Do you think the 'Hero Shooter' fad is already dying?

[dope_danny]

It seems like the fad of the year was survival crafting sandbox with zombies for a loooong time but then last year things moved full speed into 'arena shooter with moba abilities' under the 'hero shooter' moniker. Only it seems that super quickly the audience has exhausted of this already. Overwatch was easily the biggest winner but it seems to be quieting down as the audience is asking "when are we getting more story rather than prequel stuff or map/character introductions? what happened after winstons message sent out and why are people like Mei mercilessly killing other people for points to begin with?" for example and thats the biggest winner of the lot. Things like Paladins never really got big and just chug along, Battleborne and Lawbreakers are dead as a game can get and still have servers up at this point. It seems like the consumer is tiring of this fad and moving onto the PUBG clone fad along with developers much quicker than it took to get over the sandbox crafting meme.

Personally i think the lack of any persistent accomplishments to look at like a built house or the like combined with the more niche gameplay of arena shooters is in part why its dying so quick. But developers spamming them out to cause consumer fatigue was surely another part played in it.

What do you think? with a few unreleased games going dark and the recent releases all being bombs has the hero shooter fad already burnt out in less than 2 years?

[Eleccybubb]

Well if we look at Overwatch then no. If anything Overwatch seems to be gaining steam if we go by Quarterly reports and whatnot.

Problem is the amount coming along trying to take on Overwatch. Eventually the market will be a bit overrun with them.

Only other half decent one atm imo is Paladins.

[cuafpr]

most of those games don't really give you a long term investment reason... thats my 2 copper

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Battleborn died because it was fighting the titan(Teehee) known as Overwatch. Honestly I don't think people are tired of "Hero Shooters." I think it will stay relatively popular for 5+ at minimum. If anything Survival games are getting dull(I blame Early Access for that).

[Deleted]

Dying? Probably not.

But will Overwatch be the one played by the most people and the only decent one on the market? Definitely.

[Immitis]

It seems like the fad of the year was survival crafting sandbox with zombies for a loooong time but then last year things moved full speed into 'arena shooter with moba abilities' under the 'hero shooter' moniker. Only it seems that super quickly the audience has exhausted of this already. Overwatch was easily the biggest winner but it seems to be quieting down as the audience is asking "when are we getting more story rather than prequel stuff or map/character introductions? what happened after winstons message sent out and why are people like Mei mercilessly killing other people for points to begin with?" for example and thats the biggest winner of the lot. Things like Paladins never really got big and just chug along, Battleborne and Lawbreakers are dead as a game can get and still have servers up at this point. It seems like the consumer is tiring of this fad and moving onto the PUBG clone fad along with developers much quicker than it took to get over the sandbox crafting meme.

Personally i think the lack of any persistent accomplishments to look at like a built house or the like combined with the more niche gameplay of arena shooters is in part why its dying so quick. But developers spamming them out to cause consumer fatigue was surely another part played in it.

What do you think? with a few unreleased games going dark and the recent releases all being bombs has the hero shooter fad already burnt out in less than 2 years?

i dont think the games themselves were ever very popular outside of overwatch which had the backing of blizzards brand to begin with

[dope_danny]

i dont think the games themselves were ever very popular outside of overwatch which had the backing of blizzards brand to begin with

Well that and waifus.

[StrawberryZebra]

It seems like the fad of the year was survival crafting sandbox with zombies for a loooong time but then last year things moved full speed into 'arena shooter with moba abilities' under the 'hero shooter' moniker.

Honestly, a proper Arena shooter with MOBA style abilities would be fantastic. Quake Champions looks to be going for something similar, but is still quite tame in terms of it's abilities despite having all the Arena elements in place. Maybe it's a genre mash up that just doesn't work out as well as I would like? I trust ID have a good reason for keeping their MOBA style abilities to a minimum. What we've really had are TF2 mixed with a few MOBA-lite elements to create a new sub genre, and that's fine, but they're not arena shooters, far from it.

Unlike Hero Shooters, Arena shooters have never really had a place on console. Too many movement options combined with too many weapons for a controler to really handle well enough to be successful. They seem to be limited mostly to PC, where the keyboard and mouse give you the flexibility to use all the tools presented without the need to break the flow of play.

As for the "fad", I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. They provide a welcome alternative to Military style shooters which have been the norm for over a decade now. If anything, I expect we're going to see more experimentation with the genre, particularly in regards to theming. It's perfectly acceptable for a Hero Shooter to break with conventional FPS trends and let you play Wizards, Super Heroes, DJ's and practically everything else imaginable. They're also able to have bright colours, larger than life characters and play around with the rules of reality in a way that Military shooters are simply unable to.

