Revenue declined

Do current bad decisions (Monthly EQ, Nerf, Sales etc.) and wrong direction (no more focus on free to play, no new idea except bullsh*t event like Dimensional Arcade, Fantastic force recruitment, mid champ sale "Solvarch") lead to drastic decline in revenue? (Even when they sell more than before)

If they keep testing "new ideas"/nerfing decent champs without thorough consideration (or suitable compensation), the end of their era will come at the soonest. Anyway, 10 years for a game is also very good already.

Comments

PT_99

Waddya know??

Afterall trying their best to retain playerbase and have fixed big sales is much better than pissing all over playerbase repeatedly and slapping em with monthly and biweekly sales.

We all know what Kebem decided to do ☠️

#KillMcocAlready

Screenshot_2025-09-25-16-14-23-689_com.brave.browser.png

ThēMandalorian

Honestly, it's about value for the dollar spent and paid to Kabam.

Lately we have been given really bad decisions and choices that do not align with majority their current and long time player base.

Kabam is chasing "new" players while they are chasing off their long-term existing players.

It's not hard to see how this is happening and instead of doing ANYTHING that is PRO-PLAYER, they keep trying new things that majority don't care for or want to deal with.

Majority want the game to work the way it should, be stable, offer some challenges along with casual options and then Kabam would see a bigger income increase.

You heard the phrase "Happy wife equals happy life."? Well, it can be said that "Happy players stay to become payers!" how is that so hard to grasp?

Look at the game Destiny on all their platforms as a direct example how when you start pissing off player base, you lose money and those players. Kabam is allowing history from within the industry to repeat itself.

Mando

ahmynuts

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2880978#Comment_2880978

The worst part is they're going to continue down this path and not correct their course

Chuck_Finley

Not going to list out names, but we see people in streams and that comment here from Kabam’s payroll that are knowledgeable about the game. They know what works, what players like and enjoy, and what is desirable for $$$.

So with all these idiotic decisions flowing from HQ of late, this just looks like the bean counters pushing all the buttons to generate revenue regardless of how it looks…. And the visible team is pushed out here to give the bad news like a hostage video.

Halley

They should focus on F2P as they've done very well in the past! The numbers tell it all @KabamPinwheel @Kabam Crashed @Kabam (Osaurus) Rex

No way that the past can earn a lot lot more than present, it's against the evolution of a company!

It's not about you sell more, you'll earn more, it should be that you're famous, you're known more (game are played more), you'll earn more!

And F2P will definitely help you, as they used to be! They made you great, they can also make you end, only whales can't save you tbh!!

Wake up and reset the strategy, before it's too late!

Sincerely yours,

YodaKaj

F.
A.
F.
O.

VanillaCoke

you guys forget that their main revenue seasons are July 4th, Cyber Weekend, and Gifting event. Of course, there have been other $500+ deals with champions like Red Guardian, Human Torch, etc.

M0NKEYNUTS

Not sure if by revenue adjusted for inflation, they mean net profit? Because cost of doing business may not be factored into that graph. Like many companies do, I speculate they probably increased cost cutting to compensate (which of course would lower the quality of the product and could perpetuate some of the persisting problems over the last few years), and so the effect on net earnings may not as drastic as that graph might imply. They also may not be completely attributing any decline in net earnings solely to consumer satisfaction and/or product quality, as external factors need to be taken into account. I would imagine companies have sophisticated statistical means of adjusting for all of the above, and so again, a graph that shows decline in net earnings adjusted for player satisfaction with game development may not be as dramatic, hence attempting to correlate our complaints to their profitability may not be wholly successful.

WhoDaPoo

What's kind of ironic about this is the new player experience is HORRIBLE compared to what it used to be. Hear me out as I've done a new account challenge almost every year for the past 8-9 years.

At first the experience was just the game. Then more unit deals would pop up at a few milestones. Then theu became almost after every act and then every chapter. Again, I never thought this was too bad as it made you start to pay attention to in game currency and, eventually learn about the ability to buy units.

