CoH3 Player Retention & Monetization

*modern RTS, remember there is that nostalgia party called age of empires.

I'd also love a revamp version of Coh1 game design with some Coh2 improvment like vaulting on Coh3 game engine.

From the few games I played lately with in-game transaction, DOTA2 seems to be the best model to follow.
Monetization from Skin models, UI, voice model, voice event, screen loaders etc... I'm not against Relic making money from that.

As long as they include a filter for those skin etc. Like in coh2. Vehicles al covered in blood or bleu with yellow make me loose interest quickly.

They will probalby go way overboard on skins with very redicolus and loudicres skins. And very light on content as a result. Just look at div 2 and bf 5.

As long as they include a filter for those skin etc. Like in coh2. Vehicles al covered in blood or bleu with yellow make me loose interest quickly.

They will probalby go way overboard on skins with very redicolus and loudicres skins. And very light on content as a result. Just look at div 2 and bf 5.

I was always confused: just open the photos archive and you will find a ton of interesting photos of infantry uniforms and tanks, from which you can make a lot of skins for sale. But we will sell a cybernetic hand.

I think CoH3 should monetise ammunition. You have to pay to stock up various ammunition types before matches like mg, rifle, mortar and grenades etc. If games go on too long you could have pop ups with things like “At gun rounds are low! Click here to replenish them from your wallet”. If you don’t pay units run out in game. Also you could perhaps pay extra for premium ammunition that does more damage.

I was always confused: just open the photos archive and you will find a ton of interesting photos of infantry uniforms and tanks, from which you can make a lot of skins for sale. But we will sell a cybernetic hand.

The "blood" skin was part of a promotion Coh2 vs Rome Total War.

Its part of a tank vs Testudo

The "blood" skin was part of a promotion Coh2 vs Rome Total War.

Its part of a tank vs Testudo

And it was a disgusting skin

Read below interview with Sega Europe Data Scientist, Stanley Wang. Without a doubt, Sega Europe wants to implement this in future CoH games.

This is still very relevant to CoH.

Here is what one SEGA Europe veteran (Director of Online Technology at SEGA Europe, 11 years with the company) had to say about using Stanley Wang Data Scientist;
https://www.linkedin.com/in/francis-hart-1837b311/

Stanley Wang #Kudos You make a huge difference #MakingAnImpact
What an amazing year! You’re killing it chap

Francis Hart is former Head of Live Operations and Development (2015-2019).
Also involved with CoH's web site development + leaderboards. He likely will be working with Relic's new Director of Live Operations.

Chris Casanova | Director of Live Operations at Relic Entertainment:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-casanova/
At Relic we aspire to make our games and studio feel alive to our players. We do this through building and releasing continually evolving, personal, epic experiences to build deep and lasting relationships with our players. This is a new area for us to embrace so expect to see much more over the coming years.

I am leading and building a team to execute this vision.

Age of Empires 4 won’t have microtransactions or in-app purchases:
https://www.pcgamesn.com/age-of-empires-4/dlc-expansions

Relic/Sega working on a new CoH website? If so, the new domain seems to be;
https://whois.domaintools.com/companyofheroes.org
Last updated 2020-03-01


They moved focus from http://coh-online.com domain to companyofheroes.org.
Current official companyofheroes.com no domain update since 2017.

If relic wants to sell stuff in future COH games, they should also sell the voice overs from past games. I would certainly pay to have the COH1 tiger voiceover on my COH2 tiger, you could do that with all units, would be fantastic.

I fully agree. If CoH3 is to succeed financially we need community focus on this. If not, Sega/Relic may market some shitty MTX that nobody wants except whales.

It's been stated, but you figure they are going to release DLC factions that are overpowered in areas, people will buy them to get an edge, then nerf them once they have their money.

Same could be said with doctrines.

We're going to pay real money now for bulletins as well?

how profitable is/was coh2 for relic? i mean..i paid like only 30 euro for all the years of playing. not more. From what do they get money per month?

how profitable is/was coh2 for relic? i mean..i paid like only 30 euro for all the years of playing. not more. From what do they get money per month?

Microtransactions don't make small amounts of money from a large amount of players. They make a shit ton of money from a few players that are either really into the game and/or susceptible to these kinds of products and spend more money than they should.

I got the CoH2 base game as a present and at some point bought the whole package for I think 10 Euros or so. That is all Relic ever saw from me and ever will for CoH2, since I do not support the current commander system.

But I am sure that are quite a few people that actually spent loads of money for the those complete packs in the in game store or some commanders that were OP for some time etc. Since the game was never really balanced before players are tempted to "buy the meta". For the commanders I would not really go that far to say this was on purpose (although I missed most of the commander releases). But regarding the OPness of the DLC factions at release Relic should not complain about criticism that this unbalance was on purpose to soft-force players to buy them. But these are just my two cents.

I paid about a 100 Euros over the first years. I bought almost everything (besides skins) but everything on sale.
If someone bought everything on day 1 he/she could have spent over 200-300 euros, and this without the skin packs and other small stuff.
COH2 is/was very MTX heavy which is/was mega BS. I voiced my thoughts about this but many people in here said that this is OK (more BS imo).
Anyway, i hope COH 3 (if it comes out) has a great base game (good campaign and MP), then the future might look good for Relic/SEGA and the community.

how profitable is/was coh2 for relic? i mean..i paid like only 30 euro for all the years of playing. not more. From what do they get money per month?

Paid for the game + DLC's about 30 also, but later bought some commanders. Even bought 1 skin pack for each faction so I didn't had to play with stock-skins. All together +/- 100 euro I guess.

If a developer maintains a good game with good and note worthy updates, I don't mind to spend a few. Much like the ML prize pool, as long as the tournament stays interesting I don't mind to put in a few bucks.

I bought Soviet commanders (not all) and some Soviet camouflages. I bought the Ardennes just to support Relic after a serious crisis with THQ, although I do not support the choice of the Western Front and Relic promised that the second part will be entirely about the Eastern Front. And seeing that Relic did not change the situation, I did not buy the British faction (a friend later gave it to me). And also I bought the first expansion for "Theater of War" because it turned out not to be what I would like. I would like "Theater of War" to be a set of mini stories something that we saw in "Tales of Valor" DLC.

We're going to pay real money now for bulletins as well?

yes and no question.

Similar to Starcraft 2 with a new CoH Co-op mode Relic could monetize campaign units/commanders/bulletins that can't be used in competitive multiplayer.
In player vs environment (PvE) game modes pay2win doesn't exist. At worst within a Co-op team someone else is paying for you to progress faster through PvE content.. So MTX is less intrusive to the core gameplay compared to competitive PvP modes.
Pay-to-help your team is not P2W. Same thing with Warframe PvE.

StarCraft 2 devs interview, November 02, 2019:
https://www.pcgamer.com/it-sure-sounds-like-starcraft-2s-devs-would-like-to-make-starcraft-3/

Morton is clearly happy to be working on StarCraft 2, which still has a very dedicated base of both competitive and cooperative players. The cooperative mode is actually StarCraft 2's most popular mode now, he tells me, as it keeps non-competitive players who might've left after the campaign around.

For AAA games (especially live ops) MTX is here to stay. The best we can do is help influence how they are being implemented.
Yes, AoE4 won't have MTX (according to creative director) but Microsoft also have a different business model with Xbox Game Pass etc.

It's our job as a fan community making sure Relic do not have tunnel vision. They can't be allowed making the same MTX mistakes as CoH2.