Predecessor Report V - Looking ahead at 2024
Season’s greetings, Champions!
As our team winds down for the holiday period we wanted to share one final Pred Report for the year, looking back at an incredible year for Omeda Studios and looking ahead at some exciting sneak peaks courtesy of our CEO and commander in chief, Robbie.
Let’s go!
A Word From Robbie
Hello Predecessor Community,
A heartfelt THANK YOU to each of you for your unwavering support. You're the core of our game, and your dedication is what has brought Predecessor to its current heights.
This past year at Omeda has been extraordinary. Although we've faced some challenges and haven't achieved all our goals, we're immensely proud of what we’ve accomplished to date and we’re so glad to have finally put Predecessor into the hands of PlayStation players.
Looking ahead to 2024, we're thrilled to share a little more about the new developments our team has in store for you.
Cosmetics
We've heard your requests for more content – skins, emotes, and beyond. We know customising your Hero is important to you and we’ve been hard at work on the creation of more Omeda originals, including entire skin lines that we can’t wait to share. While we're not ready to unveil in-game screenshots just yet, we do have some concept art of a skin that's all set to blast off in the new year.
Monetisation
We’ve also heard your feedback about skin pricing. We want to ensure that players feel respected and heard, especially when it comes to spending their hard earned money. As such, we will be adjusting skin prices in 2024.
As part of this, we will also ensure that any previously available skins, should they receive a change in their base price, will refund any platinum to players that already spent money on these skins.
It is important for us that all players feel included and listened to, with player feedback and sentiment being something we value above all else.
Soft Currency
Long-time players might recall a second currency in our early UI mockups. We're finally introducing a Free to Play currency early in 2024, allowing you more choice in how you spend in-game. Soft currency will be acquired through a variety of mechanics, most notably of course being simply by playing Predecessor.
Hero Acquisition & Affinity changes
With the introduction of a soft currency we also want to make some changes to Hero acquisition and Hero Affinity based on your feedback. We see Early Access as a time to experiment, iterate and overhaul (if necessary) and we’re not afraid to make drastic changes if we feel it is more healthy for the overall game.
To that extent, we will be changing how Hero acquisition works. Once soft currency lands, you will be able to purchase a Hero outright using that new currency. That means no more wasted experience and overall it means more player choice.
Our goal behind the original Hero acquisition system was to increase player engagement before a patch launches, a time where almost all games see a general decline in engagement. Our belief was that if we could give players something meaningful to grind ahead of time, come patch day they could be instantly rewarded with access to the new Hero, increasing player engagement. While we did indeed see an increase in engagement, we also found that overall the system bred frustration in the community due to the lack of player choice.
Additionally, we have also decided to remove the idea of tokens and allow players to simply use their new soft currency to outright purchase premium Hero Affinities. You will still be able to purchase both Heroes and Affinities with Platinum, but soon you will also have the option to use soft currency should you chose to do so.
Ranked Play
We're gearing up to launch an early version of ranked play in the first half 2024.
Initially, we'll offer a ranked solo/duo queue for a limited time, using this 'pre-season' to gather your feedback before the launch of our official Ranked Season 1.
Item System Overhaul
Before rolling out Ranked, significant changes are coming to our item and crest systems.
We're rethinking these elements to better align with our initial design goals and to enhance clarity for newcomers. In the new system we are exploring how to provide more player choice when choosing both passive and active items as well as the introduction of a sixth passive item slot.
We're still in the early stages of this overhaul, but we're moving swiftly to incorporate your feedback as soon as possible.
New Game Mode
We've been experimenting with a more casual, yet-to-be-revealed game mode.
Our latest iteration, much speculated by you, is a 3v3 mode on a new map featuring unique mechanics and an emphasis on verticality.
Insights from this new game mode will inform adjustments to our main map later in 2024. While we’ve been gathering feedback from players for a number of months now, our intention is to ship an ‘experimental’ version of this mode early next year so we can iterate with a larger audience to find the perfect formula.
Player Quests
Player quests are a way for players to complete specific challenges to earn rewards.
While we have a lot of plans for this system, our initial goal is to include onboarding challenges and rewards for new players to help introduce them into Predecessor. In addition, we will also include daily and weekly challenges for players a little further in their journey, to ensure that we’re providing rewards, challenges and opportunities all types of players. The ultimate goal is to ensure that the time you invest in Predecessor always feels rewarded.
PlayStation Closed Beta
Before we go any further, I want to give a massive thank you to everyone in the Predecessor community.
The response we have gotten over this past year has been incredible and to see how passionate you all are about Predecessor fuels us every single day. The PlayStation Beta has been extremely well received, and we blew through all our targets for the month in just 2 days. We’re excited to see how many players are continuing to engage with Predecessor throughout the Beta.
We know there’s a lot of improvements to make and features to add (custom keybinds, custom item builds and more!) but we can’t thank you enough for your support.
Open Beta
Early next year we’re planning to launch Predecessor into Open Beta across both PC and console.
Our goal between now and then is to incorporate a lot of the changes and feedback you have shared along with introducing a lot of what has been mentioned already in this post.
Separately to that, we’re also working on the Xbox version, however there is currently no timeline we can share for this platform as of yet.
