Death of the Arena Shooter

[Forerunner]

With QuakeCon right around the corner, this is the perfect time to talk about arena shooters. The modern day arena shooters have been struggling. UT was abandoned for more profitable projects and others have come and gone with little success. Quake Champions is one of the few that still has a dedicated player base, but it has slowly been shrinking. If you choose to count Halo as an arena shooter, it's obviously the most popular at the moment, but it doesn't even come close to the same juggernaut as it was before.

Shooters and gaming have changed immensely since the heyday of arena shooters. However, that doesn't mean they still can't compete. CS has changed little over the years and yet CSGO is one of the most popular in gaming. They slowly updated the game without vastly changing how it plays. In my view, an arena shooter could do the same. They tried this with QC, but they were meant with resistant. Older Quake fans didn't like the champions system, while the newer players never stuck around. So you ended up with this hybrid that didn't appeal to the core audience and the game suffered for it. UT is probably the most unfortunate story of them all. The community put a ton of work into the game only to have it abandoned. If UT would have been kept alive, I guarantee it would have had a nice and stable community.

Arena shooters don't require an AAA budget. They just need a good set of maps, good balance, and a competitive scene. However, studios don't want to take a chance with it; which I find rather strange. Would you rather have a smaller yet stable and dedicated community or chase a fade and hope you make it big? However, going by recent trends it's the latter of the two.

These two videos show some insight in how we got to this point. It saddens me because I'm still fond of arena shooters. I play QC daily and Halo is one of my favorite franchises. I'm hoping this is just a phase and they make a resurgence. However, another part of me believes their time has come and gone. The same way battle royal will come and go. Everything rises and falls.

 

[Aine]

While I will always prefer fighting games over shooters, I do miss the days of old-school FPS games. Doom and Wolfenstein have shown that there's plenty you can do to modernize them.

 

[ara]

At this point I'm just hoping Halo Reach PC port will be good and it'll have an active community for years to come. Immensely good memories of spending evenings and nights playing UT2k4, Halo 3 and Halo Reach .

 

[Deadpool_X]

I want to see a Quake Champions port to console next gen.

 

[DJ_Lae]

I miss the fast-paced chaos of running around a small map with other people, shooting them and dying and then respawning a few seconds later and doing it all over again.

I cannot stand the jerky pacing of battle royale games, where the hectic moments are overshadows by all the walking and the waiting.

 

[Evolution of Metal]

I want to see a Quake Champions port to console next gen.

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Bethesda is going to give you Skyrim Super Remake, Fallout 76 Cash-shop XXL and Wolfenstein so stealth nobody even realizes it is out on PS5.

 

[formatnone]

Hmm as a former quaker i think it will die, and it's inevitable. The thing is modern multiplayer games rely on lots of players, and this is where arena shooters fail, in the end it becomes ffa more or less, and this is not what arena shooters are about. And duels are just dead. Also there is quite a steep learning curve, you end up playing with pros and semi pro players.

 

[Phantom88]

I want to see a Quake Champions port to console next gen.

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You wont see one. The game is not playable on controllers.

 

[Betelgeuse]

I loved Quake Live - back when it was F2P inside your browser. It seemed like turning it into a paid Steam-only product had a really adverse effect on the player base - there's like only three servers online at any given time, and only one that isn't full and doesn't have an outrageous ping.

 

[Deadpool_X]

You wont see one. The game is not playable on controllers.

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And why is that?

 

[BlueManifest]

I hate how games like this die off, but other game's like MMOs, mobas, battle Royale seem like they will never die

 

[Phantom88]

And why is that?

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?? Because you cant do on pads what mice and keyboard can. They designed the game specifically. They actually flat out said it, Tim Willits, its not gonna come to any console because you cant have this gameplay with sticks

 

[Deleted member 7373]

I think people largely want team oriented games with higher stakes nowadays. Battle royale, counter strike, moba - they have higher stakes and the games have progression in the matches themselves. I think the era of sixteen symmetrical dudes loading into a match and shooting at each other with instant respawns is not coming back I think. Also if you do want that, Quake 3 probably did it the best anyway - and you can still easily play that game.

