Author Topic: 1 vs 100 Xbox Live Dead (Read 2808 times)

Jeremy Nelson · « **on:** July 15, 2010, 04:52:49 PM »

http://buzzerblog.flashgameshows.com/xbox-...-dead/#comments

I loved playing this game, and the decision to axe it is kind of mind boggling considering how many people played (according to sources, they got 100,000+ a session in the beta period, and were hitting or close to the 60,000/session mark after they officially opened. 1 vs 100 was the only reason why my girlfriend picked up an Xbox 360 controller (that, and Pac Man CE). The game was universal. Just when you thought that Microsoft was going to give some love to people who weren't Halo geeks....this sucks.

EDIT....this comment from a poster at Kotaku basically sums it up:
There's nothing attracting me to XBL at the moment...But 1 Vs. 100, I ate that s--- up. It was awesome, it was brilliant, it was innovative, it was the most original thing I'd played this generation. Simple, elegant in it's execution, and entertaining as hell when you get a few friends over for the evening for a couple hours of it. It was interactive TV, a step forward for both mediums. I. Loved. It. 1 Vs. 100 alone would have justified the cost of Gold for me if they'd kept it going, let alone if they'd made more programming like it. But they fucked it up somehow and now it's canned. Thanks for saving me $50 I guess MS.

MikeK · « **Reply #1 on:** July 15, 2010, 09:58:22 PM »

I've been sitting on a Gold membership card for 8 months, with plans to use it when 1 vs. 100 came back. At least it only cost me $30...

The only reason I can see 1 vs. 100 getting canned is due to the semi-frequent technical difficulties, and most of those seemed to happen in season 1. On any given night, there were usually 15,000 to 20,000 people playing. Considering most of those people probably are in their teens or 20s and aren't trivia geeks, that isn't bad at all.

clemon79 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 15, 2010, 10:04:55 PM »

[quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'244243\' date=\'Jul 15 2010, 06:58 PM\']The only reason I can see 1 vs. 100 getting canned is due to the semi-frequent technical difficulties[/quote]
I'm a little flabbergasted that nobody has stopped to think "hey, maybe it didn't make them enough money to merit the expense."

It's a for-profit exercise, folks.

Joe Mello · « **Reply #3 on:** July 16, 2010, 01:28:06 AM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'244244\' date=\'Jul 15 2010, 10:04 PM\']It's a for-profit exercise, folks.[/quote]
I'd be interested to see what the concurrent user stats were for 1 vs 100 compared to traditional multiplayer games. If they match up favorably, then I'm inclined to think it's less "we're not making money off this" as it is "we don't know how to make money off this."

clemon79 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 16, 2010, 03:17:15 AM »

[quote name=\'Joe Mello\' post=\'244253\' date=\'Jul 15 2010, 10:28 PM\']I'd be interested to see what the concurrent user stats were for 1 vs 100 compared to traditional multiplayer games. If they match up favorably,[/quote]
You're talking complete apples and oranges, but...

Quote

then I'm inclined to think it's less "we're not making money off this" as it is "we don't know how to make money off this."

...knowing what I know, I'm willing to accept this as a possibility, too. Or even "if it drives LIVE Gold subscriptions, does it *need* to make money?"

Just trust me when I tell you: it's a *really* complicated equation. It's not even close to being as easy as "do the same number of people play it as play Gears of War?" or "can we sell out the sponsor spots to someone other than Sprint?"

Loogaroo · « **Reply #5 on:** July 16, 2010, 06:29:02 AM »

Considering that the only time they ever gave prizes away were during primetime shows, and even then the total value of the prizes awarded typically numbered in the hundreds of dollars, I can't imagine that a crippling prize budget was what caused the game's demise. I did hear that the actual rewarding of prizes was problematic, though.

Is there any other reason to hang on to a Gold account now that this is no longer continuing?

Jeremy Nelson · « **Reply #6 on:** July 16, 2010, 08:19:58 AM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'244256\' date=\'Jul 16 2010, 02:17 AM\']Or even "if it drives LIVE Gold subscriptions, does it *need* to make money?"[/quote]
That's the thing- from what I've seen, it was convincing enough to get casual gamers, who had no real need or desire to upgrade to a Gold subscription, to go Gold.

I'd be interested to see what their parameters of "success" were, since this is a game you really can't compare against Gears of War or Halo.

clemon79 · « **Reply #7 on:** July 16, 2010, 01:26:12 PM »

[quote name=\'Loogaroo\' post=\'244260\' date=\'Jul 16 2010, 03:29 AM\']Is there any other reason to hang on to a Gold account now that this is no longer continuing?[/quote]
If you don't play online games with friends? Netflix, ESPN3, potentially Hulu...

MSTieScott · « **Reply #8 on:** July 16, 2010, 01:26:51 PM »

I've never played it (I don't have an Xbox), but doesn't "1 vs. 100" go through a decent amount of game material? How frequently did they have to generate new questions? That's another ongoing expense.

Mr. Armadillo · « **Reply #9 on:** July 16, 2010, 01:51:39 PM »

Heck, even Tycho at Penny Arcade is struggling to understand why Microsoft would can this.

clemon79 · « **Reply #10 on:** July 16, 2010, 01:55:35 PM »

[quote name=\'MSTieScott\' post=\'244276\' date=\'Jul 16 2010, 10:26 AM\']How frequently did they have to generate new questions? That's another ongoing expense.[/quote]
Not frequently enough...my girlfriend and I played a fair amount (she REALLY liked it), and we were seeing questions repeat with a fair amount of frequency towards the end of the run.

TLEberle · « **Reply #11 on:** July 19, 2010, 12:22:16 AM »

[quote name=\'MSTieScott\' post=\'244276\' date=\'Jul 16 2010, 10:26 AM\']I've never played it (I don't have an Xbox), but doesn't "1 vs. 100" go through a decent amount of game material? How frequently did they have to generate new questions? That's another ongoing expense.[/quote]Having a modicum of experience creating puzzles for a Welsh game show where trios attempt to find links from quartets of items that seem to have nothing in common, I can say that the research end of writing is not much fun. You may know the answer, it may be obvious to anyone who knows the answer, but tracking down the proof of it can be difficult, especially when you have a specific research library to work from.

I am reminded of the Blackwood cult video, where they complain about something or other being cruelly taken away, and I'll say now what I said then: yes, it sucks that something awesome is going away. It was a helluva run. But there's nothing I can do about it, so I'm moving on.