Closing Remarks
We're excited to embark on this journey with you in 2024 and can't wait to share more updates soon. Your enthusiasm and feedback are what drive us to continuously improve and innovate.
Stay tuned for an incredible year ahead with Predecessor!
Robbie Singh
CEO of Omeda Studios
PlayStation Closed Beta
We’re just over 2 weeks into the PlayStation Closed Beta and we couldn’t be more thrilled with your feedback, support and the love you’ve shared with us for the Predecessor. As Robbie said above, we’ve been blown away by everything that’s happened these last few weeks and months.
With that in mind however, we wanted to give a few short updates on some CBT related news.
PlayStation Closed Beta End Date
In case you missed the news, we’ve extended the PlayStation Closed Beta!
Instead of ending the first week of January, you can now play freely until January 29th!
Play Together Win Together Event
Shortly before we launched the CBT we introduced a small event that rewarded the whole community with some exclusive goodies based on the total number of referrals we got. You can see the details in this handy image below.
First things first, we hit the top milestone and that means that everyone is getting a fantastic new profile icon to celebrate!*
We’re also just a few hundred referrals off of unlocking the free banner! Check it out below!
There’s still a month left on the PlayStation Closed Beta, meaning there's still time to unlock the banner and that final reward tier, the snazzy new (and free!) Greystone skin!
Help us unlock the banner and Greystone skin by referring more friends! You can find your unique referral link here.
* Note: rewards will be added in a game update after the Closed Beta has concluded.
PlayStation Closed Beta Keys
With the Beta extended we’ve been asked if you need a new key in order to play past the original end date. Luckily this isn’t the case, and so long as you’ve redeemed a key already you’re all set to play until the end of January.
Additionally we’ve seen some feedback of players redeeming keys but getting a message stating that the key you tried to redeem has already been redeemed. This is a bug, and most of the time you can find that the game has been successfully added to your PlayStation account if you check out your Games Collection.
Lastly we’re moving away from distributing keys via waves. Going forwards you will receive your key a few minutes after signing up on our website, straight to your email. Be sure to check your spam box/filter!
Want even more keys? You can claim up to 5 of each region and platform over on our Discord! Join the fun here.
Steam Winter Sale
With all the recent console excitement it’s only fair we share some love for PC users!
It’s time for the Steam Winter Sale!
Starting today (specifically at 6pm UTC) you can grab Predecessor and any of our bundles at a fantastic festive discount, making it a great time to join the fight alongside our new PlayStation Champions.
Head to the Steam store now and grab yourself a bargain!
Winterfest Reminder
With the holiday season truly upon us, let’s not forget our first major in game event too!
Winterfest is still ongoing, meaning there’s still time to unlock those cool rewards and pick up those epic new skins in the store!
Winterfest runs until January 2nd, 2024. Find out more about the rewards and skins available during this time over in our V0.13 blog!
A New Year Brings A New Hero
With 2024 on the horizon, V0.14 is slowly coming into Heavenly Focus. With it comes our first new Hero of the new year!
Usually we'd tease the new Hero about a week or so before the update, but given our PlayStation pals are only with us for a short time, we wanted to give them and everyone else something exciting to look forward to!
So who might our next new Hero be?
That's right Champions, the legendary blademaster Kwang is joining the fight in V0.14!
Grab your Heavenly Blade and look forward to carving a whole new metagame with this deadly fighter when he arrives in game January 16th, 2024!
Community Round Up
We’re not the only ones making cool things this time of year! Check out some of our favourite picks from the community!
Smol Heroes
How could we not include the most adorable fanart ever? We LOVE these cute lil smol Heroes drawn by Diin126! Here’s hoping we see a smol version of Kira soon too!
Screenshots
It’s not just artwork that caught our eye this month though! Check out some of our favourite screenshots, shared with us over on our Discord server!
by CosmicJuice
by Zigg Price
by volume
Iggy & Scorch 5 Minute Doodles
Earlier in the month we gave Discord five whole minutes to doodle Iggy & Scorch in MS Paint. Despite the tight timer, you didn’t disappoint.
Some were super artistic, like Alsassa’s minimalist line art.
Others were a little more… abstract, like Eclipse’s… masterpiece.
Everyone’s submissions were excellent of course, but I’m taking this opportunity to specifically shout out our very own CEO Robbie for his magnificent talent and contribution.
Truly wallpaper material.
Empti’s Predecessor Guide
With so many new players joining the game it can be hard knowing exactly where to start. Luckily for us, Empti is working on a mega guidebook covering every Hero, giving expert recommendations and breaking everything down in a way that makes sense to even the newest MOBA player.
Check them out on X/Twitter and support them on this epic project!
Omeda Studios Christmas Wind Down
With the holiday season truly upon us, many of us here at Omeda are now officially winding down.
Please don't expect any further game updates or news until the new year, and please be patient when submitting support tickets as it may be a week or so until you get a reply.
Some of the team may still be around on Discord etc, but please be mindful of their free time and try to leave them be to enjoy their holidays.
Thanks in advance for your consideration!
As Robbie has already said, this year has been simply incredible for everyone here at Omeda Studios.
We’re so grateful to everyone in the Predecessor community and we can’t wait to spend another amazing year working with you all to make the best possible game we can.
Enjoy the holidays, eat well and we’ll see you next year for V0.14!
- Kari, Community Lead