Now, a quick tangent to another Kabam game. That disney mirrorverse game. That new player experience was horrible and riddles with cash and unit deals. They popped up almost as frequent as ads in other free games. I like that games's graphics and spent a good month playing it. But the game did not make me want to explore how to build up my characters, it just seemed to flood me with deals. What was my take away? If I don't spend, I won't proceed.

Now back to Kabam. Mirrorverse dies and some of that teams goes back to netmarble and kabam games. This is when the dynamic backgrounds (remember how laggy those were at the start?) came into MCOC. At the same time, or shortly after the new player experience started a clear shift. No more unit deals, it was all cheap cash deals. They popped up just like in mirrorverse and were nearly as off putting. As I was doing a new account challenge I learned to ignore them as I knew what I needed to do to move up in the game. But as a former Product Manager and Designer, I can't help but think of how backwards these cash offers would be for retaining new players. I kept wondering if it's sink MCOC like it did mirrorverse.

So here we are today. It's clear some people making decisions either came from mirrorverse or MCOC decision makers are copying those ideas. Either way, they are bad ideas. They yanked a good disney game. And I think it's part of what is tanking MCOC. The difference is that MCOC had so much behind it, it could last longer with poor decisions. That is till a tipping point, and I really think the last 3 months of bad game quests, poor game performance, and over whelming sales, are showing us that tipping point.

Thanks to anyone that reads all this. It's hard to summarise years of cause and effect. But I can't help but see it as a former director of product and design at tech companies. It's a sad shame to watch what's happening to the game I've loved for 10 years.

SpartanGhost

They only have themselves to blame. They've actively taken a hostile approach to existing players, milking the for all they're worth, and providing zero incentive to remain active.

Just look at the sheer number of major and minor sales they are pushing on to us every single month. Note how many pop-ups appear everytime you enter the game. They no longer see us as players but as human wallets.

How many anti-player decisions have they made this month alone? How many times has player feed back been ignored? They do not care about keeping players anymore. They just want us to spend a few more dollars before we finally decide that we've had enough of this abusive relationship.

The only have themselves to blame.

Guizao

Nothing more than what they deserve, mistreating their player base, no players, no game, no job for them…

Raganator

One thing I find really interesting is how they completely alienated casual spenders. Instead, they have focused on huge offers (at least) 4 times a year where not going "all in" makes no sense and is not fun. I've never been a whale, but did spend casually for years. I'm sure I'm not alone. I would have the sigil, the unit card and buy a few offers on the 4th and cyber weekend. July 4th, 2023 was the nail in the coffin for me spending on the big events. Eventually I dropped the sigil. Then the unit card. And haven't even paid for the last few double track events. There is literally no point to spending if you aren't at the very top, even if you are just trying to have fun. They've grown the gap so much that I simply don't care about keeping up or even trying to be competitive - I have just slowing been fading away for years now.

Something within their data suggested to just focus on high spenders, but that seems to now be backfiring. Lot of sayings come to mind…like reaping what you sow.

Or my favorite, which I have used here before: "Pigs get fat. Hogs get slaughtered." Guess which one you have become Kabam?

AzaiDay

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2880995#Comment_2880995

FWIW, they HAVE been focusing on F2P… e.g., (link below)…

they’ve successfully converted me from spending hundreds at a time (willingly)…

to be a F2P out of principle 🥶 (but really though, they’ve did)

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/404149/business-model-is-to-make-f2p

Figi2figi

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2880980#Comment_2880980

If that’s their goal, they are going to push a lot players out..ultimately recline time in game, and finding something else to play in the end.

