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[Men_in_Boxes]

Launches on the 25th for console...

Edit: Game absolutely cratered on Steam. 8k average CCU in September to 118 average CCU during the last 30 days. Looks like they're pinning a lot of hope on this console launch.

The developer hosted an AMA 6 days ago and this was relatively interesting...

Question: What have you learned about competing in this space against AAA studios (Valorant, CSGO)?

First, the quantity and quality of live service shooters out there is higher than ever. That means player expectations have growth, and that it’s significantly harder to pull players away from these games where they’ve already invested significant time and money.

Directly related to this, a major fumble on our part was over-hyping Spectre ahead of launch. In retrospect, we definitely should have launched as an Early Access title and been more transparent about the state of the game at that time. We had hoped players would give us the benefit of the doubt as a small indie team, but this was damaged by the way we presented Spectre. Hindsight is 20-20.

As an example, we thought that launching without a Battlepass wouldn’t be a big deal. Lots of big games famously launched without Battlepasses. We couldn’t have been more wrong, and players made it clear that we didn't ship with enough free content for to unlock.

One more example: we couldn’t afford to host dedicated servers in every single region that Valorant/CSGO support. Players hit us hard with negative reviews on that one. They’ve also come to expect lower pings which Riot & Valve help facilitate through their private infrastructure.

These are some areas where AAA budgets are creating larger and larger moats, making it harder for small teams to compete. This is especially true in competitive shooters, but you see similar trends bleeding into other genres as well.

Second, self-publishing is hard. Much harder than we expected it to be. Not only did we lack a proper marketing budget, but reaching players globally is more difficult than ever.

There are so many great games coming from top-tier teams dropping $50-100M in marketing. It can be difficult to break through the noise and get players in.

We would have loved to have a publisher to lend their expertise and finances to bring the game to a much wider audience. We’ve had lots of conversations with world-class publishers, and it may actually be an avenue we pursue in 2025 depending on the results of Season 1: Flashpoint and our console launch.

Third, timing is everything. We definitely suffered from Deadlock’s greatness to some extent. Pray your game doesn’t launch within a week of a surprise new game from Valve

—

This isn’t a comprehensive list, but those were a few that stood out.

 

[Loomy]

Is that Shroud's game?

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

"As far as why players might be interested in Spectre compared to competitors, I think there are a number of reasons. The biggest would have to be our core mechanic, Duality, which the entire game has been built around.

• You aren't immediately out of the round when you die once. You have the chance to trade yourself or change your game plan based on new information. You end up spending much more time on average playing the game each round compared to more traditional tac shooters.
• You can set yourself up with utility. You don't have to ask a teammate to flash you in. You can throw a flash from one body, swap, and push off your own grenade.
• You can start planting/defusing, swap bodies, and cover your own plant/defuse.
• You can freely customize the appearances and outfits of both your bodies independently, giving you a ton of opportunity to express yourself. You aren't limited to skins that can only be applied to one pre-made character."

 

[kevboard]

Is that Shroud's game?

yes... but no...

like, I am not really sure how he is connected to this. he might have helped financing it or something... but I don't think he was all that involved in its development

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

yes... but no...

like, I am not really sure how he is connected to this. he might have helped financing it or something... but I don't think he was all that involved in its development

"Shroud’s official title is Lead Gameplay Advisor. In that role, he’s helped with Spectre’s design, tuning, and balance through a ton of behind-the-scenes playtesting and iteration.

For example, not only did he help shape Monark Tactical and Canal, he’s helped with iteration on the next few Sponsors and maps too.

The community took the narrative around ‘This is shroud’s game’ to a level we didn’t expect or prepare for at launch. We’ve tried to reign that in – and shroud himself has been super clear to the community about that – but that message hasn’t been picked up much.

I wrote more about this in our early October blog post: “What's Next - The Save Round”

shroud’s still involved, but he’s been insanely busy recently with his incredible Fragathon charity project (raising over $1M for St. Judes Children’s Hospital). Massive kudos to him and bnans for such an amazing event!

- Nate, CEO"

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I don't understand their complaints about self-publishing being hard and a lack of marketing budget. In addition to Shroud's name, didn't a16z invest pretty heavily in this thing? The problem is that they built a game that nobody wanted, in a niche that was already absurdly oversaturated.

 

[Loomy]

I don't understand their complaints about self-publishing being hard and a lack of marketing budget. In addition to Shroud's name, didn't a16z invest pretty heavily in this thing? The problem is that they built a game that nobody wanted, in a niche that was already absurdly oversaturated.

Marvel Rivals is proving that it wasn't oversaturated.

Having said that, they did do a poor job showing why anyone should play this. I mean...Shroud is currently live on Twitch playing Marvel Rivals. It looks like that and Avowed are all he's been streaming recently, so yeah. They have a marketing issue.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Marvel Rivals is proving that it wasn't oversaturated.

Having said that, they did do a poor job showing why anyone should play this. I mean...Shroud is currently live on Twitch playing Marvel Rivals. It looks like that and Avowed are all he's been streaming recently, so yeah. They have a marketing issue.

A game can still succeed in an oversaturated genre. It's just much more difficult for the average game to stand out.

Either way, yeah - we're on the same page.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Marvel Rivals is proving that it wasn't oversaturated.

Having said that, they did do a poor job showing why anyone should play this. I mean...Shroud is currently live on Twitch playing Marvel Rivals. It looks like that and Avowed are all he's been streaming recently, so yeah. They have a marketing issue.

It's not marketing at all.

The game had a solid launch month on steam with over 8k average CCU. There are so many super successful games that start out with considerably less than that and grow because it retains players and those that play it get their friends to play.

That concept is the most powerful marketing force in the industry and Spectre Divide didn't have it.