BF 4 - will it impact PS2 population?

[Bulltahr]

If it means the Kojaks (Tweenies) all move somewhere else I'm all for it......................
Should be an age restriction on Command and orders.

[RSphil]

i have BF4 on pre order but it wont take me away from Planetside 2 as i love the scale of battle. the plus points for Battlefield are environment destruction and spectator mode. i plan on using spectator mode and expanding my tactics show to BF4 as well as trying to keep up my Planetside 2 show. BF4 will be easier as i wont get shot while filming lol.

after a few month all the crappy servers will show and BF4 will die off again. we all know BF is heavily hacked after a few months and will get too expensive with all the expansion maps you'll have to buy.

Planetside 2 is still number 1 imo. for scale, looks and pure combat.

[Assist]

Originally Posted by Skittles

Its just a smaller wound over time compared to a deep cut. You think SOE's business model is better then DICE's because of the fact its not a monthly charge? Do you think SOE is more upfront then DICE is about where either one plans to be in their 6 month forecast?

I have not the slightest clue where PS2 will be in 6 months. I can't even give a prediction of where it will be.

[Hamma]

To answer the OPs question, I have no doubt BF4 will affect the population. It's inevitable really. Personally I won't be playing it, not a fan of the rinse/repeat FPSs' like Battlefield and COD.

[Zadexin]

BF4 might affect population a bit. I mean it does look fantastic and destructible terrain is WAY better than bulletproof everything IMO. But I think GTA V, Rome Total War, And the next Assassins Creed are going to be just as effective, if not more, at drawing players away. At least in the short term.

The biggest thing SOE can do to drive customers away is to do nothing. And lately they have been doing it with reckless abandon. Optimization is fantastic and all that, but its not physical. You can't log in and play on the new optimization, or shoot the latest optimization, or wear the baddest optimization. Its just there behind the scenes.

What SOE needs to keep players is simple. They need new objectives for the game. We have played every map to death by now. We know how they work and its getting old. We need global lattice, a new continents and FFS resources that matter! Without new and better objectives they are going to have a fantastically optimized ghost town.

[typhaon]

Every major PC/Console release - I don't care the genre - will draw away some players... some % will never return, some will. Over time, the trend will be downwards, with only significant content and feature additions likely to draw in more than are bleeding away... <-- haven't been any of those in about a long while/ever.

[Dodgy Commando]

It's fair to expect a dip after any major release.

Whether PS2 will once again attract those who left will depend on what it has to offer versus its competitors. It'll be a good test and could encourage SOE to get things going even more.

I'm more curious to see how BF4 could affect the PS4 version of PS2.

I personally don't see the two games as competitors (except perhaps in terms of using up precious playtime), they have very big differences. Its up to the players to decide which is more fun (I'm sure both are very fun, that being said).

[Koadster]

new BF4 features like Commander Mode

REALLY... FFS new age kids.

This shit was in BF2/2142. Its NOT a new feature, DICE removed it in BF3 with the WORST fucking excuse ive ever seen.. So poor was the excuse, they added it back into BF4.

BF4 is a no buy for me.. No modtools.. EA/DICE would rather you buy thier shitty DLC packs then let the community make a better game then they did. IE: Project Reality for BF2. Though BF2 was great already.

BF3 gutted everything that made the PC BF series great. It caters to the console crowd and dumbs down gameplay for those 10 button controller kids.. If people think the current BF series has a higher skill cap. You must be VERY new to gaming or the BF series. The game is so piss easy these days, most teamwork was removed.

[VaderShake]

Originally Posted by Koadster

REALLY... FFS new age kids.

This shit was in BF2/2142. Its NOT a new feature, DICE removed it in BF3 with the WORST fucking excuse ive ever seen.. So poor was the excuse, they added it back into BF4.

BF4 is a no buy for me.. No modtools.. EA/DICE would rather you buy thier shitty DLC packs then let the community make a better game then they did. IE: Project Reality for BF2. Though BF2 was great already.

BF3 gutted everything that made the PC BF series great. It caters to the console crowd and dumbs down gameplay for those 10 button controller kids.. If people think the current BF series has a higher skill cap. You must be VERY new to gaming or the BF series. The game is so piss easy these days, most teamwork was removed.

Exactly...no buy for me as well.

I really cannot wait to see what DICE has lied about or misled people about with the release of BF4. They did such a good job deceiving and screwing over their PC customers with BF3.

If I were ever to play the BattleField series again they would have to do something on a much larger scale, with at minimum 500 players, much larger maps, tactical command tools, and allot less guided action. Make a sandbox game again and give back to the customers hands DICE.

I really hope PS2 team has some positive major announcements in the next 2 weeks.

[Calista]

MMO's in particular face the danger of self-perpetuating demise. Quite simply, "Guess I'll stop playing game X because not enough people are playing now." and on and on the story will go down a never ending downward spiral. It doesn't take much to nudge a game in this direction either.

[Roderick]

Originally Posted by Calista

MMO's in particular face the danger of self-perpetuating demise. Quite simply, "Guess I'll stop playing game X because not enough people are playing now." and on and on the story will go down a never ending downward spiral. It doesn't take much to nudge a game in this direction either.

Welcome to the ever growing and over saturated gaming industry. There are many games to choose from pretty much giving the dynamic mood of the average player the ability to change their gaming desire from X game today, Y game tomorrow, and possibly Z game on Saturday.

Unless a game is "flawless", players will continue to fluctuate and even then, the perfect game may not keep a huge player base because of the huge menu of gaming options out there at the players disposal.

[Sledgecrushr]

I think a week after bf4 is released we are going to get a huge influx of new players. Small arena session based games just wont do it. Folks want more and with ps2 it is delivered.

[Thunderhawk]

Some people will play both, I may try BF4 just for the new shiny factor but won't "leave" Planetside 2 for it, have every intention to play both at different times.

As for population, I hope SOE are holding back some content patches for around BF4's release, basically do what Blizzard normally does with WoW when a big release from a rival is looming....

I love Planetside 2, and have invested heavily financially into it over the last year nearly, but this lull in patches for performance improvement is (albeit necessary) slowly killing the game.

Once people stop playing and start doing other things, its hard to come back to spending a lot of evenings at the Computer, Blizzard did this brilliantly by keeping the carrot well and truly dangled with WoW, and it would be good if SoE started doing something similar.

And don't tell me "SOE have a roadmap" ... we all know you can totally ignore that as any useful gauge of whats coming.

[Calista]

The next big hype for PS2 will come when it launches on PS4 and I expect it to be a grand entrance. BTW has anyone heard any information when that might be? I know it is a "launch" title which basically means sometime before the end of the year unless that has changed. PS2 should be able to weather the BF4 storm as long as the PS2 launch on PS4 is not significantly behind.

[ChipMHazard]

Let's just hope that there's enough of the PC playerbase left at that point so PS2 doesn't become dominated by the console