AzaiDay

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2880978#Comment_2880978

It’s ironic that the people who they should greatly consider the opinions and recommendations of, are the ones that seem to be disregarded - ahem, KT1, or even Vega at the is point… ntm, hmmm, the player base / consumer base

BringPopcorn

You guys are talking about revenue, profits, investment, long term players... You guys do realize that 2 CMs are no longer with them for a long time and they delegated that job to others?... They couldn't even hire a college student part time to spend 3-4 hours a day and just communicate to players about the game.

Not sure how it is for everyone else; but from personal experience, when you start giving extra work to other people instead of replacing employees, it usually means that things are not going as great as you think... And when 💩 hits the fan like its happening right now it shows.

Herbal_Taxman

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2881064#Comment_2881064

i can almost guarantee that it’s no more complicated than this. Costs rise, staffing levels stay the same, pressure to introduce more new features / modes, pressure to make more more with less resources. Too much work, not enough people equals a decline in quality and a general lack of strategic focus. (Remember that flash game from a few months ago? And let’s not forget the ill-conceived in person event that they are probably spending a ton of time organizing. A party for a couple hundred or even a couple thousand people is a terrible use of marketing resources when your overall base is withering away.)

And this is all taking place against the backdrop of Marvel’s dramatic decline in terms of films / tv / general cultural importance.

BringPopcorn

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2881042#Comment_2881042

Taking financial advise from someone who had to move out of his country of residence cause he couldn't afford it after breaking up with his girlfriend is probably not smart anyway....

AzaiDay

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2881093#Comment_2881093

Fair point, but does that make good recommendations about the game invalid?

Chuck_Finley

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2881093#Comment_2881093

That’s one of heck of a non sequitur. If you don’t like the guy, just say so. No need to sling mud that has nothing to do with the conversation

BringPopcorn

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2881103#Comment_2881103

Topic is revenue, if it was game skill, game content, playability or something else I wouldn't have said a thing.

Can't take mortgage financing advise from a homeless person, sorry.

Chuck_Finley

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2881112#Comment_2881112

How a game makes revenue doesn’t mean an individual with a financial circumstance 2 years ago (of which we know little about particulars) is disqualified from having a correct opinion on it. Gracious… that’s one heck of a broad brush. I guess we should assume everyone capable of participating in this thread has never had a situation with less than favorable financial circumstances?

BringPopcorn

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2881138#Comment_2881138

Watch his content years ago when he was a heavy spender and notice the shift, his content has become whiny ever since he stopped spending as much as he used to...

Guizao

I've Been playing a lot of destiny rising lately, much more than mcoc...slowly fading away

TotemCorruption

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2881007#Comment_2881007

Human Torch was part of July 4th sale genius.

NoahSansman

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2881167#Comment_2881167

You're top 3 worst forum users. The point still stands that Kabam is selling random champs and trying to cram as many sales as possible into the year instead of the usual few.

Wicket329

All this talk about Kabam’s financials and not one mention of larger economic events is crazy. Labor markets, amount of disposable income among the playerbase, cost of hardware, all of these are factors that impact financials.

I agree that the monetization of the game is painful right now and is probably a contributing factor, but for people to be sitting here playing armchair economist and declaring the game dead with nothing more than a screenshot of a graph that still shows revenue of approximately $50 mil in Q2 and no discussion of any non-game factors is divorced from reality.

Crcrcrc

They’re only making $50 million a quarter now? Poor lil guys might not make it.

On a serious note, if you want to discuss economics you have to take into account external factors. Cost of living and food going up, end of the pandemic, the fact that 2017-2019 was Marvel’s most popular years in media and the pandemic drove mobile game revenue up as a whole, etc. It’s not that simple.

BigBlueOx

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2881141#Comment_2881141

correlation does not equal causation.

Because the not like that’s when the game entered a tailspin of not addressing bugs, working on MCOC on PC, Serpent “balance” announcement, and L after L (buffet anyone) happened too…

BringPopcorn

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2881200#Comment_2881200

Fair, still the 2 examples of streamers brought up are terrible. 2nd one being the 2 day boycott guy.