Also stuff like Battle Royale is probably just more enjoyable to watch as you can effectively watch a journey with highs and lows in the pacing of the match.

 

[UltimateHigh]

At this point I'm just hoping Halo Reach PC port will be good and it'll have an active community for years to come. Immensely good memories of spending evenings and nights playing UT2k4, Halo 3 and Halo Reach .

Click to shrink...

it wont.

 

[Deleted member 4034]

Halo 1 PC, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Tribes were my shit back then.

There's a new Tribes thankfully, but I haven't been able to fully get back into it like the old days.

 

[Fatoy]

I miss arena shooters more than anything, but if buying Lawbreakers (which was legitimately good) taught me anything, it's that they're just not a thing people want en masse any more.

 

[Rizific]

i think there are a bunch of people that say they want the genre back and revived, but when one pops up they just look the other way. and i think im kind of guilty of that. i was playing the UT alpha builds, i fudged around with doom mp, even bought quake champions, but never spent any significant time with them.

 

[RavFiveFour]

There's pressure on developers to create open world games, that's what's happening and than you got Battle Royale which is massive yeah it really hurts if you're a hardcore arena shooter, I have a feeling some developers (343, IW etc.) will keep arena shooters posted.

 

[Broadbandit]

It also bums me out that Doom Eternal won't have a traditional arena MP mode still.

 

[Aaronmac]

it wont.

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MCC on PC will have a very active community. To think that it won't would be foolish. It might not be a community as large as other PC games, but it will be plenty big enough to be seen as "active."

 

[Deleted member 2254]

Quake 4 was pretty low effort. Doom 3 was also nowhere near as ambitious as ht originals. Unreal Tournament 3 was (at launch) a fraction of what previous UT games would offer, except with Gears' recycled brown geometry everywhere. Basically the main players were not really bothering with making good versions of their formula, while Halo 3 and Modern Warfare evolved the genre into different directions making enormous success. Much of the fault is in the hands of the likes of id, Valve and Epic for not making proper arena shooters, preferring to try and cash in on past installments further or make new uninspired chapters. By the time the even less effort Quake Champions and UT4 came, it was too late., the market changed too much.

 

[calibos]

It's too bad Halo 5 never really made it to PC in a full form. I think it's an amazing Arena Shooter. Halo MCC should fill the void some, but all those old super fast paced arena shooters seem to have truly died.

 

[Phantom88]

Quake 4 was pretty low effort. Doom 3 was also nowhere near as ambitious as ht originals.

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Are you talking about the multiplayer side of them? Cause Doom 3 was one of the biggest, hyped and anticipated games of its time. A giant blockbuster that took endless amounts of time to come out. Quake 4 took even longer.

 

[5taquitos]

When was the last time we got a new DM map for Quake Champions?

itsbeen84years.gif

 

[Deleted member 28523]

that era of gaming is never coming back.

people want more and more players and more and more complicated systems. there's a reason why people still play Quake 1, Quake 3, and Doom2.

 

[EloKa]

Arena Shooters haven't died but they have evolved into Tactical / Round based Shooters (and currently Battle Royale titles).
Kinda the same way how RTS games have evolved into Mobas (and currently Tower Defense / AutoChess).

Game design usually happens in some kind of looped cycles and I'm sure that we'll see the reappearance of classic arena shooters at some point.

Arena Shooters were successfull because people loved the mechanics, the core design and the gameloop itself. Right now we're at a point in game design where people tend to love "the progress" (like levels, ranks, skins, unlocks, skills, battle passes) of games and not so much the game itself. This will revert back to a focus on mechanics and enjoyment of playing games someday.

 

[Burrman]

Halo 6 next year. I think they're too competitive for the market nowadays. Felt halo 5 had that problem

 

[Phil me in]

Maybe epic could finish UT and then use it as an exclusive for their store they haven't money hatted.

 

[CountAntonio]

Studious aren't the problem people just don't play them.

Quake Live
Quake Champions
UT
Toxikk
Reflex
Warsaw

All dead free or not. It one of those genres people have moved on from. Even most people who say they wish they were back don't give them much of a shot when one is released.

