Red 5 think Firefall’s PvP is a little naff. Thankfully, as the game’s developer, they’re in a position to do something about it. The studio has decided to take Firefall’s PvP offline while they redesign it from the ground up to be fun.
“As you know, Firefall started with PvP,” writes CEO Mark Kern. “We have gone through several iterations, and for some time, pursued the controversial e-Sports route. As many of you know, its not working very well. Our last big attempt was a pure PvP eSports mode, Jetball. While very fun, its a high skill game and doesn’t attract many of our players (less than 3% PvP in Firefall).
“Also, PvP has suffered as our focus has had to focus on the popular PvE part of our game. People want more content, fewer bugs, and more polish on these world systems. For these reasons, we have made the tough decision to suspend PvP and take the system offline so that we can rethink it and relaunch it. PvP is an important part of our game, and we want to get it right.
“So we’re going to regroup, rethink, and deliver the best PvP system we can that can be enjoyed by everyone. We don’t have a timetable for this, but at some near future point we will shut off the PvP aspect of the game, which we feel does not represent Firefall at its best, and relaunch that part of the game when its ready.”
It’s a ballsy move for an MMO to take off its PvP and I’m not too sure why they aren’t simply working on an overhaul in the background which they switch out the current PvP for when it’s ready. But, so it goes.