Hi-Rez are so fascinating. I just find it hilarious that their entire business model is based on chasing trends, making their own take on it then immediately letting it rot and die as soon as it starts losing players, and they're not even SLIGHTLY subtle about it.
The most dumbfounding thing about them is how good their games are and are still left to die like that. Some are really fun, just not worth your time the way they want it to be like Divine Knockout.
At least they’re honest about it I guess 🤷 I respect a company that’s open about being scummy just a pinch more than I do one that pretends they aren’t
they're like the embodiment of ADHD. Chase something you find cool and exciting. Lose every bit of motivation and interest immediately and chase after another interest. It's an almost comical business structure.
Yeah my theory is that everything they release is just to cover for smite losses so they operate it all on an extremely narrow margin and the second it dips into the red, they pull funding.
@@amourdior8444can't agree man, paladins, dko, realm royale all had major potential but were DOA since they had no plans to update past release. Unless it's a pack of skins for money, there will be no substance. They added a total of 3(?) new gods to dko before deciding the money wasn't flowing hard enough
Smite is literally only alive because of arena and console. They tried to make slash 4v4 who is running things? Slash was created because siege was so bad. Horrible company
Loved playing this game, I think I owned all the cosmetics it offered besides the competitive stuff, and yeah seeing everything slowly stop was enough for me to believe that the end was near. Not to mention, that they just retweet plays of the week on their Twitter and that's been their feed for the better part of a few months. There's just absolutely nothing going on right now.
Sucks because I had literally maxed out every gun and was having a lot of fun then got a little burnt out but the new season was like a week away so I was still hype. Then I seen the timer just go away and they didn’t add anything
Hirez really is one of the worst companies in gaming in terms of monetization and also just development imo. Also anyone remember smite tactics? I swear that existed for like six months.
Wouldn't say in terms of monetization, they never had any kind of p2w in any of their games that I'm aware of and the prices for what you get seem ok even tho they got more expensive over the last years. Yea there is some crap like not getting enough gems from one battle pass to buy the next one (at least in smite) etc. But yea, it really sucks that I love smite so much. They always copy a trend and honestly the basis for those games is nice with some really cool concepts and new ideas... and then they think "oh, were not THE most successful game right from the start, let's just throw it away"... well at least they say "let's throw it away and focus on smite" but it still really sucks.
Rogue Company was the game that brought me back to playing online. I hadn't played online multilayer since Left 4 Dead 2 and I loved this game. Sad to hear this news.
That's what the companies prefer. They make a lot of money, don't have to put in the effort as much as singleplayer or campaign dlcs, just cosmetics. Then when the servers shut down, those costs are reduced too. And repeat
@@BozsoGabor That's what you say but if a game is not live-service the playerbase complains about a lack of updates. Look how quickly multiplayer games that aren't live-service die. People got accustomed to getting a game then receiving monthly updates and the ADHD has settled in. years ago we were able to play a Call of Duty game for 500 hours straight despite it not getting a single update after release, and today if a game doesn't receive an update for 2 months it starts dying. Hell, Titanfall 2 died almost completely despite being a fully delivered service and the only thing that brought it back to life recently has been an update.
Loot boxes are fine, as long as they aren’t providing an unfair advantage or affecting the core gameplay and everyone is on a level playing field I don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to make an income stream On a free to play. How else are they going to pay the bills?
@lifeofrjh its a trash and manipulative monetization scheme. No one is saying you cant have an income stream. But dont be scummy about it. Let people directly buy what they want, at least in a rotating shop like helldivers
I LOVED this game and i'm so upset with what happened to it. I put in over 1000 hours and got really good at it. It was the most fun i've ever had in a video game, i'm really sad it got shafted :(
im surprised you didn’t add this, but for many people the biggest factor in this games downfall(besides the obvious lack of support) was a seemingly NONEXISTENT anti-cheat. even back in 2020 this game, at least on console, was free reign for aimbot and wallhacks. seemingly every single match had a hacker, it didn’t even need to be ranked, and kicking them required such a monumental effort from the entire lobby that most people just left games over. and over. and over again. I, along with many other people, would’ve stuck out longer for the game despite its lack of content if the hacking wasn’t so abundant. It was on the same level that Modern Warfare 2 lobbies are at in terms of hacks…..but the difference being one game came out the year prior and the other a decade prior.
