Don't Panic! Arena won't kill Planetside, it will save it.

It's not a question of will PS2 be left behind, it already has. What do we have, 10 employees working on Planetside 2? They just laid off SEVENTY employees who were working on Arena. They were paid with money spent on THIS game, and this is another example of the money our players spent being used by other projects. Can you imagine what we could have gotten with 70 extra devs working on PS2 for a few months?

I don't know. I've always though this game would be better with only 2 factions, more balanced fights, and limited vehicles. And I do think PS2 is almost a lost cause, and that PS3 should be the end goal. So this may fix most of the problems I have with PS2. We'll see. I'm not judging it yet, but I'm not excited and I'm pissed tree hundreds I've spent on this game didn't go towards this game.

Agreed! Not unless you know that membership money is going towards the actual game, not another game they are making. That's like someone asking to borrow money to buy food and instead they buy booze and go to a party.

Hello Auraxians!

PlanetSide Arena was announced today, and I know there are many questions about PlanetSide 2 and the future of our game.
The PlanetSide 2 Development Team remains dedicated to developing, supporting, and improving PlanetSide 2. Our content plans for 2019 include the upcoming continent Oshur, the Nanite Systems Operatives faction, and more. This game remains our focus and our priority.
The main difference going forward is that the PlanetSide Arena team is also using our Forgelight engine, which means the work they do, and the improvements and upgrades they make, can also come over to PlanetSide 2. For example, the port to the DirectX 11 renderer is going to be a huge improvement, which is already priming PlanetSide 2 for better, more beautiful future.
We also expect PlanetSide Arena to attract a new audience to the PlanetSide universe, as well as reinvigorate past fans. Side by side, PlanetSide 2 and PlanetSide Arena will offer a huge variety of gameplay choices for everyone to enjoy. A taste of the Arena will almost certainly leave some players wanting to experience the original war... and when they do, we will be sure to have a warm seat ready for them on a Galaxy.
With Oshur and the rest of our plans for 2019, with the assistance we will see from the PlanetSide Arena team, and with the unique, unmatched MMOFPS experience that PlanetSide 2 already offers, there’s perhaps no better time to get into or back into PlanetSide 2. 2019 is shaping up to be a great year!

See you on the battlefield!
- Nick Silva
Producer, PlanetSide 2

Oh, I almost forgot. The DirectX 11 upgrade is already on the way to the PlanetSide 2 test server! Stay tuned, and we will let you know as soon as it is ready for your testing.

https://www.planetside2.com/news/ps2-producers-letter-dec-2018

PS2 for a new player already is a giant game. As F2P or as a member it is somewhere between 1.5-3K hours to certify just 2 factions adequately and still have a ton of stuff left to unlock, implants and ISOs, vehicle loadouts, and so on. Each unlock and upgrade unpacks a mini-game style of its own, some of which can be combined with other unlocks for some unique mechanics that take a long time to get good at or get to use effectively.

For whatever reason, it hasn't been attracting or retaining players - judging by prime time population numbers, and hearing about reports of completely dead servers.

PS2 should be, by MMO standards, well below the critical threshold for not enough players left to sustain the gameplay even for the diehards.

To me it makes sense for the developers to be forced to expand it in a different way, as to attract new types of players who are more likely to stay, and to grow into the game modes, one of which would be the existing PS2, which not by coincidence will receive the new map and faction probably alongside PS:A's release or shortly after to prove PS2 and PS:A are being expanded for real and not just empty promises.

We do show support for PS2 by playing PS2. They have detailed metrics. Yes, I agree, I'd have liked it if DBG had just PS2 so 100% went into it alone and not side ventures, but also, even in that scenario, the suits could decide to milk it and close it down anyways, or ride on the profits, false promises, millions of bags of cash, years and years of 'development,' as we're seeing in a certain digital cult game I won't mention.

We've seen crowdfunding fail, big corporations fail, indy companies fail, fan-based developers fail (IMO legions' successor midair is a failure), epic IPs fail (Tribes Ascend to me is a failure), spinoffs fail (Global Agenda). The thing that does stick around might just be great game engines, developers who actually enjoy the game they make and actually play it, and sufficient players who can appreciate it for what it is.

Agreed with most of what you say OP and glad there are calmer voices on a forum populated by extremely salty vets.

