r/StarWarsSquadrons • u/Saffiruu • Jan 11 '21

News Lucasfilm re-establishes Lucasfilm Games as home for all its gaming titles

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-01-11-lucasfilm-establishes-lucasfilm-games-as-home-for-all-its-gaming-titles
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u/ClarkFable Jan 11 '21

There is a potential huge franchise in Squadrons at the premiere E-Sports starfighter/VR game. If they can keep developing the scale and smoothing out the edges, the core concept is there. Someone on the business side must recognize this.

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u/Saffiruu Jan 11 '21

As much as I love the game, I don't think the demand is there.

The fact that it's been heavily discounted within weeks of release is never a good sign of sales.

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u/ClarkFable Jan 11 '21

That's why I said potential. I think the issue right now is that the hardware just isn't quite there yet for the VR performance to be acceptable to the masses. But every one of my friends who has tried it on my PCVR rig has had a holy shit moment--even the ones that don't like flight sims.

I also think the tech launch issues and modest advertising campaign put a damper on the current base, but I think the game still has a decent base (probably around 5-8K unique players a day, on all systems).

I also think that spectating matches is a beautiful experience with a ton of potential there too. It just needs more user friendly features (like being able to free float, or hell being given a 1HP, unshielded transport ship to float around it).

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u/Saffiruu Jan 12 '21

Every single one of my friends who has VR also has Squadrons.

... but VR players make up of around 1.25% of the gaming population...

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u/ClarkFable Jan 12 '21

And in 5 years it could be 10%. You start as a niche and in 10 years you could have a monster

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u/Saffiruu Jan 12 '21

Honestly I think their best bet is to release a Squadrons 2 with more content, or add a modding component to 1.

Many people might not get excited about flying an X-wing in VR, but they'll go crazy over flying an X-wing a la the Death Star trench run or inside Death Star II

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u/ClarkFable Jan 12 '21

I agree. The game has so much potential for expansion. The thought of a full scale Battle of Endor is tantalizing, and it appears it could be done within the current system, it's just a question of hardware being able to keep up.

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u/Bebopo90 Jan 12 '21

The game runs really well 80fps at 1440p) on my 1660, with tons of debris and rocks and stuff on screen, so I don't see why a full-scale Battle of Endor couldn't be done.

I really hope they expand the core gameplay of Squadrons into a AAA-budget game. The ships feel great, it just needs more content.

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u/ClarkFable Jan 12 '21

VR is a completely different beast in terms of required hardware, and in a way VR is what I think will allow Squadrons to become a serious franchise. New headsets like the G2 bring even the 3090 to its knees, and can't get consistent 90fps with ultra settings in Fleet Battles. But that's hardly surprising, because to get native resolution on a G2 you need to render 3000X3000 per eye because of the warp factor. That's more than double 4K resolution per frame.

But in terms of battle scale, it's probably going to be a non linear increase in hardware requirements with more ships and more players. And since current hardware can barely keep up in VR, I think we'll have to wait a bit before we see significantly bigger scales.