Pred Report VI
Greetings Champions!
With so much excitement surrounding Predecessor this month it’s easy to forget that it’s been a while since the last Pred Report!
One of our core principles as a company is to champion community transparency, so today we’re keen to continue that value answering yet more of your burning questions, providing exciting insights into upcoming projects, and just generally summing up where we’re at as a company.
Let’s do this!
PRED Talk
Kicking things off it’s important we reshare our recent PRED Talk video, in which Robbie announced a plethora of exciting new features and sneak peaks coming soon to Predecessor.
He also revealed our official Open Beta launch date (March 28th) and our highly anticipated launch date onto Xbox (also March 28th). Talk about hype!
We like to think the PRED Talk video covered many of the most pressing questions that you may have had about Predecessor, but we know many of you have more that you’d like answering.
With that in mind, let’s move on to….
Quickfire Questions
Will players need to do anything during the transition to Open Beta?
Nope! For anyone with the game already the transition to Open Beta will feel like just another game update. There's no new special game key to redeem, no new SKU (that means product!) to download from a store - just a regular ol' game update!
All that changes is how new people will find and download the game.
Will console players get Early Access bundles?
At the time of our Open Beta launch this won’t be possible, but we’re exploring ways for new players to catch up quickly to their PC counterparts. We’ll share more on this when we’ve made a final decision on a path forwards.
Will console players have a way to get the rewards from previous Early Access seasons?
We understand that there are many players on PlayStation who missed out on Early Access Season 1 and 2 rewards, and there will be more players coming in from Xbox who will have also missed out on the recent Early Access Season 3 rewards.
As we’ve shared in previous season overview blogs, all non-exclusive rewards from previous seasons will be available to purchase in store in the future. This mainly includes the season-themed rewards such as the Ascension and Emerald skin lines, with exclusive rewards such as profile icons being limited to those who played during the season.
Why did Amber launch with so few uses?
We envision Amber as a multi-purpose soft currency. We have plans to make it more useful for more things beyond Hero Acquisition, but in order to roll it out quickly and without too many variables that could go wrong, we elected to limit it on launch to just this one use.
Once we’re happy that it’s working as intended, and have plenty of data to back that up, we’ll begin rolling out further uses for the currency.
Which Xbox consoles will be supported?
At the launch of Open Beta and our initially rollout on Xbox, only Xbox Series S/X will be supported.
Unfortunately there was a mistake in the information reported by some journalists at the time of our PRED Talk where some outlets mistakenly announced that we’d also be launching on last-generation Xbox consoles (Xbox One). This is not the case, though we may explore this console in the future if the demand is significant enough.
What regions will be supported on Xbox?
At the time of launch, we’ll be making Predecessor available globally on Xbox Series X/S consoles (some exclusions may apply).
Which regions can take part in the Predecessor Open Beta?
Platform | Regions |
|---|---|
Steam | Global* |
Epic | Global* |
PlayStation | NA, SA, EMEA |
Xbox | Global* |
*Some exclusions may apply.
When can we expect more server regions?
We know there’s requests for more servers and supported regions. We’re constantly reviewing this and should we find that the player base in a region is large enough that we can safely split matchmaking without harming the matchmaking experience of other regions, we will immediately roll out new servers in those regions.
When will the new lighting changes launch?
We’re pleased to confirm that the first of many visual improvements coming to Predecessor will arrive in V0.16 on March 28th.
When will the new Undertow skins launch?
These will be coming later this year, during the summertime.
When will Ranked Mode launch?
Like the Undertow skinline we’re aiming to launch Ranked Mode in Summer after a couple of months of Open Beta. We’ll share a specific release date a little closer to the time.
Will Ranked Mode feature detailed, viewable statistics?
Ranked mode will launch in a fairly feature-limited state. Our intention is to get it out at the right time and then build up new features and offerings based on community feedback and data gathered from how the gamemode is interacted with.