My dad used to work at Hi-Rez on this game. From what I recall, he said the team was great, but it seemed like the work was just all over the place. People kept getting moved from game to game. When he left was when there were plans to update Realm Royale again a few years ago, they were moving people around a bunch because of that.
@@abudorayakobu They do. But people are constantly moved from one team to another, and they’d been constantly starting up new projects (or reviving old ones), which requires, again, moving people around. Was just too hectic. Apparently like 6 months after he left there was a massive restructuring and a lot of people were let go.
A few thoughts, because like you, I've been dealing with Hi Rez's bullshit for a long time. 1. There's also Alacrity Studios which is the in house artists for Hi Rez projects which you didn't mention. Rogue Company also spent some time as its own independent company before being folded into Evil Mojo (Which actually, I thought was just Paladins until now). My understanding is that there are substantial tax incentives in the state of Georgia to start up film and media businesses. This, rather than its reputation for bullshit and stupidity, was what I was told was the primary driving force for creating multiple companies and turning Hi Rez into a holding company. I am of the opinion that "Hi Rez's reputation is shit, so let's mask it with smaller companies" was not part of the decision making process, because that would imply that senior leaders (Hi Erez!) think that their reputation is shit. 2. Because Smite has been their most (only) profitable IP, them killing it off to create Smite 2 will likely not be abandoned. If they abandon Smite 2, and kill of Smite 1, where does Hi Rez get any revenue whatsoever? While yes, this is Erez Goren's pet vanity project, it still has to keep the lights on somehow. That's why Hi Rez has been so quick to pull the plug on games like Realm Royale, Rogue Company, and Prophecy, which was an Auto Chess game that died before it got to a closed beta. They've been trying to replace Smite 1 as their main profit generator for at least six years now, and when it becomes apparent that won't do it, they cut and run.
I actually have a quick dumb question re: what the deal with Hi-Rez and Prophecy is I dunno where I heard this but for whatever reason, I was under the impression that Smite was the game that Erez was the least involved with, which coincidentally is probably why it's by and far the most successful game they've ever done, but also part of the reason Erez keeps trying to launch other games in hope of making another hit. Cuz, you know, it's not a great look on him personally. Prophecy's website claims they spun out of Hi-Rez in 2020 and are an "independent company." Again, I'm under the impression that what basically happened is that after massively bag fumbling Realm Royal by pivoting it's whole design to a fortnite knockoff and thus killing it and pissing off the rest of the management there, Erez was basically given a deal where he would no longer run Hi-Rez day to day while still being the majority shareholder. In return for quasi leaving Hi-Rez, Prophecy would be given to him directly as his own little pet studio. Can you confirm or deny that's basically what happened?
one small detail I did enjoy in the game was the intros to matches. the characters walking with it going from one to the next saying who was playing em. The rest of the game was fine really had no complaints as far as I can remember.
Something else that not many know about is that the initial people who built the game got let go early on. And it left the people who took their place scratching their heads at how to update, change and even fix bugs for the game. This is why many bugs were hard to fix and things like aim assist being bugged took them months to fix. They also were working on a FPS mode that was scrapped early on too.
Wow, I didn't know this game was abandoned, it wasn't long ago when all those streamers where pushing it everywhere. Really good detective work as asual
From what i've searched, Prophecy games isnt part of Hi-rez anymore, it says on its website that "In the early months of 2020, we officially spun off from Hi-Rez as a fully independent studio."
note that doctor disrespect mainly played the game because he got paid for it. HI-rez made a partnership with dr disrespect, the doc would advertise the game during his streams, and hirez would pay him. doctor disrespect mentioned in a stream received a lot of money to advertise the game. once the partnership stopped, the doc stopped playing the game. hirez probably lost a lot of money because of the deal, and could be a reason why they put the game on maintenance mode
Doc did get banned on Twitch and you couldn't even use Docs skin while streaming or you'd get banned also. Doc screwed this game big time with his bathroom recording move
@5150_Designs Doc didn't screw this game, this game screwed itself lol. This game would be thriving if it launched as a BR and f2p from the start. Hate it or love it, BRs are the way in today's age, MP got boring AF.
