What happened to CoH 2 Free Weekends?

Howdy!

I remember that on several occasions in the previous years during Steam Summer Sale for example CoH franchise has been on a hefty discount. It has also been combined with a Free Weekend event where RTS fans have been able to participate and get a feel of what CoH2 has to offer. During the free weekend many have taken up on the offer and bought the game for a few bucks. (definitely a good bargain in my book)

However this year that does not look to be the case. The playerbase has increased after the sale started but during free weekends CoH could reach 5 digit player numbers. I am pretty confident that a free weekend would also boost the sales so I wonder why hasn't there been one in ages.

I started to ponder this because I have noticed a gradual but considerable search time increase in all team game modes. Even the 4v4 MLG tryhard mode I resort to when I lack the patience/time to play Radar Simulator for an extended amount of time seems to take ages to provide a game - be it in an unranked team or normal automatch. Also the outcome of increased search times often leaves a lot to be desired in terms of rank disparity.

Naturally it is the holiday season and the WC on top of it as well but I think that does not alone suffice as an explanation. Some new faces would freshen up the scene and decrease the wait times since the playerbase retention doesn't seem to be quite what it used to be. (Which is not unexpected for a game this old and the current playerbase is still very impressive.) They would also probably help in lower tier players getting matched up with players of similar skill level while increasing the chance of higher level players getting paired up more often as well.

What are your thoughts? Do you support the idea of Free Weekend Events or does the thought of doing random team games during those terrify you too much

With luck someone in a sufficient position of power / ability to influence the right people sees this and perhaps there could be Weekend Events in the future again.

PS. Other Events like increased War Spoils drop rate and whatnot were also pretty cool and bumbed the player numbers a bit.

They have stopped being profitable, therefore they no longer are worth the time to prepare them?

They have stopped being profitable, therefore they no longer are worth the time to prepare them?

I doubt that the effort required to create such events is insurmountable budget or bureaucracy wise and the thousands of players that participate in free trials are potential customers after all. The occasional ingame DLC purchases are probably the biggest money flow that coh2 nowadays generates anyway.

However the increase in player numbers in itself is valuable as I previously explained. The patches then again help keep the game fresh and aim to make it more enjoyable to play strengthening playerbase retention.

If mere profit was the only criteria in Events and new content I don't think we would be getting a Summer Map Patch. (which is a very welcome addition) Or do you see any long/short term monetization opportunities in such updates?

Andy's the one to ask.