The Marauders battle pass won’t be “anti-lore” if the Escape From Tarkov-style multiplayer game gets that form of monetisation at all. The team acknowledges that battle passes “are the only thing that really work nowadays” but seemingly isn’t going down the same route as Fortnite or Halo Infinite.
Marauders is a new PvPvE space game that was crowdfunded back in 2020. It is now set to release in Steam Early Access sometime this year. PCGamesN spoke with developer Small Impact Games and its lead designer Cameron Small told us what players can expect in terms of monetisation – and how the team doesn’t want a bunch of XP gates that’ll put off players.
“Battle passes are the only thing that really work nowadays to keep concurrents going,” Cameron tells us while acknowledging this is likely a controversial opinion. “However, I’m not happy with its connotations of ‘anti-lore’ as battle passes can fit into a story. We’re not a story-based game but we have that Day-Z [feel], we want people to get lost and create their own.”
The designer is also keen to explore battle pass missions for Marauders, while ensuring that “it’s not an XP gate, where you have to do this and get more out of the experience. Like, ‘oh, by the way, if you get me the heads of the seven legendary pirates, you’ll progress in this battle pass structure’.”
“I really Fortnite’s cosmetic leveling-up as well,” Cameron says. “Cosmetics are a thing I think people have agreed on is okay when it comes to monetisation. We have a game leader, you’re always looking at your character and looking at other players, so it does fit.” The designer notes that this is still “all up in the air” right now, and the team is seeing what works before possibly adding monetisation “in the future”.
“Obviously, you have to fit it in the lore,” he adds about Marauders’ battle pass, “can’t have llamas running around or whatever.”
Marauders will release in Steam Early Access sometime in 2022.
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