I disagree when you say that it felt « cheaper » than Realm Royale. When I first booted it up it felt like a huge surprise, the game was smooth as hell with pretty great gunfeel for a 3rd person shooter. Didn't felt like a HiRez game and it was a huge surprise on that regard. I've never heard the complaint about the stiff animations, and honestly ? You're right. They are quite a bit stiff. I think people didn't noticed because we played PUBG and it was even worse in that regard. But besides the stiff animations, the movement was pretty fast and reactive, that's personally why I had no issues with not having more « realistic » movement, I'd rather have my character move fast than realistically. I also disagree when you say it had no identity. The gameplay in itself was actually good. It basically was a more casual CSGO with the shop system and movement, with a 3rd person topview that actually worked GREAT because you could swap the camera's side and your character would actually hold the weapon differently. So you had no « left side advantage » like in Fortnite for example, of your character taking half of your screen like in Warframe. But I'm glad you pointed out the Epic Games store thing. It feels like a death sentence at this point. To me it's a major point of why the game didn't succeed. When you launch your game on Steam tho it was already available elsewhere it's never going well
Maybe it's because I played loads of Gears of War, Global Agenda, and Max Payne...it just feels like it pails in comparison to all of them in different ways.
@@nestormelendez9005 Global Agenda was a Hi-Rez game, and Rogue Company was straight up inferior to Tribes: Ascend in literally every single imaginable way.
What actually killed this game, at least it's budding competitive community, was a single update: Arms Dealer. This game had a surprisingly good competitive community around it, with nightly/weekly cash tournaments for the demolition mode. The balance of the game however hinged upon balancing the abilities with the 2 weapons available to each Rogue. Similar philosophy to something like Siege or Overwatch; stronger ability toolkit, weaker weapons. This facilitated interesting team comps and stable counterpick metas that lent actual depth to the way this game was played. By 2021 the game was struggling to grow owing to the slowing updates and Hi-Rez's toxic brand recognition, but it had a solid competitive community keeping it afloat that would likely have sustained it until they could commit to larger updates, if ever. Arms Dealer introduced the ability to use any weapon on any Rogue, an obvious attempt at selling more cosmetics at the expense of the entire competitive scene. Instantly you saw the same 5-7 Rogues with the same 2 weapons in every high-level lobby. With no remaining consideration for team-comp around good utility and strong weapons, coupled with the already slow pace of updates, the meta stagnated within 6 weeks and even the most dedicated content creators in the space were looking for the exit.
Agree. The shoulder swapping combined with the rolling gave this game so much potential. All they had to do imo was add a new map and a new op every couple months and I’d probably play it for years
@@Aaaayup I think Helldivers 2, the Gears Of War games, Warframe, MGSV, Risk Of Rain 2, Star Wars Battlefront 2(classic and modern... when I play them in third person) deserve to be up there. Personally? I also quite like Binary Domain, The Division 2, Spec Ops: The Line, the Resident Evil games and Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet.
I started playing at the tail end of S2 up until the beginning of S7 (S4 being my personal favourite) and I can genuinely say that this game had so much damn potential to be great, I’ve met so many amazing players and content creators but sadly dumb decisions that’s literally NOBODY asked for kept being made. Content creators kept dropping like flies due to lack of content updates, players dropping off due to terrible servers and glitches. The Hi-Rez curse is real and will continue till the end of time.
Pretty much same as you. Plus, one comment from me that wasn't really touched here - balance issues, especially when they decided that every hero can use every weapon from allowed class. Which led to rogues losing their identity and stuff like Lancer running with Arbitrator (for non-players: arbi was your typical 2-shot shotgun with huge dmg on close shot with terrible reload, once at the time, and slowly. Lancer has a skill so whenever she rolls around, she reloads her weapon instantly and also the fastest hero around. Go figure). It took them about 3 or 4 seasons to finally nerf this interaction, and there were tons of more issues. So yeah, that also happened.
