The "Battle Royale" genre

[MattIowa1]

I decided to start this thread mainly due to a thought I had during the unveiling of "Fallout 76" this week at E3.

When Bethesda mentioned that it was going to be mainly online, my first thought was, "Watch them put in a Battle Royale mode."

So that got me to thinking, has the Battle Royale mode in games overstayed its welcome?

The popularity of PUBG and Fortnite, and H1Z1 before that, show that it's far from going away, but now that Call of Duty is getting in on this, and rumors of Battlefield having one as well, I feel it's only a matter of time before the major backlash/fatigue sets in.

 

[heybarkeep]

Waiting for Red Dead Redemption 2 to announce one too. Haven't played much Pubg or Fortnite but will definitely understand why the backlash will occur when it does. Looking forward to Black Ops 4 and what it has to offer to the genre. Worst case scenario, Zombies should still be fun.

 

[DJ_Pioneer]

This kind of thing always goes in cycles, Westwood made the first Command & Conquer and the RTS genre was born and we get more C&C games but also games such as Age of Empires and Warcraft. ID software makes Wolfenstein 3D which leads to the creation of Doom and the Doom engine that alot of developers use to make their own games, but the game genre wasn't called FPS back then any FPS games made in that style was called a Doom clone. A couple of years later in 1996 ID releases Quake which unlike Doom and Wolfenstein actually have you move around in 3 dimensions and gamers star using the mouse to aim, the games that follow are at first called Quake clones but after awhile the games become known as first person shooters. After that games became even more socialized where divided into subgenres and the Quake style of multiplayer became known as an arena shooter.

If you look around these days traditional RTS games and Arena Shooters are not doing that well, but other genres that has its roots in those has come, now we have MOBAs and team based shooters which are immensely popular eclipsing them. I think that the Battle Royale type of games are here to stay for quite awhile, but even though it will fell like every one will try to make their own Battle Royale there will only be a few games that will be able to pull it off. Eventually developers will realize that making games in the genre is hard and will stop trying and as time goes on new games will come along and people will loose interest in the Battle Royale, but it is not going to die off completely after all even text based adventures are still around.

 

[AmberCutie]

has the Battle Royale mode in games overstayed its welcome?

I feel like it's just ramping up, honestly. It's the biggest thing right now.

The new free to play early access Realm Royale is super fun too. And a great alternative to Fortnite if you think the building aspect is shitty, like I do.

 

[zippypinhead]

If people are having fun with it, then long may it reign.

 

[mutantdonut]

Fatigue may be hard to predict. Undoubtedly there's bound to be players that'll feel it. In the general sense of things; however, how long has League and other Mobas been popular? How long have WoW and MMOs still been a thing? It's hard to know if/when Battle Royale wears itself, if at all. But it doesn't look like it'll slow down for the foreseeable future.

Gaming has always been a copycat industry though...
Popularity of Pong led to a million different Pong consoles.
Popularity of Super Mario Brothers led to a million generic 2-D platformers
Wolfenstein & Doom led to the explosion of FPS games
and so on...

 

[MaskedMisstress]

Definitely getting tired of it. I had fun with H1Z1, rust, and PUBG but it's been a long time now and it's just not as appealing anymore. But, I will admit I do like realm royale.

 

[Wade W Wilson]

Battle royale style is big now but as far as Battlefield V, I'm sure the majority of the community will be on conquest and rush. Assuming there is a rush in the game. I honestly don't care for the battle royale style anyway, I understand why the playing area is constantly shrinking but I prefer to let a battle play out without being artificially pushed to the opposition. Battlefield in particular has always been about large wide open maps and freedom of movement in multiplayer, the constricting play area in a battle royale style games would probably end up seeing a lot of interest for a while that trails off as the novelty wears off and everyone switches to conquest, rush, and team deathmatch.

 

[Jakeen Burney]

I just think it's played out, sadly the only game I see it works wonders in is the game that started it all. Arma 3.

 

[GingerLei]

Fatigue may be hard to predict. Undoubtedly there's bound to be players that'll feel it. In the general sense of things; however, how long has League and other Mobas been popular? How long have WoW and MMOs still been a thing? It's hard to know if/when Battle Royale wears itself, if at all. But it doesn't look like it'll slow down for the foreseeable future.

Gaming has always been a copycat industry though...
Popularity of Pong led to a million different Pong consoles.
Popularity of Super Mario Brothers led to a million generic 2-D platformers
Wolfenstein & Doom led to the explosion of FPS games
and so on...

SO TRUE - I find myself so burnt out and fatigued on battle royale and here I have about 4000 hours invested into mobas. I think battle royale is overrated and I am really sick of it. But I AM looking forward to Battlefield V. Can't wait!

 

[Jakeen Burney]

SO TRUE - I find myself so burnt out and fatigued on battle royale and here I have about 4000 hours invested into mobas. I think battle royale is overrated and I am really sick of it. But I AM looking forward to Battlefield V. Can't wait!

I think BFV is easily one of the few who will get it right and do something COMPLETELY different. I've been playing BF since BF1942(and was my first PC game alongside Neverwinter nights) and this is a needed addition as long as it is done right.

 

[CleoCharisma]

SO TRUE - I find myself so burnt out and fatigued on battle royale and here I have about 4000 hours invested into mobas. I think battle royale is overrated and I am really sick of it. But I AM looking forward to Battlefield V. Can't wait!

I am looking forward, too. Doo looking forward new Call of Duty, too? It'll have Battle Royale mode.

 

[AmberCutie]

Doo looking forward new Call of Duty, too? It'll have Battle Royale mode

Call of Duty is out already, the battle royale mode "Blackout" is quite fun. I wish there was a third person view available though, as I have to play it in a small window to avoid getting motion sickness (most first person view games do this to me, I play pubg in third person.)

 

[Lelo1]

Fornite is a lot of fun.

Rules of Survival is trying to top Fornite with 300 players per game and squads of 5 players.

 

[JasonB]

if you think the building aspect is shitty, like I do.

I couldn't agree with you more about how shitty the building aspect is..!

However, I do think that the whole battle royale style is starting to be boring and it's pretty much EVERYWHERE right now..
If you'd ask me, it's going to die soon.

 

[AmberCutie]

I couldn't agree with you more about how shitty the building aspect is..!

However, I do think that the whole battle royale style is starting to be boring and it's pretty much EVERYWHERE right now..
If you'd ask me, it's going to die soon.

I won't say it's gonna die soon, just that the hype and novelty of it are wearing off and it's going to become just another standard gamestyle. Not all hype can last forever, the next new thing is always right around the corner, yaknow?

 

[JasonB]

I won't say it's gonna die soon, just that the hype and novelty of it are wearing off and it's going to become just another standard gamestyle. Not all hype can last forever, the next new thing is always right around the corner, yaknow?

Yeah I agree, that's pretty much what I meant, that's how it usually is with gaming from my experience.. when the next big thing will come everyone will just follow suit.

That's actually why I'm usually attracted to small indie games, they often try to be different and innovate!