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Champions Online Player Numbers - June 2022
magpieuk2014
Posts: 1,268 Arc User
I know that "the game is dying" is an awful forum cliche, but gosh it's quiet at the moment.
It has always been bad when the US is asleep but right now (1000 UK time on a weekend) there are 40 players total in Millennium City. Steam Charts (which I know are unreliable, but even so) report a consistent average of less than 100 players for the last few months, which is the lowest ever. There's no-one running Cosmics in Canada or MI, and unless I've missed some mass Eidolon event there is simply *no-one here*.
Anyone know what the deal is? Some mass exodus caused by something or other? SG drama? Power changes? Newer, better games? Half the players were Vladimir Putin (I notice a particular drop in February?)? Or is it just the game population has dropped below some critical level where you can't even keep the Alert queue running any more?
It has always been bad when the US is asleep but right now (1000 UK time on a weekend) there are 40 players total in Millennium City. Steam Charts (which I know are unreliable, but even so) report a consistent average of less than 100 players for the last few months, which is the lowest ever. There's no-one running Cosmics in Canada or MI, and unless I've missed some mass Eidolon event there is simply *no-one here*.
Anyone know what the deal is? Some mass exodus caused by something or other? SG drama? Power changes? Newer, better games? Half the players were Vladimir Putin (I notice a particular drop in February?)? Or is it just the game population has dropped below some critical level where you can't even keep the Alert queue running any more?
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However, at ca. 8:00 am EST today in the USA we had enough people for 1 kiga, 2 apes and 2 dinos. Yesterday the cosmics happened every 4 hours and I saw at least 2 attempts at Eido (I know the one in which I participated was successful; left after that).
We're just in that spiral where the company doesn't want to invest more in the game unless they see players spending money, and I think quite a few players are not spending money because they don't see any development or have already bought most everything the game has to offer that they want (at least that's the case for me). About all I buy anymore are catalysts. I remember a time, not long ago, when every other week there was a sale. Now they are few and far between. Not sure if that is a decision from on high or the CO team just forgeting. They might try having sales more often again. I do wonder how much money they have actually made/saved since getting rid of subscriptions? Once upon a time people bought vehicles, but since the heavy-handed nerf a few years back that turned them into just travel devices I doubt that they make anything much on those. They are trying to figure out a way to get people to buy keys for lootboxes, hence putting powers there (some would say pay to win), rather than finishing the power revamps, which I wager most people would prefer.
That's the point, though. There is no point trying to do anything in the game until the US is around, and even then things only really liven up in the very late evening, UK time. There doesn't seem to be a European game community around any more, which is a shame.
Ranking / Game / Daily Player Count
27 / Neverwinter / 2.81M
29 / Star Trek Online / 2.64M
94 / Champions Online / 65.31K
The site tracks 130 games btw.
For example, hit level 40 in CO and you get an exclusive mount in STO or NW, or something along that line.
Or crossover type events where a NW boss appears in CO, or vice versa.
They would be better off trying to advertise during the Arrowverse shows (if they last much longer) or Marvel, The Boys is pure deconstruction of the genre instead of being a true superhero show, though Invincible might work since it is a kind of hybrid between superhero and a deconstruction of the superhero genre.
The initial team he's talking about is almost certainly larger than the current CO dev team.
Here is from the hundred other times we talked about this. There is more but whatever:
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/discussion/comment/12847317
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/discussion/comment/12848559
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/discussion/comment/12853157
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/discussion/comment/12852751
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/discussion/comment/12852691
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/discussion/comment/12852014
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/discussion/1216101/adressing-mobs-in-downtown
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/profile/discussions/metalheart#4270
Same time next year or nah? LoL.
Alerts were an ok idea, but it was (pardon my French) half-assed, effectively killing any interest in doing Missions in the various maps. Same reason PVP is null. There aren't any worthwhile rewards in exchange for the Acclaim currency.
I said it was a cliche! But I had noticed that the number of active players was even lower than the number of players in the game - there were loads of people standing around in Ren Cen posing and no-one actually playing. Which is a bit disappointing, because I log in knowing I can't get any daily Alerts going and I'm probably going to get bored and log out again. I keep coming back to Champions with good intentions to stick around, and after 10 minutes of nothing happening I go and play something else.
I agree
Licensing issues.
They can't just add Vecna to the Halloween event without getting the okay from WotC. They can't just have Klingons invade Millenium City without getting the okay from Paramount or CBS or whoever.
And the okay might not even be that difficult to get, but it would almost certainly cost them money, and I doubt that anyone has much faith that a Klingon invasion of MC is going to bring money into CO.
Even a crossover promotion would likely only increase the population to the extent that people would play to get the reward.
I get a new STO ship, let's call it a Millenium class cruiser, if I level a hero to 40 in CO during an event? Okay, I come in, I play, I level my toon, and...? I am pretty sure that every STO and NW player knows that CO is here.
Any new people that come here to get the ship likely do so *JUST* to get the ship and then go back to STO. Or they came here from Neverwinter *JUST* to get the companion or whatever and then they go back to NW.
I think if they were inclined to play they would have at least checked it out by now. Same with PWI, Torchlight Infinite, Forsaken World, etc. They are all there on the ARC login.
The point is to expose CO to the bigger games' playerbase.
Another major MMO company does in-game events to promote other games within their company library. Cryptic owns some CO IP if Im not mistaken, so it shouldn't be an issue for CO characters like Dr Destroyer or Witchcraft to make occasional cameos in NW or STO via event quest chains.
I.e. Witchcraft NPC shows up in Protector's Enclave (The Millennium City equivalent in NW). Talisman somehow escaped through a rift into NW and she needs help getting her back. Really simple quest but the exposure to CO characters and background makes for memorable advertising.
And yes, CO is competing with NW and STO simply by virtue of all three being MMOs.