Such a shame, because as simple as Rogue Company is, it still plays so well. One of my favorite shooters. Once you got the mechanics down, it was such an incredible rush to play. There were some crappy overpowered things but even those could be countered (insert Phantom here.)
This game had so much potential that it gets me pissed that it’s pretty much dead, tdm is the only was to get go matches. This game had me in a chokehold for like a year.
this was a good game to play with the homies in between other games and when ranked first came out we grinded it out.. sucks to see it fail years later
I played Rogue Company in last november. Here how the core game was : -Good and fun here is what went wrong: - Different gameplay locked behind insane heroes paywall - almost no players and half the team is bot doing weird useless thing. - Weird matchmaking. I was winning a lot, then loosing a lot with 1/20 "team mates" (bots) I had fun, until i got stuck in being the only real player in my team against a full of real players team
Me an my best friend played this game so hard, we both have the platinum trophy. Yes, it is a clone and kinda generic, but it really hits the sweet spot between casual and very strategic/tactical. The mechanics like shooting your guns and your abilitys felt very good and solid. And also it mostly felt balanced. We both loved it. But we also noticed towards the end, that it was very hard to find matches. So it was obvious that not a lot of people shared our love.
I played this game from beta and still play it to this day. I still really enjoy it. They lost alot of players when they canceled the LAN competitions. The "pro" players had twitch/YT audiences and when they bailed they took their viewer base with them.
i feel like i can’t trust games anymore for these exact reasons. i’m scared to put time into a new game(especially a free one), when there’s a huge possibility it won’t be fully fleshed out
My roommate and I really enjoyed Rogue Company when it first came out and we were locked in our apartment due to covid. But we eventually fell off it just because he was annoyed that he didn't ever improve at it and there wasn't anything about it that kept me coming back on my own. Realistically, it was always just a fun time killer rather than anything truly gripping.
I remember enjoying the game a fair bit when it launched on Epic. For me, one of the biggest failures from this game is that it does everything just "good enough", there are no bad systems, but there's also nothing it shines on. Also, at least for me, the very basic movement, shooting and the clash between serious weapons and cartoonish characters made it feel like a mobile shooter with better graphics.
I actually was very addicted to this game during beta and 2021. and I mean ADDICTED, it's not often I grind a game and watch developers updates and actually play the game for hours on end. I think they tried to make this game competitive which I'm all up for, but then they completely shifted from that direction and started going random places. it took them forever to bring Ranked mode, which was very lackluster and only had 1 or 2 playable game mode? not even the popular ones like Strike out. Then they delivered the finishing blow to the game where they allowed the guns to be used across all characters. causing major imbalance. such a shame they killed this game.
I still play Rogue company, and i have to say i still very much enjoy the game, the thing that kills it for me is the fact thwy force crossplay and cant turn it off, i dont want to play agaisnt people on pc because they're so good and sometimes ive run into people with aimbot or walls
I was definitely into this game for a while, but with Hi-Rez games they never go above a certain level of quality and always have some accompanying jank that eventually makes you quit.
my main issue with this game was that it felt like each player deserved their own unique campaign and when i found out it was just some online service shit i got turned almost immediately. i think they should’ve created a campaign for the game and had multiplayer as a separate thing
I think that we shouldnt disrespect Hi-Rez when it comes to Smite. That game its probably the only videogame franchise that did its thing and its still doing it. Even tough it got "released" quite late to the MOBA genre, it managed to find an identity and survive with two monsters owning that market with League and DOTA 2, even to announce a sequel for the new gen! But it is true that Paladins, Realm Royale or Rougue Company (this one the most "distinct" out of the others) are examples that hi rez has no idea on how to launch a new game
it’s partially the ppl who play these games too tho. I still play Paladins every couple of months. I played 2 games of Rogue Company and ppl quitting out after getting killed once was a problem.
It's so sad. I loved Rogue Company because it was really polished overall, and controlling characters + shooting felt smooth. I only got disappointed when the inevitable end became apparent. The rather low player numbers (even ~2 years ago) were nothing that could keep this game afloat longterm.
