Palia studio won't stop firing people
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- čas přidán 15. 05. 2024
- Singularity 6, the studio behind the MMO Palia has done yet ANOTHER round of layoffs, just over a month after cutting 35% of their staff.
Read the full story here: massivelyop.com/2024/05/16/pa... - Hry
i just read in their community post on discord that they fired basically their only community dev. and its so stupid and heartbreaking it doesnt feel right to play anymore
Oof. I saw the title before I saw the thumbnail, and then my heart just sank. Palia is a great game, and it would break my heart if it ends, even though I, like many players, go through phases of playing every day for hours and then just... not, for a while. They definitely need more monetization - the easiest thing to do would be to lower the coin prices! I have yet to buy anything from the shop simply because the exchange with Canadian dollars is too high; I'd have to spend over $30 for one outfit's worth of coins. And sure, a lot of people might be willing to do that once, but certainly not repeatedly. If I could spend $30 for several outfits, I'd be more likely to do it, because there's value for money there. They could probably also introduce some paid elements that affect game play without making players "overpowered", in large part because it's not like we're fighting each other or something. Let us pay to bypass the time limits on buildings, or have unbreakable tools, or something. I'd be even more willing to pay for something like that than I am for cosmetics. I just... it's such a great game, but it feels like S6 was really unprepared for the chance that it might be successful...? Which is bizarre, to say the least.
Can I just say: I love videos like this, it’s so fascinating to think about all angles like this. Since this has been one of my favorite games this past year, it’s really worrisome! You’re really good at commentating all this info, it gives me podcast vibes and I hope you make some more like this if you like!
Thanks for sharing this Dan! I agree with all your thoughts and I think they are very fair. The game does need more of a varied monetisation model for sure and I just hope they get right.
There should be an option to pay monthly (like 5 bucks or so). And it could include one outfit item of your choice each month in the ingame store. For that they would need to split up the separate pieces within the outfits, but thats not a bad thing imo. I think that would benefit both S6 and the players
I lost interest in the game back in October (after having been obsessed for months) when I realized that I would never get the purple tools etc. There were groups coordinating assaults on the trees and the nodes so consistently that no matter what time of day I played, I was shut out. Sometimes I wasn't even able to get iron! When I realized that all I was doing when I logged on was messing with my crops, I stopped playing. I had been so invested, I bought all kinds of outfits and bundles, participated in all the activities, etc. But when I knew that important things were being kept from me just because I don't have a gang backing me, well, that was the end. I stick to solo games now and am much happier.
I do wish flow trees were something that could be gathered solo. Most other things in the game can be done solo, so the flow trees made no sense in that regard.
I've been playing solo since beta released, and I agree there was one point in time when the farming groups made things really frustrating. I feel you! But nowadays I don't have that problem anymore.
S6 made some changes, and mining nodes don't disappear when someone mines them. All nodes and gatherable flowers are now on a timer so more people can get them. There is a grove (with 4-8 flow trees each time) spawning at ingame midnight. People are waiting and usually chop the grove at 3 AM. I think you could safely come back and try again=) Theres much more stuff to do now since October too.
They’ve changed the mining nodes a few updates ago such that they stay for 3 minutes after someone has mined them. In my experience palium nodes are called out and flared very regularly these days and flow groves (midnight in game, on the hour in real time) are called out 90-95% of the time and they usually wait until 3:00am in game to chop. So it’s a lot easier these days to get the resources you need. I play solo most of the time (my best friend also plays but we’re not always online together) and have such an abundance of resources my storage is full a lot of the time.
I've paid the amount of an average game because I wanted to support them, but yeah, I can't justify any more without more content. I won't pay a monthly fee to just grind. It's sad because I LOVE this game so much.
Yeah it takes money to run things. I appreciate the free play but it's dangerous to not charge anything at all. But I am glad there's not pop ups asking for it but it's a great game and it's shame that people don't want to spend anything to help keep it going.
Palia definitely needs another monetization income. They need a "Battle Pass" or something that allows us to pay monthly.
Or even more options for things beyond outfits. House skins, Biomes for your house plot, Tool Skins anything that fills out that "Free to play" without Pay to win. But if it came down to a monthly cost, I would still pay it.
Yeah I think either of those would be more viable then what they're doing now. I wouldn't love seeing BOTH options at the same time, (more in-game purchases + a monthly fee) but MMO's have certainly gone that route too.
I don't really understand why they made the game free in the first place... even if the game was like $5-15 it would help them out a lot. Upcoming MMO Loftia is going to be a paid game which I think is a good idea!
Intros and outros like this deserve 50,000 subscribes if I could. 💯
If been playing Palia sinse beginning of open beta with much joy. Love the game but miss so much real MMO gameplay. Second round of layoffs worry me allot about Palia's future. But I try to be hopefull because the community and game deserves a long future.