I don't mean to come off as combative Airazor but your points are just inaccurate. Please don't take what I say personally but by all means reply if you want.

Membership is for all games in the DBG pool not just planetside and to think otherwise is kidding yourself. I know my membership helps DCO or EQ or whatever other game they are supporting with my All Access Pass. I accept that and not understanding that from the moment you accept the membership is not DBG fault.

I certainly did ask for an Arena type game to be completely separated. DO NOT PUT YOUR ARENA MODE IN MY PLANETSIDE!!!! That would simply splinter the player base. Its why there is nothing to do on Koltyr! If they made that place fun Hossin would be more of a ghost town that it is when it is in the rotation. Adding an arena mode to planetside 2 is completely counter-intuitive. If you don't understand that then you are NUTS!

Why is it "dumbed down"? The only players that use that term are the people that just like to hate on every change that threatens them. 250 vs 250 CTF? OMG what other game can you point to that can do that? Not one. No Air. GREAT. You cant sit in an impossible to kill flying tank and farm. 3 classes? Excellent! Much easier to balance. No factions? Excellent. No more faction bias Sh$t post. The last point is mute because there are no factions.

Planetside Arean is not trying to get YOU to buy it. It sounds like you are a lib pilot. Great. Stay where you are. I mean they specifically state that they are not trying to get PS2 players to buy the game. They are trying to get people that are turned off by how hard PSide is to get into with Arena. With the added bonus of competing with other games that are extremely popular. How is this not a good thing?

You apparently don't understand why they made Arena as your previous statements contradict it that completely. Why would you expect Planetside 2.5 or 3? No one who has followed this game expects that. Not with all the announcements they have made for 2019 in Oct and Nov updates.

Here is what PS:A will do for Planetside. It will take all the crybabies that come to the form that want to change the open world of Planetside 2 into a round based arena shooter. I don't know how many threads have asked for it over the years but it's more than 1000. They have all been shouted down. Even recently this has been asked for over and over again. Trying to put a new game mode into Planetside 2 is simply idiotic and they knew that. So they created a new game with a new payment model. Will it work? Who knows. I'm just glad there is more news that has Planetside in the Title that is positive. The more people working on a Planetside title that can share resources, tech, etc. is great.

I'm really trying not to be combative but I have to say you are completely off base.

More than likely it was a combo of different development teams and if reports are accurate that most of it came out of Texas then it was probably more related to games they took over in 2016 like DnD online and LotR. We also know that Just Survive shut down. Nothing in the reporting suggests all 70 of them were working on PSA.

Unless you somehow specifically pay for Planetside 2... You don't specifically pay for Planetside 2 even if you buy DB cash.

https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/7/18131459/daybreak-game-company-layoffs-san-diego-austin

All this "sky is falling" and "unsub to all access because you've been betrayed" is just laughable. Along with all the hyperbole and conjecture surrounding the development of the game.

It's our money and we can fund what we wish, go ahead and label people as "salty vets". Your white knighting will not change my opinion on whether I want to back the company as a paying sub or not. I see many flaws with all these announcements.

Im not white knighting anything. Yes. You can spend your money on whatever you want. I would expect that you would be smart enough that All Access and buying Daybreak Cash funds ALL Daybreak games. Not just the one you play. Sheesh.

I fully understand that they use the All access to fund any game they wish. I have the option to fund them should I like the direction they are going in. Thanks for the weak shot at questioning intelligence because I chose not to fund them.

What are you talking about? I never questioned your intelligence for choosing to not fund them. Neither of my quotes in my OP was about you specifically and you're attacking me for what? Stating I'm cautiously optimistic about PS:A? Calling most people on this forum "salty vets"? I'm a salty vet. I will never defend CIA or the half-baked construction system. Sure, my signature likes the lattice system but it clearly needs improvement and Daybreak doesn't seem willing to do that.

Diluting core competency and thinning one's base does not seem like a good idea.

I noticed passive language in the Producer letter.

Something is wrong.

i play 4 games...
today i woke up to the news that Heroes of the Storm (one of the games i play) is getting sacrificed by blizzard so that they can free staff up to work on "other projects".
they said it in a lovely letter though "we love HotS! and we will still continue to update it in the future!" and all of that jazz.

and now i get back from work and see an eerily similar Producer's Letter for my favourite of the 4 games that i play, PS2...
tis a greeeeat day...


i was just about to log through my characters for my passive certs, but screw it, why bother,
the game is dead next month.