Played Rogue since closed Alpha. Had a tight community during those times. Then the game blew up and got superficial. And the competitive scene was dominated by 1 team which was wild asf. I just loved making my rogue videos and playing as Anvil
Its kinda crazy how Hirez is almost a polar opposite of Riot, constantly bringing out games and killing them off where as riot is almost solely a valorant and league company now, with everything else (wild rift, TFT, that visual novel etc) being smaller in both scale (on one end just a port to rhe other end just very simple gameplay)and in team size, meaning that the risk is low and any reward is a positive. It really feels like Hirez took all the wrong lessons from their competitors, if they focused on making new content for existing games, rather than just pumping out and killing games until one sticks, theyd be far more successful. I love valorant and league (and heck even paladins), and this game was on its way to joining my permanent games list and competing with both of them for my time, up until the support for it stopped. Its really sad tbh as the character design and map design were fantastic. Even though the weapon designs were more generic, those helped the game stand out and have a semblance of an image.
i remember playing this game a bit on my switch. it's been a bit but i felt like i was gonna play it again one of these days. but apparently not as my version doesn't even exist anymore lol.
I loved this game when it came out downloaded it on every system I had so I could play it wherever. Fell off after a year of it but man can’t believe they just abandoned it after teasing one of the operators
Hi-Rez is such a weird company, they have made some genuine innovation in the genres they hop into. Paladins for example offered a more casual overwatch but at the same time having a skill ceiling so high you would always feel like youre slightly improving. Smite offered some actual fun alternate game modes and again, a casual start with a large skill gap. If only they had people who cared about the games instead of just making back the bottom line
Hi-Res games are always so fun and I always find myself sinking so many hours into them. But they ultimately abandon them every single time. Its like an abusive relationship, you stick around hoping for the next good time to come again and even when it does, it was never worth it. I played every Hi-Res game before this, Global Agenda being my favorite. Kind of funny to see that Warframe has survived as long as it did, using the same formula Global Agenda had. Realm Royale was great, but each update distorted it and ruined the original vision. I tried Rogue Company, but with the outlook that the game had a limited time span. It is truly a shame, Hi-Res knows how to make very fun and engaging games, but completely disfigures and then abandons them. Most studios struggle to even make a fun and engaging title.
I still play this on and off, it's still fun as long as you just take it as it is, and not expect anything crazy from it. I never expected it to get as much attention as it did when I originally played the beta, but it does feel like it had more potential than it managed to reach.
Hi rez is like that person that steals joke but tells it in a much less funny way so less people laugh at it. Idk how they still exist when their games are so... souless
I’m guessing smite. There are several companies that constantly make questionable decisions, but they don’t really feel the need to change because they have one title that keeps them afloat.
I’m still playing this game and love it to death but honestly, the decisions that were made for this game have been ridiculous and such a waste of an incredible game and opportunity. I don’t play many games but it seems the ones I do die and end up shutting their servers down. It’s getting frustrating dealing with a modern corporate world trying to suck every cent from our pockets with a potentially great product that ends up being trashed, run into the ground and replaced with another. Sad. Just so very sad.
I really loved this game and there was a moment where the community was super active and everything felt right. It is so sad that in this last 2 years you can't even find a match
0:54 I think one thing that should be mentioned is Doc did not play the game by choice. He was paid millions of dollars to stream it a few times and help "design," a map. When he streamed the debut of his season, he outed himself as only having less than 20 games played and not knowing what any character does. Implying he did not build the map at all, and actually doesn't even know the basics of who does what. You know, an amount of money that could've brought on a solid ten person team for two years.
Bought the game on epic, played around 5 hrs, next day I open the game can't find the SEA server. They removed SEA server without any notification and after that I got stuck with 200+ EU PING. AND can't even refund cause of 5 hours playtime 😢
I played it a bit about a year or so ago. It was pretty fun, at least in that small dose. I haven't gone back to it in quite a while. I wonder if maybe I should while I still have the chance, before it's gone forever.
