Disney Speedstorm is rolling out for a paid early access release on April 18. The racing game seeking to compete with Mario Kart, planned as a free-to-play game, will therefore follow the same path as Disney Dreamlight Valley, also developed by Gameloft for Disney.
First scheduled for release in 2022 before being delayed, the project, rather ambitious on paper, aims to stage the stars of Disney and Pixar licenses on race tracks inspired by their respective licenses. The studio had then promised to communicate as soon as possible about an upcoming release: it is now done. The most impatient players can, for a fee, run alongside Mickey, Mulan and Jack Sparrow.
Finally… it depends on how much money these players will be ready to offload: Mickey and Donald will hit the road with the first pack, the “standard” pack, accompanied by costumes, karts and a certain amount of in-game currency. Mulan joins them in the second pack, the “deluxe” pack, then Hercules and Jack Sparrow in the “ultimate” pack. The prices are similar to those of Disney Dreamlight Valley: around thirty euros for the “standard” pack, around fifty euros for the “deluxe” pack, and seventy euros for the “ultimate” pack.
Thus, this seems to be the new trend of Disney games from Gameloft, and perhaps we could even already estimate the prices of microtransactions from Speedstorm looking at those in Dreamlight Valley. However, already last year we were worried about the business models of the various game projects launched by Disney.
Indeed, since their entry into the mobile game market, the release of games going beyond the free-to-play model, real pay-to-win, have been repeated. It wasn’t necessarily problematic before, with projects really having a bare-bones playstyle, but on releases like Mirrorverse, Disney’s Dreamlight Valley, or Disney Speedstormit stings.
And with their last two projects, Gameloft has chosen another way to get players through checkout: paid early access. So, it is certain that Speedstorm is far, very far from being an isolated case, it is a practice that has existed for several years, and it would not be the first time that it is a way of scrounging a few pennies from the purses of the players most impatient to get their hands on a title. That said, paid early access to free-to-play games is perhaps among the most fraudulent practices in the industry.
It has been a recurring tactic for more than ten years to offer early access for a few days as a selling point for a collector’s version. The most recent title that one can think of using this practice is of course Hogwart’s Legacy, but one can go back to Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011, Eidos Montreal) to see an embryo (rejected from players) of this trend. Just as manipulative as at the time, the early access system is nevertheless today one of the achievements of the industry.
So, in reality, for single-player games like Hogwart’s Legacy, it’s not necessarily so important: if the manipulation tactic is unfortunate, it’s fair game. This will not really alter the gaming experience beyond the satisfaction of having been the first to arrive in the school of British wizards. The biggest risk, negligible, is to see comments on the narrative of the game. The problem becomes already more important when it comes to a competitive multiplayer game.
The question arose when Forza 5 offered its early access: for between fifty and one hundred euros, it was possible to launch the game four days before the public release. The concept of early access is now much more accepted, and this time it’s a success. 800,000 people will have spent the money to enjoy the game in advance. So, when they were officially released, these people already had an advantage over the other players: four days of training in advance, for a competitive game, that’s huge. However, this situation is not due to the players, but to the companies that create these situations.
In the context of free-to-play or pay-to-win games, with early access as long as Gameloft’s games, the question is more complicated. Indeed, in the case of Disney Dreamlight Valley, a Cozy Game with microtransactions, we can immediately see how early access affects the game: during the public release, players who have already had several months to make their kingdom will have enough to make new free-to-play players drool over. It is very likely that this situation leads more fragile players to spend more than if they had not been put in this situation.
These are not behaviors specific to players of titles in early access, it is specific to the free-to-play genre. Take advantage of social mimicry, frustration and impulsiveness of players to make a profit. It is however certain that having showcases of an account at the end of the game could only amplify this feeling.
As for Disney Speedstorm, the question is more complex: it will depend on how the characters will be created. It is obvious that those who will checkout to take an early start will have an advantage during the races. However, in terms of the characters available, it is very likely that the interest will be minor in the long term: these pay-to-win games often rely on the release of ever more powerful elements in order to encourage players to checkout. Thus, the characters unlocked by the early access packs will lose their interest over time.
Finally, in addition to the economic predation it represents, in the context of free-to-play games, the early access strategy highlights a lack of confidence in the project: early access, by definition, is a blind purchase, where it is easier to define whether or not you want to put money into a free-to-play after having played it.
Finally, it is not shocking to see Disney taking advantage of the least scrupulous techniques to sell their titles: sad situation, when, in the past, Disney games were recognized as being of good quality, and did not need these artifices to sell.