Recent data has shown that many people spent last year on games that are close to seven years old. These games are those that have seen constant updates bringing new content for people to enjoy. The likes of Minecraft and GTA V Online, where there is always something being added year-on-year to entice people to stay invested. Or those such as Fortnite, with battle passes full of cosmetics to earn.
Game studios, and in particular the publishers, have been trying to make a push to be the next game with a long life. One which they can take advantage of to keep people invested enough to perhaps spend some more. Epic Games have pushed Fortnite to be a platform over the last few years. One where there’s more than just the battle royale to take part in.
There’s been concerts, live events, and last year, entire new games added to Fortnite. Everything Epic have been doing with Fortnite has one clear plan. Keep people invested and staying with Fortnite. It’s a plan that other publishers seem to be looking at themselves. I feel the big three of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are already at an advantage with this, however.
It’s something I’ve joked about before, saying that Nintendo will make the home screen of the Switch successor the next Animal Crossing game. As in, the console boots up, and the first thing to greet you is that Animal Crossing experience. Character and profile are the same thing, with the house of the player featuring a room holding everything a home screen usually would. Just in a physical form.
The shelf would allow you to look at the other games you have installed. A tool bag would open up the setting menu. A laptop would open up the eShop. Or, you could leave the room and have the full Animal Crossing experience load in. Whether in the Animal Crossing world or on another game, pressing the home button would bring up this house to look at something before returning to the game with another press of the home button.
By placing the game one of these companies want to support as the first thing someone sees, it already has players experiencing that game and perhaps wanting to see more of it. How that is handled needs consideration, as forcing someone to experience too much of the game in the first-time set up will likely turn them away from it. Having them need to explore the world and find the various menu options to place in the house… no. Heading outside the room to teach about how the home button works, yes.
Of course, that’s not the only negative having a game be the home screen brings. By having it be a game, it will take up a fair bit of storage on the device. Data that is tied to the device and so cannot under any circumstances be deleted. That means a console advertised as having 1TB of storage will in fact have far less than that, depending on the size of the game.
That can be somewhat avoided by having the base game be small. Provide enough to allow unique characters to be created and enjoyment to be had with the world, but not so much that it reaches into the 50GB territory. Since this is a platform, new things will need to be added to keep people invested. As such, a way for people to get that content without the size of the uninstallable data becoming bloated needs to exist.
Alongside access to the eShop, keeping with the Nintendo example, would be the content store for the Animal Crossing game. Here, new assets would be able to be brought into the game, such as additional villagers and items. Even new locations to explore that were different to the base game. All of this additional content would be the player’s choice to install. Whether it be free or paid content, it can freely be installed and uninstalled without making too much of an impact on the game. Though a warning would be given that anything in the world that uses this content would be removed.
The other negative would be… what if people are no longer playing? What if this game that serves as a home screen is only used as a home screen? There’s no profit to be made from it, and it can’t be removed since it’s an integral part of the user experience. If a massive update were made to try making the game interesting for people, would it even matter?
And that is the most important one. A game can only be successful while people are invested in it. Without that investment, it would simply fade from the mainstream view. But how would a game that was integral with the user experience fade away? It needs to entice people right from the start, and keep attracting more people to it. Following the Epic way of doing things might not be a bad idea.
For Xbox, an obvious choice of where to begin this home screen platform would be Forza Horizon. It has casual appeal, and can attract plenty to give it a try. But what of those who want something else? One of the first updates could be introducing Halo to the platform. Alongside its own world, the one of the Forza Horizon experience could also be used.
Making use of the worlds that are already present does make sense. And since these wouldn’t be connected to the lore of the series used, it can provide plenty of crossover potential. A Halo multiplayer match on Forza Horizon’s England map. A platformer experience within a Minecraft world. Or the ultimate crossover of a world where ground, air, and water come together for a simulator of epic proportions.
The same goes for Sony, who have plenty of series from their back catalogue not presently being used. Drive through an Ape Escape world, play some golf through Jak and Daxter levels… The power of nostalgia is a strong one, and while they might not be the exact experiences people remember, there would still be a draw to those worlds.
One thing these platform games need is a small offline portion, since not everyone is capable to be online 24/7. And the Switch being a handheld device means it won’t have a connection at all when away from the house. And… if for whatever reason support for it stopped, this unique home screen still needs to be operational rather than the console itself having a definitive end date.
So there we have it. There’s pros and cons to making a platform game a home screen, but with quite a few publishers chasing the trend of having one, I feel having one as part of the user experience of the console itself would be successful. Now, when does EA Play’s user experience transform into The Sims, so we can have a fully customisable Battlefield experience?
Images Taken From:
Animal Crossing: New Horizons | Nintendo Switch [Docked]
Forza Horizon 4 | Xbox One
Jak & Daxter Collection (2012) | PS3 Game | Push Square