We’ll explore features such as statistics to let you track in detail your journey through ranked, but we can’t currently confirm when or to what extent it’ll be included.
When will account linking launch?
Account linking was blocked by our migration to an entirely rebuilt and custom backend codebase. Now that this is released, we’re able to proceed with work on this and other systems that were held up. We don’t have a firm date for this feature just yet, but we’re hard at work on delivering it as soon as we’re able to.
After Open Beta launches, will the update cadence change?
The eagle-eyed among you have probably spotted that our Open Beta launch takes place on March 28th, which is a Thursday (as opposed to our usual update day of Tuesday) and falls outside of our usual 3-week update cadence.
To be a little more specific, V0.16 releases on March 28th with Xbox and Open Beta. V0.17 releases just 12 days later on April 9th as a content update with our next new Hero (among additional features/improvements).
After these two updates we’ll be back with our usual 3-week updates, starting with V0.17.X three weeks later.
With the backend changes and UI improvements out the way, will content speed up?
We’ve discussed in the past how we’ve had to prioritise important infrastructure work in place of content or skins. While we don’t intend to release patches more frequently, we’re pleased to share that we do hope you’ll notice an overall uptick in game development.
After our Open Beta launch we’ll be aiming to deliver at least 3-4 new skins per patch as we have done for the last few updates. We’re also planning to occasionally add new features or more significant content in balance patches, alongside of course the usual tweaks and adjustments to Heroes and Items. Lastly many of the most highly requested features such as Ranked Mode and a whole new gamemode are coming out in a few patches time as covered in the recent PRED Talk.
When will the prices of skins be adjusted?
As promised in a previous blog, we’re revising our skin prices following community feedback.
You can expect new prices to be in place as of V0.16 (March 28th).
When will Yin/Aurora/GRIM.exe/ Wukong/Boris/Zinx/Terra come to the game?
All of the remaining Paragon Heroes are in the pipeline and will be added in future content updates. We won’t spoil who’s coming and when, so keep an eye out for announcements in the lead up to content releases to see who’s coming up.
We’ll also be releasing more original Heroes too, with the next one coming later in the Summer.
Marketing Predecessor
It’s no big secret that we’ve focused our efforts on development for the past few years, with less of an eye on marketing our game.
As we’re often discussed in Discord, on Reddit or in community streams, this has been intentional.
Our goal has always been to make the best game we possibly could. We’re confident that having a well balanced game that looks slick and plays great will serve us better in the long term, as opposed to promoting a less-polished version of the game too soon which may lead to a short-term surge in new players, but could also lead to those new players dropping off due to an unenjoyable experience.
With that said however we are now at the point where we’ve started greasing the big marketing machine we’ve been quietly building.
You probably saw over the last few weeks, where our press release covering our PRED Talk was picked up by a number of news outlets such as VentureBeat (syndicated on Yahoo!), Sports Illustrated (syndicated on MSN and Yardbarker), God is a Geek, MMOBomb, GamingLyfe and Capsule Computers.
We're hard at work on some amazing things on the marketing side, including influencer partnerships, glossy new trailers and promotional assets, and more and more coverage in the press. Our goal is to get Predecessor in front of as many eyeballs as we possibly can!
Marketing doesn’t happen overnight though, and much like with game development our adverts and our overall approach to advertising will be iterative. We’ll be A/B testing assets and copy, trying exciting and different things with trailers, and generally building up momentum based on results.
We hope you find it as exciting as we do when you see a Predecessor advert on the side of a website you love or when one of your favourite news sites covers our game!
Where’s Early Access Season 4?
We’ve kept our cards close to our chest about what comes next for Predecessor in terms of seasons, partially because at the time of Early Access Season 3 ending we hadn’t announced that we’d be launching into Open Beta so quickly after.