You forgot to mention also at a bit higher level or ranked there were at least 80% cheaters. (Level 200) Also unlocking new rogues would of taken ages. Also some updates like upgrade system made so many meta changes it was no joke when big updates happen everything was almost broken OP. The rogues had very not so unique abilities. At this point even Caliber is doing better as a tactical TPS shooter
Dude no. The finals has had 20k players playing in the last 20 minutes, whereas rogue has had 800 players this month. You need to do some research before you open your mouth.
@@spartanboosts This is what I am worry about. Unlike XDefiant, The Finals is fun - for me. For people who like to kill and use combat score over objective score, they can only blame the teammates so much before the loss get to them and claim the game "suck"
@@spartanboostsnobody remembers xdefiant because it hasn't come out yet, there's nothing to remember except a goofy trailer and a really fun play test
Unlike most dead games that i’ve shown a general sense of indifference or distain for. Rogue Company was one i had the pleasure of playing before its decline. I enjoyed my time playing it, even if I suck at it. I can hope that Hi-Res will wise up and support this game again, but I won’t hold my breath
"Didn't know there was a Switch launch" (10:51) Wait, really? Rogue Company was initially announced with a trailer in a Nintendo Direct presentation (September 2019), so I'm actually surprised that a detail like that was looked over. Seemed like Hi-Rez really wanted to push a game like this for the Switch audience since there weren't any comparable shooter experiences on the platform, and they felt that Paladins did well enough there to warrant another look.
If just the devs would listen feedback and instead the mostly focus on the monetary aspect. The game was really problematic since launch, and with issues around like balancing and even the matchmaking Hi-hez really leadership really is a completely mess,
This was and still is my favorite multiplayer game. Only thing is I have not played this game in almost a year because of how dead it is and because the devs have abandoned the game.
Hi-Rez are so fascinating. I just find it hilarious that their entire business model is based on chasing trends, making their own take on it then immediately letting it rot and die as soon as it starts losing players, and they're not even SLIGHTLY subtle about it.
If it isn't Smite they don't give af about it
The most dumbfounding thing about them is how good their games are and are still left to die like that. Some are really fun, just not worth your time the way they want it to be like Divine Knockout.
At least they’re honest about it I guess 🤷 I respect a company that’s open about being scummy just a pinch more than I do one that pretends they aren’t
they're like the embodiment of ADHD.
Chase something you find cool and exciting.
Lose every bit of motivation and interest immediately and chase after another interest.
It's an almost comical business structure.
the sad thing is: their games are actually good.
Hi-Rez releasing subtle bangers and throwing them in the garbage needs to be studied
Easy to build, hard to keep alive and fresh
Yeah my theory is that everything they release is just to cover for smite losses so they operate it all on an extremely narrow margin and the second it dips into the red, they pull funding.
Theyre the worst in terms of games tbh they all suck except smite
@@amourdior8444can't agree man, paladins, dko, realm royale all had major potential but were DOA since they had no plans to update past release. Unless it's a pack of skins for money, there will be no substance. They added a total of 3(?) new gods to dko before deciding the money wasn't flowing hard enough
@@JStacknot hard at all, it was marketing and actually fixing the game that killed rogue company
Oh look, another Hi-Res game that got shafted, who could have seen that coming? lol
quick, invest into Smite 2!! lmao
Wait, what...oh dear..
Never invest in a high res games
@@JustajonesIt was fun while it lasted though. That being said, a shame the community lived up to the name of the game
Start the clock on Tribes 3.
Ouch! It sounds like Rouge Company constantly tried to expand without bothering to fix and polish what they already have.
"Rouge" Company 😂
Typical Hi-Rez...
Every hirez game ever smite just is lucky
Smite is literally only alive because of arena and console. They tried to make slash 4v4 who is running things? Slash was created because siege was so bad. Horrible company
Such squandered potential . Like a year and a half ago this game was brimming with potential
How did the video just premiere but this comment is an hour old?
@@aersla1731 You can comment on a video before it premieres.