If I was to take a guess, I would say that Hero Shooters are going to end up being a mainstay of FPS gaming for decades to come, alongside other Military style shooters. There are too many people who enjoy FPS but want something that Military shooters can't offer, and the sub-genre itself has too much unexplored potential to fizzle away.

[PACOX]

I wouldnt call any of that thr fad of the year. Zombie/Sandbox/Survival games have been around for a long time.

Overwatch is a year old.

People like arena combat. Its fun, face paced, easy to pick up and go and has existed forever. Streaming trends are a thing though. There is (maybe a vocal minority) gaming community that plays games based on whats popular on twitch, which falsely makes some games seem more mainstream or "dead" than what they actually are.

[Deleted]

The thing is streaming trends actually give you a good picture about popularity of a given game. Going by the quarterly reports figures is much less accurate IMO because the figures you get from that are essentially useless. They tell you sales numbers - that means 35 million users have bought Overwatch. It doesn't tell you how many people are playing. And considering reportedly many people from Overwatch left for PUBG and that the game got overtaken in South Korea as well, things aren't quite as much rosy and twitch statistics cannot be dismissed that simple.

[GennGreymane]

I would have to say the genre defiantly is kinda slowing down as a fad. We have Overwatch as the current main series, TF2 as the classic, and Paladins as the free one.

[ro9ue]

Overwatch is just taking up all the oxygen in the room. They just can't compete with Blizzard's quality. Paladins, Battleborn and Lawbreakers are all decent games, but online games have an aspect to them where people want to go play where the most people are. That's OW.

[tankbug]

Well, let's see if Quake Champions will attract any attention.

[Lotus Victoria]

The market became oversaturated with them in less than a year, so, if the only thing that your game offer is "a selection of """""""unique"""""" heroes for you to play", your game is already putting its foot in the grave.

Quake Champions is good, though.

[fangless]

TF2 is still played even :P

I'm already over it though, and the fact that Quake tried to now do it as well makes me roll my eyes.

[Redwolf]

Honestly, a proper Arena shooter with MOBA style abilities would be fantastic. Quake Champions looks to be going for something similar, but is still quite tame in terms of it's abilities despite having all the Arena elements in place. Maybe it's a genre mash up that just doesn't work out as well as I would like? I trust ID have a good reason for keeping their MOBA style abilities to a minimum. What we've really had are TF2 mixed with a few MOBA-lite elements to create a new sub genre, and that's fine, but they're not arena shooters, far from it.

If I was to take a guess, I would say that Hero Shooters are going to end up being a mainstay of FPS gaming for decades to come, alongside other Military style shooters. There are too many people who enjoy FPS but want something that Military shooters can't offer, and the sub-genre itself has too much unexplored potential to fizzle away.

Lets not forget how narrative driven FPS have come more into the forefront with Bioshock, Dishonored and Doom (maybe even the glorious but short Titanfall 2 campaign). I know Bioshock 1 is like 12 years old, but we didn't see a lot in that vein after it, mainly because it did story, atmosphere and theme so well.

So I think we're getting a lot of options like those above have mentioned, so people are able to gravitate toward what they like.

Of course in the case of multiplayer games like we're talking about, people move toward where the other players are. Part of Overwatch's success, and according to Kahplan, its problems.

[Arrashi]

I think that its "dead" in a same way MMO genre was "dead" after release of WoW. The dominant party is simply too strong for any newcomer to make their cut. And unlike MMO's, the hero shooter offers even less area to be unique and distinct from Overwatch.

[Deleted]

The genre isn't dead, Its just that overwatch dominates it. The genre was pretty quiet for years when being dominated by TF2 (if that's classed as hero shooter).

[potis]

The problem is that the competition is too much.

TF2 was there for years, as a niche game for a few.

Overwatch is from a company that focuses on smoothness before gameplay which they have been doing for awhile and their games are all famous.

Many other companies try to get a piece of the pie but the reality is, its not like MMOs.

People tried to get a piece of the pie off WoW because MMOs are different.

MMOs are played by mostly older people with money, FPS games are played by kids/teens that cant buy and test most of the games.

Overwatch is purchased? They arent gonna buy some similar game to try.

[Deleted]

I don't understand why are people discussing the competition within a hero shooter genre. I mean it's obvious Overwatch is gonna stay at the forefront of the genre till the end isn't it? The genre is, as I like to say, now locked, and shaped around a particular game, to which all others will be compared and 99% of the time come out less favorable. That's what happened to MMO, MOBA, and now Battle Royale as well.

It's not even what the thread is about.