 

[Deleted member 7373]

Arena Shooters were successfull because people loved the mechanics, the core design and the game itself. Right now we're at a point in game design where people tend to love "the progress" (like levels, ranks, skins, unlocks, skills, battle passes) of games and not so much the game itself. This will revert back to a focus on mechanics and enjoyment of playing games someday.

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I just fundamentally disagree that classic arena shooters have more solid mechanics than Battle Royale, CS GO, Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch and etc. I think people just naturally gravitated towards games that are more stimulating (because of their mechanics). Having a cosmetic progression layer above it helps for sure, but if the games were bad people would move on (especially since some of these are free or near-free).

 

[demondance]

There could be room for a new game paced more like Halo but I just don't think most people care for the difficulty curve skyrocketing so fast between casual play and remaining remotely competitive online like it does with traditional Quake style arena shooters.

A game like CS held on because it's more appealing to play when you're new. There are plenty of scrubs around, the game is much slower, you don't have to learn a bunch of unintuitive movement tech right off the bat, and in public servers/matchmaking you can usually mount comebacks rather than getting purely destroyed by slightly better players.

Quake doesn't have that. Champions tries to roll in a few features that lean in that direction and that was enough to piss off most old school heads and have them telling new players not to bother. It's a genre that is niche in part because the people who care about it and play it want it to remain that way.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

These were such chaotic, simple fun, I definitely do miss it. As much of an Overwatch fan as I am, I feel like all these class/skill/perk based systems being put into the genre these days really just makes it more complicated than anything, and kind of wish we had more of these games.

 

[voOsh]

I think the arena shooter genre is too skill intensive to be hugely popular. New players get decimated in Quake Champions and I'm not sure if the playerbase is large enough to properly matchmake folks into skill groups.

All that said I'm still hopeful for the future. Diabotical should be out later this year and looks promising. The project is run by James '2GD' Harding, a former professional Quake player. They are very aware of the challenges of arena shooters in today's gaming climate and have a couple new game modes and features to hopefully engage folks. Here is the most recent dev update from a week or two ago:

 

[EloKa]

I just fundamentally disagree that classic arena shooters have more solid mechanics than Battle Royale, CS GO, Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch and etc. I think people just naturally gravitated towards games that are more stimulating (because of their mechanics). Having a cosmetic progression layer above it helps for sure, but if the games were bad people would move on (especially since some of these are free or near-free).

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Let me rephrase it that way: the old arena shooters had only their gameplay loop and nothing like a "cosmetic progression layer" (I really like that term) to build a user base. There was nothing else -next to the core gameplay- that the developers could focus on so naturally it feels like the gameplay loop was better than in, for example, BR titles because the loop soley had to pull new gamers in and keep them engaged with your game. There were A LOT of arena shooters and many failed to gain an audience, but we usually only remember the big names with those nearly perfected gameplay loops.

I mean CS:GO is still basically the original CounterStrike but with pink guns, golden knifes and fancy badges. The gameplay loop is still kinda the same.
UT embraced skills and stuff with UT2k3 and vehicles in UT2k4 (?) and this broke the gameplay loop, killing UT as a franchise. Right now I can't remember what happened with Quake4, but the IP also didn't manage to keep its core gameplay alive with the Q3->Q4 jump.

From todays (BR) perspective you might want to add the old Battlefield and CoD titles to the oldschool arena shooters. But both franchises also embraced new core gameplay concepts - mostly for the jump to consoles - which scaled them down from one of the biggest PC franchises to just average franchises.

 

[Eegah]

Some of my fondest multiplayer memories were with Quake III Arena freeze tag mode. Wish I could find something similar.

 

[AuthenticM]

Game design usually happens in some kind of looped cycles and I'm sure that we'll see the reappearance of classic arena shooters at some point.

Arena Shooters were successfull because people loved the mechanics, the core design and the gameloop itself. Right now we're at a point in game design where people tend to love "the progress" (like levels, ranks, skins, unlocks, skills, battle passes) of games and not so much the game itself. This will revert back to a focus on mechanics and enjoyment of playing games someday.

