PlanetSide Arena was a bad direction for the series to go. The launch failure is resulting in the game’s shutdown next month. Although the game seemed naturally suited for the battle royale genre, it simply fell through the cracks. The hype for that style of game is simply fading away.
Daybreak Games is not giving up on the franchise just yet. They have decided to turn their focus back to the previous game of the franchise and update PlanetSide 2. The details of the next update have not been released as of yet, but at least the developers still have hope at this game’s success.
PlanetSide 2 is about eight years old, and many players have already drifted away to other games. There are still several hardcore players who roam the world of PlanetSide, but their numbers are dwindling. Better games come out, and fans move on from their old stomping grounds, so the is the nature of gaming.
What has always made PlanetSide relatively unique is its massive large-scale battles where hundreds of players inhabit the same battlefield. Daybreak Games believes there is still an audience for that kind of experience, and by improving the current build of PlanetSide 2, fans will return to the game.
Daybreak said in their developer letter that they are turning the “focus back towards the tenet of coordination, camaraderie, and conquest.” They seem to have plans in making cosmetic outfits to bring players together and try to reignite some level of group mentality with these costumes.
Other large scale battle games have community organized platoons that play together. Functioning similarly to a guild in the MMORPG context, these platoons are groups of players who train, battle, and grow together within their FPS games. From Battlefront 2 to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, these players band together and give a true sense of community to the game.
PlanetSide seems to be wanting to harness this idea within the game itself. By allowing the large-scale battles to have color-coded groups of players, there becomes a new definition to the entire game experience. From clans gaining reputation within the game to a huge group of players inhabiting an entire side of the battlefield, there could be some interesting evolutions within the PlanetSide community if the developers push that angle.
There is still no word on PlanetSide 3, but fans remain alert for a new chapter in the series. All hope is that the game is more successful then PlanetSide Arena. You can find PlanetSide 2 on PlayStation 4 and PC if you want to take up arms in this interstellar conflict.
