I like they used a Talonflame, of all things.
Maybe they're appealing to the competitive player base? Talonflame was super popular at one time.
Anyway moba games aren't my thing at all and Iwas laughing at just how hard they were trying to pus the gameplay segment as exciting but my friends who do play mobas thinks it looks fine. nothing special. Tencent will at least keep it updated frequently, their previous moba offerings have been Fine, etc. It'll probably be a bigger hit in China, if I had to guess.
If I had to guess, that was likely on Tencent's request. There was no reason to keep this as a separate announcement or try to sell it as hard as they did. BUT Tencent told them if they want that Chinese market money they want their own announcement, for them to sell it like it's more exciting than a new Pokemon Snap, and they want someone to go through their bowl of Skittles and remove all the green ones because their supreme leader doesn't like that flavor so banned it.
If it's just skins with no gameplay impact, or permanent unlocks (don't some MOBAs have some sort of rotation of free characters?), it wouldn't be much of an issue.
What skins could they offer? I don't think many would pay just for a palette swap. Only thing I could think is using another Pokemon of same Type and general build, though doing that would mean they'd have to make the Pokemon easily exchangeable between a group when players would want all the Pokemon units to have some uniqueness. They could try a Magikarp Splash though I'd imagine they would have to get approval from the Pokemon Company every time and, even if the Pokemon Company agrees with the alternate designs each time, would still probably be a tedious process.
They are, LOL & DOTA are both very popular in the west as they are in Asia (well maybe not AS popular? unsure). I just think I could see Pokemon MOBA not penetrate the market as well here as opposed to there. I figure Tencent Pokemon is a bigger selling point there, but thinking on it I can only imagine how crowded the moba market is there too so I suppose we'll see how this shakes out.
And that's why I'm not sure if this would make any waves. Maybe if another company was handling it and giving it a unique spin on the premise, but as everyone said this just looks like a League of Legend reskin with Pokemon. Why play Pokemon Unite when you can play League of Legends? Is there really going to be that big of a Pokemon base to play a Pokemon LoL, or at the very least for a long time?
Granted, I don't know enough about LoL to know if Pokemon Unite is just a reskin, I'm just going off from what I heard from everyone else. Pokemon Unite will probably at least have the Type Chart which I don't think LoL had so that is something (then again Pokken didn't bother with the Type Chart but they put a focus on making each playable Pokemon have a unique fighting style).
Looks alright, but MOBAs aren't really a thing that I'm a fan of. Call me when we get a Pokemon first person shooter, though.
*ring ring* New Pokemon Snap *hangs up*
There's healthier ways to get that money (personally, I don't dislike skins and cosmetics like LoL and Dota do as an approach since they are relatively harmless and completely "opt-in"), there's way more predatory ones (hello lootboxes) that can create addiction, and in this case, we're talking of a infamous company, and a game notably aimed at asian market which is filled with gachas and F2P games with whaling systems all over the place.
To be fair, it's not like Pokemon Company hasn't already done a loot box system: Pokemon Masters and scouting new trainers. You can buy gems which can be used to scout for a random trainer, so it counts as a lootbox.
Well, the thing is, a child wouldn't know how to use a credit card
Plus credit card entering pages sometimes comes with helpful images so you know exactly what numbers they want you to punch in.
I don't really buy the "Gamefreak needs money to keep its employees fed" narrative when Pokémon makes billions of dollars every year from merchandise alone
Especially since this isn't GF, this is Pokemon Company who sells all the merch.
Tencent has a habit of sharing their data with the Chinese government.
Guess this would be a good as time as any to mention my issue with Tencent being involved, and it's rather simple. The Chinese government is very totalitarian and aren't afraid to issue bans or "heavily imply to change" things, some things which have affected the gaming market. For instance Chinese government has a thing against the supernatural, especially skeletons and ghosts, so while I don't think it's outright illegal to have a skeleton or ghost in your game the Chinese government would very much not like you having it in your game so change it or you may not be making as much China money as you thought you would. I don't want this kind of thing anywhere near the video games I play, even if it's only for games that is made by a Chinese company. It feels like it's giving a potential for a "leg in a door".
And of course I'm just against a company who uses their power to censor people because that person's belief goes against their country's government totalitarian decision. Kind of start getting into "big brother" territory.
Can we have a thread for this where people can actually talk about what strategies they see, gameplay, etc.?
By all means, talk about it. No one is stopping you.
Because gamers do not care. All their cries of protecting children and protesting the CCP's injustices are all a mask to hide their true, selfish intentions: A videogame company made a choice they did not like and it got them into a temper tantrum.
Geez, who cut you off in traffic?
Apparently Tencent has it in their contract that their games can't be revealed alongside games developed by other companies, so that's why it got its own direct. Just... lol.
Sounds like someone is compensating...
So i want to ask a question: if i were trying ro make my game more popular in China, is there any alternatives to Tencent i could have used with a Similar appeal? Cause it sounds like Tencent is a huge monopoly and collaboration was inevitable.
If you're thinking Pokemon Company went to Tencent, think again. Tencent likely went to the Pokemon Company. Or Pokemon Company let it out there they were thinking/wanting to enter the Chinese market and Tencent got word and stepped in.