Click to shrink...

I fucking hope so because fuck MOBAs; I want my classic Command & Conquer back goddamn it!
*shakes fist at cloud*

 

[Sankara]

I miss the 90's

 

[UltimateHigh]

MCC on PC will have a very active community. To think that it won't would be foolish. It might not be a community as large as other PC games, but it will be plenty big enough to be seen as "active."

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I'm talking about Reach specifically, not the halo games that are actually good (which won't have that big of a community either)

 

[LordofPwn]

there will be a resurgence, i'm confident in that.

 

[martincrimson87]

Kiddies these days love them Skinner boxes. Arena shooters did not have that bs. It was you your kb +m and your skills.

I had more fun playing toxikk, and quake champions vs bots than with any other mp shooter.

 

[ChemicalWorld]

Epic giving the finger to UT Alpha still burns me to this day and is another reason why I'll never give them a single penny on their shitty store EVER...

 

[Z-Beat]

Nah, the arena just got larger

 

[Deleted member 11069]

I put over 350h into QC but the Missmanagement and total trash engine was too much and I've stopped playing in January. I keep checking back (Reddit) to see how it's going and I watch streams sometimes but it's just sad.
Don't think Diabolical can win anything either, trying to be fresh while appealing to veterans is a fools errand.

 

[Deleted member 2254]

Are you talking about the multiplayer side of them? Cause Doom 3 was one of the biggest, hyped and anticipated games of its time. A giant blockbuster that took endless amounts of time to come out. Quake 4 took even longer.

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Yeah, I am only talking about multiplayer only.

 

[Turin Turambar]

For most people, a game like Overwatch or CoD already give the something close to the thrill of a deathmatch FPS, while at the same time the lower skill ceiling and the team based nature means less skilled players won't be owned very badly, while the objectives of their modes give a focus to the players who like that, while also having a bigger character playstyle to adapt to more players.

Your post seem to disregard any economical analysis. Parts like this

Would you rather have a smaller yet stable and dedicated community or chase a fade and hope you make it big?

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are hilarious. Stable? Dedicated? That won't pay the bills. Unless you milk them dry with mtx of course.
If a developer has to choose between a small community of 5000 players, composed of hardcore players that are fro the long ride, and a community of 50K players that will leave in some months, they will take the latter 99% of the time. The end goal of developing a game is not having a stable, nice platform for a few hundreds players to play, it's to earn money </audience gasp>.

 

[EnlightenedMint]

Diabotical is basically my last hope for arena shooters.

If they can manage to make the game accessible to those new to the genre and have a good push with Twitch it might have some life for awhile.

 

[TheRulingRing]

The problem is that they're just too "simple" for modern times.

This doesn't mean they're easy (obviously not the case), it's just that they have a very small number of basic mechanics that can be mastered to a high degree.

I think people just want more complex mechanics these days.

 

[SapientWolf]

These were such chaotic, simple fun, I definitely do miss it. As much of an Overwatch fan as I am, I feel like all these class/skill/perk based systems being put into the genre these days really just makes it more complicated than anything, and kind of wish we had more of these games.

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The sad reality is that not everyone can aim very well, even on PC. The successful multiplayer games cater to multiple skillsets.

 

[packy17]

FPS mechanics have evolved so much that arena shooters feel antiquated. We can do a lot more now than just "go fast, jump, and shoot".

CSGO is definitely a weird case in the sense that it's mechanics are also extremely outdated and yet it's still popular to watch and play. There are two big reasons for this, I think. First, it's free (and used to be cheap before it went F2P) + not very taxing on hardware. Second - and I think this is the main reason - the case/lootbox economy. If you go back and look at CSGO's numbers before and after cases were added, you'll see an almost immediate explosion of interest. I don't think most people who still play it today are doing so out of actual enjoyment of the game; they're doing it because they might get a lucky drop that they can sell for big money.

 

[Heart of Poumn]

I feel like Quake Champions could be more popular with a UI overhaul. The main menu feels old and is kind of crappy.