Said everyone about most of hi-rez games
no it was not. it was generic f2p slop only played in SEA
Right? Honestly this video made me want to play it kinda
Loved playing this game, I think I owned all the cosmetics it offered besides the competitive stuff, and yeah seeing everything slowly stop was enough for me to believe that the end was near. Not to mention, that they just retweet plays of the week on their Twitter and that's been their feed for the better part of a few months. There's just absolutely nothing going on right now.
Meh
why would you just burn money on a game that isn't fortnite
@@Primorion why would I burn on fortnite when theres other games, arguably better, out there 😐
Sucks because I had literally maxed out every gun and was having a lot of fun then got a little burnt out but the new season was like a week away so I was still hype. Then I seen the timer just go away and they didn’t add anything
@@Primorion Such bait, much wow
Hirez really is one of the worst companies in gaming in terms of monetization and also just development imo. Also anyone remember smite tactics? I swear that existed for like six months.
Pretty sure divine knockout didn’t even last 5 months
Wouldn't say in terms of monetization, they never had any kind of p2w in any of their games that I'm aware of and the prices for what you get seem ok even tho they got more expensive over the last years. Yea there is some crap like not getting enough gems from one battle pass to buy the next one (at least in smite) etc.
But yea, it really sucks that I love smite so much.
They always copy a trend and honestly the basis for those games is nice with some really cool concepts and new ideas... and then they think "oh, were not THE most successful game right from the start, let's just throw it away"... well at least they say "let's throw it away and focus on smite" but it still really sucks.
Not the worst, you're just overexagerrating. But some decisions are weird to say the least
They’re like an equivalent of a game mill, which I think is the name for another company ran by scummy idiots.
@@celoteckpaladin's OB64 (I think it was called) was hell hole of a p2w scandal wdym?
I thought I was going to learn about another game I missed out on, but a few minutes in I remembered that I played this.
Rogue Company was the game that brought me back to playing online. I hadn't played online multilayer since Left 4 Dead 2 and I loved this game. Sad to hear this news.
Fr man this game was so good it had so much potential
The question is, do you often have the impression that modern online games are dying too quickly?
That's what the companies prefer. They make a lot of money, don't have to put in the effort as much as singleplayer or campaign dlcs, just cosmetics. Then when the servers shut down, those costs are reduced too. And repeat
That's what a live-service game is.
This is why if you spot live-service just avoid it like the plague.
@@BozsoGabor That's what you say but if a game is not live-service the playerbase complains about a lack of updates. Look how quickly multiplayer games that aren't live-service die. People got accustomed to getting a game then receiving monthly updates and the ADHD has settled in. years ago we were able to play a Call of Duty game for 500 hours straight despite it not getting a single update after release, and today if a game doesn't receive an update for 2 months it starts dying. Hell, Titanfall 2 died almost completely despite being a fully delivered service and the only thing that brought it back to life recently has been an update.
I played this game so much on release but overtime my interest dwindled especially the time when they added loot boxes
Loot boxes are fine, as long as they aren’t providing an unfair advantage or affecting the core gameplay and everyone is on a level playing field I don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to make an income stream On a free to play. How else are they going to pay the bills?
@lifeofrjh its a trash and manipulative monetization scheme. No one is saying you cant have an income stream. But dont be scummy about it. Let people directly buy what they want, at least in a rotating shop like helldivers
tell that to blizzard. their lootboxes were amazing. your black and white logic is trash@@theFORZA66
they have both you brainless twat. Now go guzzle something white and milky@@theFORZA66
Loot boxes were free and got you old battlepass content, so honestly didn't mind them
I LOVED this game and i'm so upset with what happened to it. I put in over 1000 hours and got really good at it. It was the most fun i've ever had in a video game, i'm really sad it got shafted :(
Same I used to main gl1tch and Talon and put loads of hours into it because I was really good at it
im surprised you didn’t add this, but for many people the biggest factor in this games downfall(besides the obvious lack of support) was a seemingly NONEXISTENT anti-cheat. even back in 2020 this game, at least on console, was free reign for aimbot and wallhacks. seemingly every single match had a hacker, it didn’t even need to be ranked, and kicking them required such a monumental effort from the entire lobby that most people just left games over. and over. and over again.
