Welp, it’s happening and official - Catalyst black is launching next month:
What’s your expectation for the game? Defo looks more polished visually, but tbh I am not a fan of the monetisation (pay to win) and not sure how good it will be for more than few casual games here and there?
I’m sure I’ll give it a try — since VG, no multiplayer game on mobile has held my interest for long, so why not give it a shot? But like you, the monetization scheme and the very obvious P2W mechanics are already giving me pause.
Will be nice to try this with hopefully more actual players for once in it’s release week since most throughout beta i only ever got like 3 other people in one match, but I doubt that’ll last long. I already doubt it’ll get much new attention, i don’t think it’ll hold many players especially with the monetisation if that’s still as bad as I remember.
I am pretty sure they did a massive mistake to abandon Vainglory (starting with giving it away to another company btw) and it will basically bankrupt them. The game still could had been saved if they put the effort (and money + the right mindset how to progress the game + changing the monetisation to mirror how PC league/WR is). Ofc separate balance for 3vs3 / 5vs5, ideally would be two games but they f up that one when it was the perfect time to separate the two modes in totally different games so 3vs3 can keep being the same perfect mobile MOBA experience while 5vs5 can be tweaked for… well… 5vs5 with reimagined heroes skill to fit the mode and fantasy and more polished experience instead of putting heroes/skills/items designed with only 3vs3 in mind.
Yah, I agree that VG had a brighter future than does Catalyst Black, at least as far as popularity goes. (Revenue/income generation is another story: famously, SEMC never figured out how to generate a consistent revenue stream from VG. Catalyst Black seems to have revenue generation as one of it’s core features. Perhaps it will be profitable and keep the lights on at the company once the VC funding dries up.)
The whole 3v3 vs 5v5 issue has been beaten to death, but I agree with you completely. 3v3 was nearly perfect before they started “tuning” it in anticipation of 5v5’s release. Unfortunately, the people who ran SEMC bought into the idea that 5v5 was the way forward, and we all know how that turned out.
The best part is that VG 3vs3 if not destroyed was going to be quite popular still + having active competitive scene (even less funded vs the absurd they did before) and if the monetisation was changed - most likely turn out profit too. WR is cool and all, but really PC league on mobile and many mobile players don’t really want that. Atleast in EU most have PC’s that can run PC league perfectly fine and will prefer to play that even tho WR games are shorter, the experience is fuller on PC.
VG 3vs3 just strike the best balance between serious/mobile and is the perfect fit for mobile devices. So I suspect it was going to be as popular if not vs WR. People prefer ML to some extend for the same reason, it’s better more casual fit for mobile even if not to my taste personally.
The whole vg situation it’s just been talked to death about, it’s always just such a shame it’s left to waste now.
To be on topic of catalyst black, I remembered there was something I don’t think I ever mentioned when I talked about catalyst black in beta. There’s a currency you earn to unlock chests, this is the free way to earn chests since the only other way is paid, this free chest currency is called shards and it can be earned from the daily and weekly quests as well as from playing matches.
For earning from matches it’s capped, it seems like winning 10-12 matches maybe will get all that daily shards, it’s essentially just points to unlock free chests but they can’t call it points cuz points is used already for account ranking up.
Also pretty sure shards used to be what the premium currency is called but it seems that got changed.
If you guys do try out catalyst black when it releases I’d say try it with a controller if you aren’t really one for virtual joysticks, top down shooters feel weird with virtual joystick(honestly just about anything feels weird with virtual joystick) and at least for me top down shooters I definitely prefer playing with a controller
I just received an email about it. I’m not sure what to expect, to be honest. I’ll give it a try, but I’m not sure if it’s the type of games I usually play.
I can’t see myself investing as much time into the game as I once did with VG. I guess I will give it a try, but it being P2W hurts and as @cha0z said, idk if it’s a game for more than a couple of matches here and there.