We do not intend to have any further seasons during Early Access. Instead our next season will take place shortly after our full launch later in the year. You could possibly consider Open Beta as being its own season of sorts, with the distinction that there will not be rewards at the end of our Open Beta like we’d usually offer during a typical season.
As exciting as that may initially seem, it doesn’t mean that we’re in a position to launch out of Early Access anytime too soon. We’ve still got a lot to do before we get to that milestone, including launching and monitoring the performance of our upcoming Open Beta.
While there won’t be a season for the foreseeable future, there will still be rewards for playing. We covered this already in other blogs this year, but for those who may have missed it you’ll now be earning Amber (our new soft currency) for every match you play, getting extra for every level you gain (with bigger drops every 4 levels you gain). Alongside Amber you can also expect more rewards to be added soon that tie to your account level, such as profile icons and more.
Ranked Mode
Did you miss the reveal of our work in progress Ranked Mode images?
Again, these images are all work-in-progress, so there may be some changes to the UI/UX between now and when we launch Ranked Mode.
Ranked Mode will launch later this year with support for Solo/Duo queueing only.
Like all major features released during our Early Access, Ranked Mode will release with room for growth and improvement, allowing us to develop this gamemode alongside your feedback and suggestions.
Matchmaking Improvements
There’s not a whole lot to be said on this topic because we’ve got a separate, dedicated blog coming in the next few weeks detailing how things are going in far more depth than we can cover here.
That said however it’s important to share that despite a few instances of necessary downtime to tighten a few matchmaking and server constraints, we’re really pleased with how much better matches have been even with this first implementation of our new system.
We’ve seen noticeably better matches being made with a far tighter spread of MMR between players in games. This might be a little hard to see when using a third party tool to gauge the MMR spread of matches, but the view from our own data shows that matches have never been better.
We’re excited to go further though as we understand that there’s still plenty of work to be done before we can call it a day. Expect more matchmaking improvements as time goes on and look out for that aforementioned deep dive blog coming in the next couple of weeks!
Community Roundup
We’re not the only ones around here doing awesome things! Check out some of the amazing stuff our community is making!
My name is Crunch
Check out this adorable fanart of Crunch by skyycha! He looks absolutely chuffed to bits, probably because he got to punch someone.
I like to punch
Sticking with the theme, kirama—k also had a crack at some Crunch fanart and we’re blown away by the combo of contrast and line work!
Rose Thorn Countess
Sticking with the C’s, here’s some stunning Countess skin fanart by Diin126, who’s imagined her as a prickly rose thorn assassin!
Angsty Argus
We had to include at least one piece of artwork of our most recent Hero, Argus, and how could we pass up this incredible art by Alsassa? We can really feel the determination in his eyes - great work!
Screenshots
by arkokin
by .volume.
by zefutrica
The Nations League Tournament
Exciting news, patriotic competitors! Lilleby and ForTheCore have announced The Nations League, an exciting new tournament coming soon!
The Nations League is a fierce battle between up to 16 nations, with each competing to prove their dominance in Predecessor.
ForTheCore have extensive experience hosting large scale Predecessor events including the epic Fangbooth tournament series, while Lilleby is a seasoned Predecessor streamer with a knack for keeping things lively. Together they’re promising a grand event like no other!
When: March 30th - 31st
Where: The ForTheCore Twitch Channel
Competing Nations (so far!):
Norway
Sweden
United Kingdom
Germany
Spain
France
Switzerland
Italy
Russia
Saudi Arabia
USA
Canada
Finland
Greece
Registrations are closed, but you can still get involved!
To make this event the best it can be the organisers are also on the lookout for casters, spectators, moderators, and desk hosts to talk about all the games as they happen. If you’re interested in helping out, reach out to Lilleby!
For more information and to find Lilleby, join the ForTheCore Discord server!
That’s all for now, Champions!
What do you think? Excited for March 28th? Join our Discord and let us know if you’re jumping in on Xbox when it launches!
- Kari, Lead Community Manager
