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Foamstars Going Free to Play Starting October 4th

kevboard

Member
it was PS+, so almost free to play to begin with right?

I'm not sure if this will revive it.

I only played it a tiny bit, but it immediately felt sluggish to me. too slow and too annoying to control the foam and make sure you are on your own foam.

it was an interesting concept to take Splatoon but make it more three-dimensional, but the ink in Splatoon just works way better in a team shooter than building ramps with foam while fighting people.
 

Robb

Gold Member
Foamstars is officially free to play now.
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ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch

Square Enix is essentially ending support for Foamstars, the quirky live service shooter that launched for PS5 and PS4 in February.


The game's final season — called 'The Party Goes On!' — begins on the 13th December, and runs through to the 17th January. After that, there'll be no more seasonal updates — although Foamstars itself will remain online, so it's not being shut down completely.


For what it's worth, previous season passes will be made available again so that players can go back and unlock stuff that they might have missed.


Foamstars isn't quite dead and buried, then, but this kind of announcement has been coming. The game went free-to-play back in October — no doubt in a bid to renew its appeal — but it's clear that the change in business model hasn't done enough to keep support ticking.
 

Mayar

Member
An attempt to collect at least some money from the game, so that later in six months or a year to close it, to recoup at least some of the money for its development. Classic...
 

Mayar

Member
Should have also launched it on PC.
At the present time there is no point and it is too late, you suggest them to spend a few more millions and make a port to PC, for an already dying game? They are now just trying to return at least something from the game, to report to investors at the end of the quarter that they at least got something out of it.
 

Z O N E

Member
At the present time there is no point and it is too late, you suggest them to spend a few more millions and make a port to PC, for an already dying game? They are now just trying to return at least something from the game, to report to investors at the end of the quarter that they at least got something out of it.

I think he's saying they should've launched it on PC Day 1 too, not when it was already a dead game.
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.

Mayar

Member
I think he's saying they should've launched it on PC Day 1 too, not when it was already a dead game.
It wouldn't have helped at all, at the start it was a paid game, for which you had to pay $30, I can just see how PC players ran en masse to buy it for that money =)
 

tkscz

Member
At the present time there is no point and it is too late, you suggest them to spend a few more millions and make a port to PC, for an already dying game? They are now just trying to return at least something from the game, to report to investors at the end of the quarter that they at least got something out of it.
He means when it originally launched. Square has already learned that going pure Playstation exclusivity was a bad idea. Live service games like this should also launch on PC, with cross play and should be free-to-play. You're trying to step in on Fortnite's turf so you have to start strong with as many users as you can get. Splatoon and Call of Duty can get away with charging for the games as they at least come with a full single player and in the case of Splatoon all multiplayer updates and extra content are free with season passes being for single player DLC. Foamstars charging to get the game then charging for season passes while only being on Playstation hurt it in the long run. It didn't look bad but I don't own a PS5 or PS4, so I couldn't play it.
 

Mayar

Member
He means when it originally launched. Square has already learned that going pure Playstation exclusivity was a bad idea. Live service games like this should also launch on PC, with cross play and should be free-to-play. You're trying to step in on Fortnite's turf so you have to start strong with as many users as you can get. Splatoon and Call of Duty can get away with charging for the games as they at least come with a full single player and in the case of Splatoon all multiplayer updates and extra content are free with season passes being for single player DLC. Foamstars charging to get the game then charging for season passes while only being on Playstation hurt it in the long run. It didn't look bad but I don't own a PS5 or PS4, so I couldn't play it.
You clearly didn't read what I wrote in response =)
To everyone who suggests starting on PC, I remind you that at the start it wasn't a free game, its price was $30, which had to be paid. Considering the number of free Arana shooters on PC, it would have died there in the same way within the first 2 weeks, as on the console. And if I remember correctly, it was a free game for PlayStation + subscribers for the first 2 weeks, and even that didn't help it. Which actually already speaks volumes about the quality of the game.
 

nikos

Member
It wouldn't have helped at all, at the start it was a paid game, for which you had to pay $30, I can just see how PC players ran en masse to buy it for that money =)

I did mean when it first launched.

We don't know how it would have turned out. For the right price, or even F2P, it could have succeeded.

I'm not sure how similar to Splatoon it actually is but I think there's a market for a splatoon-like on PC. I'd definitely play one.
 

tkscz

Member
You clearly didn't read what I wrote in response =)
To everyone who suggests starting on PC, I remind you that at the start it wasn't a free game, its price was $30, which had to be paid. Considering the number of free Arana shooters on PC, it would have died there in the same way within the first 2 weeks, as on the console. And if I remember correctly, it was a free game for PlayStation + subscribers for the first 2 weeks, and even that didn't help it. Which actually already speaks volumes about the quality of the game.
And you didn't read what I said. I said it should've started as Free to play on PC as well. At least then more people would've given it a chance since Square has the cash to push their games where few others can. It being free for a limited time just for PS+ members wouldn't have helped, by that point the idea of owning the game didn't seem so lucrative. Then going free to play months later was never going to help, way too late at this point.
 

Crayon

Member
Like it should have been in the first place, f****** idiots. If anyone's going to like this game, it's kids.
 

Mayar

Member
And you didn't read what I said. I said it should've started as Free to play on PC as well. At least then more people would've given it a chance since Square has the cash to push their games where few others can. It being free for a limited time just for PS+ members wouldn't have helped, by that point the idea of owning the game didn't seem so lucrative. Then going free to play months later was never going to help, way too late at this point.
So they developed the game on one platform and lost money, otherwise they would have had to spend even more money on 2 separate clients for 2 different platforms and lose even more money. The fact that this game was only for PlayStation will ultimately play to their advantage, since the loss of money from one platform will be much less than from two.
 

Kabelly

Member
Splatoon has some of the most realized and focused gameplay out there. I was watching a bit of some Foamstars gameplay today based on this news and the weapons looked weak, the maps looked weak and the foam mechanics makes everything very hard to read and see. Just a big mess of bubbles.

Splatoons ink mechanics combined with the plethora of different weapons AND its focus on gyro aim make it unlike anything else. It's why I still play it to this day. It's a super fast paced game with players that have unreal reaction times because of the gyro aim that makes it so exciting. Plus in 3 it has some of the best movement of any third person shooter out there. The only thing holding it back is Nintendo's shit online.
 
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