Are there any pending game releases for gameplay similar to PS2?

Not for PS2, but PS:A on the other hand..

In all honesty, I'd rather play fortnight instead of paying to play PSA. If they make all the modes persistent-world like each mode is its own continent that is a continual persistent battle you can jump in and out of like hopping continents in PS2. And they bring back factions so now I can play with my fellow company buddies from PS2 into PSA I would be more into the game, but as it is now PSA is just a gutted shell of a game prettied up with Homer's makeup gun set to *****.

Potentially sooner. The news has people cancelling subs and leaving the game in various outfits I'm loosely involved in these days. Was semi-watching the ingame chat and caught various conversations to that point. Sure it's not everyone, primarily the few vocal people who lead platoons/use voice. Which isn't many anymore anyway.

The points raised on the already small (non-existent if prime) community are sound because even a 10% pop loss to the more modern BR version is a sizeable blow compared to what it would be if the game was healthy.

Hopefully someone is preparing a coffin for PS2. I wonder if Wrel has gained enough to move on to a progressive employment as well. His ratings with the playerbase have been less than stellar post CAI.

Briggs will soon be the new normal.

i always told the "this game is dying" folks to stop being paranoid, that we still have server merges and all that jazz lined up,
years of gameplay left!

but i never expected they'd release planetside 2.5.
not even a sequel just a pain in the butt that replaces planetside 2 and forces us to lose all progression and start all over.

you like big fights? well in PS2.5 there is only big fights! (and it looks like it can actually handle them unlike PS2 which has enemies popping into existence)
you don't like the latency issues that have plagued PS2 for years? well PS2.5 runs smoother! (atleast from the trailer)
it will kill PS2 but its not PS3.

One of the most amusing things is that people over look the game modes for PS:A and the number of potential players. 250 or so is more or equal to the regular fight you'll get on cobalt these days. It may be a little more or less; but in essence it starts to remove any purpose to ps2, whilst replacing it with a drop in/modern alternative.

Starting over is the primary pain but perhaps they chalked it up as a more effective solution than removing maxes, air and other farm tools and receiving a backlash.

I'd suggest everyone avoids the continuing winter sale ps2 side. It would be like pissing money into the wind and much like DBG if you continue to focus on potential investment - you'd do better using your money to set yourself up for Arena. Assuming ofcourse you are even staying with the IP.

A few points there, is that it makes little sense to place much faith the development power of DBG with Arena; and equally other games have far better support and engine potential. Investing in something like this is a risk by itself, after spiteing the 'vets' by announcing this - who would risk investing again in a potential short term failure? Better to be safe than sorry perhaps.

Certainly the right time to leave ps2 and look to a more financially sound developer, with competent staff.

Mostly because times change. We've had 6 years of PS2. Longer if you were already engaged in the alpha/beta. In modern times that's pretty much an old haggard man with a white beard, crooked back, and a cane eating through a tube into his arm. I have no friends who are willing to log back in PS2. I take longer and more frequent breaks. There are tons of games out there, competing for our time.

My guess is they'll attempt to tag-team the open world MMOFPS genre through Planetside 2 while also draw in the pickup gamers through PSA. Both could benefit each other through additions and assets. Also, for myself, I would very much enjoy being able to jump into more traditional arena game modes/BR through planetside rather than through other games I do not actually enjoy playing.

It could all go belly up but if they can pull this kind of eco-system off, I'll be more than happy.

they didn't even wait for the server merge which would have made the game way more lively.
they've simply killed it and superseded it well before its time.

People already play other games. People who play other arena shooters or battle royals might instead play PSA. This immediately makes them familiar with how planetside handles and functions. The devs have realized that just being an open world MMOFPS isn't enough to sell people on the idea. I did see comments like "Wait, did he just say 500 player battle royals?" now that's a way to hook people.

DX updates, robot faction, PSA. The devs are busy little bees these days. Hardly the behavior of a studio that no longer cares.

What will kill the game though is salty vets who greet new players like "woe is us, the game is dying." I'm not saying you have to be all cotton candy sunshine rays but you know you just went into the deep end of doomsaying. This will echo in comments sections all over the place and suddenly everyone will think the game is dead because when people got interested the vets turned them away.