I wonder what their total monthly player count is. I used to play and would have ended up paying but some of the nerfs/caps ruined the fun for me.
This second layoff has me nervous. I love Palia and want it to succeed. I played the alpha and was really shocked when they announced it wouldn't be a subscription based game and instead would be a free to play model with microtransactions. I have no idea how they are keeping MMO servers alive on microtransactions alone.
Another thing to note about those player numbers - they don't take into account all of the people using the S6 Palia PC Launcher \^w^
Good point!
I'm torn because im not one to spend money on cosmetics in game anymore, but I know ( I see them every time I log on) many do. It seems like a long term loss because the releases I see are not enough to keep people buying. I like the game, and play solo so I'm less likely to "finish" it but I know I only log in for short periods and it won't keep my attention forever. Ive played since Beta and feel like they rushed as they were loosing ground prior to releasing. Id rather have paid for the game like other titles to start with fashion purchases not making up the bulk of their funding. I'm glad Hotpot will be a permanent playable option but also wonder how that affects events later on.
Yeah seeing their latest update post was interesting. The only real "new" content were premium offerings (and I do like these as premium offerings... They make sense) and then the stuff we were already promised from a previous devlog. What I'm really interested in though is the content that comes after this next big update. I assume a lot of the stuff they're talking about was already built (or almost built) before the last round of layoffs. So how long will we need to wait before the next update? For me personally, that will determine my level up hope for the game's development.
I wish they said why the layoff happening, is it bc the company is struggling? I wish they would just say why the layoffs happened.
They kinda did in Discord. It's really just reading between the lines with this stuff. Basically "long term stability" is them saying that without the layoffs, there is no "long term stability." So yeah, they're struggling financially.
@@MoreCrossingMinute Oh thank you, I haven't checked in a while, i'm glad they said something! I feel so bad for them that's awful
I'd prob pay a monthly fee if there were no new micro transactions as well, at least here and there, though I know that's not the typical model these days. Or, I'd pay a $40-60 one time fee for the game- perhaps it shouldn't be ftp from the start. If they start monetizing gameplay features, or even decor like DDV does, that's when it will start to turn to trash imo, because they will change the gameplay to make it more tedious to coerce people to pay to skip the tedium. And/or they will put decent decor behind a paywall, when decor is a main feature of the game. No thanks 😒
There actually is tons to do in Palia btw, I guess not if you don't want to do those things though 😅 Soo much content has been released that I haven't scratched the surface of the past half a year of updates in my limited time.
I would pay to play or buy the game if they got rid of that ridiculous gold cap. I've stopped playing because I've been gold capped for months and all I can do is log in, buy stuff I don't want, make a bit of gold space, get capped again and log back out. It's ridiculous. I can't even farm, gather or get paid quest gold. It's a shame. I do love the game, but it's unplayable long term.
It's a cute little game that I would have paid $20 for on steam. I don't understand the point of making it an MMO though. Seems like it would have a made a great single player title.
This didn't surprise me at all. This company doesn't seem to know how to build a game. Their servers feel unstable whenever I log on. They've pushed f2p so much that they handicapped themselves. They need some kind of monetization that isn't egregious; that cash shop is outrageous. Simply outrageous. And when hackers said they can and have easily hacked the game and won't do anything because they "seem like a decent company", then it makes me question their security. I don't trust them at all with my card info (my advice: if you want to buy something, use a visa gift card or something like that). They had a nice idea and have built an interesting world, but they can't seem to really deliver. They are constantly falling short, and it's such a shame because I have enjoyed playing it.
That's not news, that's happening to all game studios with the rise of AI technology and games being a instable market, not knowing if your game is gonna be hit or not etc lol ...
As a new Palia player I've started watching your videos and found them very informative and helpful, and I agree with your predictions and conclusions in this video.
But I have to give some feedback: You lost a bit of credibility or integrity with me at 1:01 with "I did some quick ChatGPT math...which I hope are somewhat correct". Doing this math yourself would have taken a little bit more time and effort, but would have made you sound so much more confident and reliable here. Or just give a ballpark figure. The specific accurate number/fact doesn't matter as much as sounding confident in your information.
I think being honest and up front with how I came up with the figures I came up with, (figures that even the journalists themselves weren't confident in mind you) is more than enough to be seen as credible.
Math isn't my strongest subject and I'd rather be up front about that instead of the alternative, which would have been to pretend I'm any good at it. 😂
Anyway, sorry to hear we disagree about this, but using ChatGPT to do some math and then being honest about that isn't something I personally deem as a mark against my credibility.
The outfits are all ugly. I couldn't even find a black T/neutral pant combo. I wanted to play and give them money, but there was nothing to interest me.
I thought for sure they'd add more pets to put into the store but once they added the Palcats they quickly made it clear that they had no plans to add more pets. Such a missed opportunity.