An Amazing Loss for Digital Extremes
A failed project is a sad one. A project that never really even gets off the ground is depressing. After the success of Warframe (2013) four years ago, the momentous new project by Digital Extremes has had to be put on pause due to lack of successful sway and player base. This week, we look at what a formerly successful company is doing in the face of a bad break.
Digital Extremes initially ran The Amazing Eternals off of the title Keystone when it was in closed alpha during June of 2017. The game was toted as a 'deck-building arena shooter' that appeared to be taking its one unique stake of time-based strategy into an already over saturated market that was ruled by Blizzard and 2016's Overwatch. The concept was different, with an artstyle that aped the 60's and 70's B-movie sci-fi genre. However, what it did well in looks and style, it faltered in play-ability and community.
The lifeblood of any online game is its playerbase. That is true in any console at any time. There are no amounts of bots or simulated single player modes that can make up for a solid group of people pouring hours and money into a game. With Keystone and The Amazing Eternals, there were often times where matches were only between 2-4 players when the game was meant to be 3v3. This combined with an randomly-granting card pack system that gave the players the items they actually required to succeed meant that there were sometimes impossible snowballing effects that only really skilled players could overcome.
Despite this, Digital Extremes brought the game to Penny Arcade Exposition West over the summer of 2017 and were featured heavily enough to perhaps garner attention. The lack of players were never heard of and when it came time for another update in the last week of October (23-29), what came was a shocking new report that development on The Amazing Eternals would be paused indefinitely until further notice, with the team being merged with Warframe.
Digital Extremes had many opportunities to be transparent during this process and they failed to acknowledge the problems that they were having. Transparency is key when it comes to a product or service and the appropriate communication could have saved this game. Public Relations sometimes isn't positive and Digital Extremes has to come to terms with that if they continue with this project or any future ones.
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