Crash Team Rumble [Topic Ufficiale]

So: Rumble not being on any digital charts at all is discouraging. It charting physically in some regions, but not digitally, feels strange. Especially considering the way that usually splits for games these days -- digital outperforms usually, esp. for multiplayer.

Had a conversation last week on audio that will get posted AFTER this, so I wanna admit I was wrong about digital before it gets posted lol. That said though, here's why I don't think it matters for the long term (or rather doesn't have to) and think it's not time to panic.

I go into this in that conversation, but what you're looking at with paid entry is risk mitigation. They're probably not aiming for high units sold, they're looking to recoup some costs in preparation for longer support (and the monetization over that longer period)

Personally I predict you see the monetization structure and the accessibility change for Season 3 -- disk content implies a larger drop there, and TFB have publicly said S1 and S2 are a sort of 'gestation period' that will dictate the game.

There's a bizarre thinking from some folks that a company dedicated to sustaining multiplayer online games somehow wouldn't know the challenges of doing so upfront. If you can think "this is facing an uphill battle", then you can be assured they already knew that.

That's why the game is paid during this period. A live service is incredibly risky. Especially launching along so many behemoths and in a traditionally single player franchise. So they'll do what they can to make what they can upfront and adjust long term plans.

To assuage a worry: they've been very public about the fact they don't see this as the only Crash future, or as something that will dictate future Crash stuff, and I understand this to be genuine. Rumble's performance will dictate Rumble.

So this all goes back to say that I think we're in what essentially boils down to a paid early access period. A soft launch, of sorts. It's obviously best for the game if it makes a lot of that upfront money but I don't think personally that it's the long term plan?

Granted, I'm mainly speculating — but there is some writing on the wall in the way certain aspects have been presented and discussed. Doing things this way has a lot of benefits over cold launching IMO (In My Opinion)

Basically boils down to me saying that if you can make these surface level conclusions about multiplayer service games, then the MP-focused megacorp almost assuredly thought of them all upfront and that's why the game came out the way it did and the strategy is what it is.

- Costs for this game in its current state were probably lower than you imagine
- They released paid (with incentives) to mitigate some of that risk assoc. w/ F2P
- They had plenty of time to identify these concerns and the goal is to support; so they'll adjust/adapt

Another key thing is that there was a lot of negative PR around the launch w/ people saying things like "did you even know a Crash game launched" — this is an identifiable marketing gap and can be addressed w/ the pivot I predict in S3🤷

I'm rambling at this point, but basically:
- Any concern you have should be limited to Rumble itself, we'll see what's what going into S2/3 imo
- Crash itself is fine, they don't seem to tie the two; the benefit of a spin-off.
- Activision is well aware of all the angles

A final big point (since TFB just posted a 'state of the game' update that feels positive) is that TFB themselves are very talented and the game improves day over day. If they do pivot to wide-audience they will be doing so with a vastly improved game with a ton of content.

More thoughts
- FWIW, I guess it not charting digitally doesn't *necessarily* mean digital did *worse* than physical. The point that digital usually wins could still stand true, it could just mean the digital sales of all the other games exceeded Rumble when physical ones did not

- I really wanna hone in on the fact that it could still have made plenty of *revenue* against its costs, and that's what's important, considering it's a long term plan
- In a post-merger world you can backload your audience by putting it on gamepass and monetizing BP/cosm. maybe