and still keep its basic elements and storyline intact. On that basis and using a purely numbers game, it actually makes most sense if one wants to maximum the financial return. Which, surely, any business wants. Whether they do it or not, we can't say until Chair releases info on it. But even if they do, I have little doubt but that Chair has the ability and the loyalty to their own brand to do it right. And despite the general stance around here that all freemium is crap and hateful, that's not really the case. By its nature it has certain drawbacks but if its done right, it can be both enjoyable and offer increased returns in an area where financial return is in reality very hard to come by. They are many examples of it done right. Many of it done wrong also. And on Modern Combat, Gameloft recently got a lot of flak from certain areas for rigidly sticking to a premium plan for their noteworthy major franchises because the returns did not reflect a high enough percentage of the investment or offer anywhere near the download numbers that freemium would of had. I know many will find that ironic but Gameloft has been very loyal to its major franchises. That might change with the recent enough launch of Minions which has turned out to be a massive success for them. It'd be perfectly fine to dismiss everything freemium all day long if it were a case that premium could compete but the fact is, it can't unfortunately. And yes, I know there are cases where premium will do well, but they are few and far between and they still won't make anywhere near the numbers of freemium. Sorry, but that is the case. There's a multitude of articles, studies, market research, study groups, app analytics and so on out there to back it up. And I still think that if Chair choose the freemium route, that they have the knowledge base and skills to make something that will be a massive success and sit on the top grossing list for a long time and satisfy most iOS gamers at the same time. Of course, we'll just have to wait and see so I'll leave it at that.