I, along with many other people, would’ve stuck out longer for the game despite its lack of content if the hacking wasn’t so abundant. It was on the same level that Modern Warfare 2 lobbies are at in terms of hacks…..but the difference being one game came out the year prior and the other a decade prior.
My dad used to work at Hi-Rez on this game. From what I recall, he said the team was great, but it seemed like the work was just all over the place. People kept getting moved from game to game. When he left was when there were plans to update Realm Royale again a few years ago, they were moving people around a bunch because of that.
They should have had teams for seperate games honestly. It's what EA does. Once a game is dead there is no revival.
@@abudorayakobu They do. But people are constantly moved from one team to another, and they’d been constantly starting up new projects (or reviving old ones), which requires, again, moving people around. Was just too hectic. Apparently like 6 months after he left there was a massive restructuring and a lot of people were let go.
A few thoughts, because like you, I've been dealing with Hi Rez's bullshit for a long time.
1. There's also Alacrity Studios which is the in house artists for Hi Rez projects which you didn't mention. Rogue Company also spent some time as its own independent company before being folded into Evil Mojo (Which actually, I thought was just Paladins until now). My understanding is that there are substantial tax incentives in the state of Georgia to start up film and media businesses. This, rather than its reputation for bullshit and stupidity, was what I was told was the primary driving force for creating multiple companies and turning Hi Rez into a holding company. I am of the opinion that "Hi Rez's reputation is shit, so let's mask it with smaller companies" was not part of the decision making process, because that would imply that senior leaders (Hi Erez!) think that their reputation is shit.
2. Because Smite has been their most (only) profitable IP, them killing it off to create Smite 2 will likely not be abandoned. If they abandon Smite 2, and kill of Smite 1, where does Hi Rez get any revenue whatsoever? While yes, this is Erez Goren's pet vanity project, it still has to keep the lights on somehow. That's why Hi Rez has been so quick to pull the plug on games like Realm Royale, Rogue Company, and Prophecy, which was an Auto Chess game that died before it got to a closed beta. They've been trying to replace Smite 1 as their main profit generator for at least six years now, and when it becomes apparent that won't do it, they cut and run.
I actually have a quick dumb question re: what the deal with Hi-Rez and Prophecy is
I dunno where I heard this but for whatever reason, I was under the impression that Smite was the game that Erez was the least involved with, which coincidentally is probably why it's by and far the most successful game they've ever done, but also part of the reason Erez keeps trying to launch other games in hope of making another hit. Cuz, you know, it's not a great look on him personally.
Prophecy's website claims they spun out of Hi-Rez in 2020 and are an "independent company." Again, I'm under the impression that what basically happened is that after massively bag fumbling Realm Royal by pivoting it's whole design to a fortnite knockoff and thus killing it and pissing off the rest of the management there, Erez was basically given a deal where he would no longer run Hi-Rez day to day while still being the majority shareholder. In return for quasi leaving Hi-Rez, Prophecy would be given to him directly as his own little pet studio. Can you confirm or deny that's basically what happened?
Don't forget the games that came before SMITE, Tribes and Global Agenda died for SMITE.
@@RoboZombie777 i am unaware. Sorry.
one small detail I did enjoy in the game was the intros to matches. the characters walking with it going from one to the next saying who was playing em.
The rest of the game was fine really had no complaints as far as I can remember.
Something else that not many know about is that the initial people who built the game got let go early on. And it left the people who took their place scratching their heads at how to update, change and even fix bugs for the game. This is why many bugs were hard to fix and things like aim assist being bugged took them months to fix. They also were working on a FPS mode that was scrapped early on too.
Wow, I didn't know this game was abandoned, it wasn't long ago when all those streamers where pushing it everywhere. Really good detective work as asual
From what i've searched, Prophecy games isnt part of Hi-rez anymore, it says on its website that "In the early months of 2020, we officially spun off from Hi-Rez as a fully independent studio."
note that doctor disrespect mainly played the game because he got paid for it.
HI-rez made a partnership with dr disrespect, the doc would advertise the game during his streams, and hirez would pay him.
doctor disrespect mentioned in a stream received a lot of money to advertise the game.
once the partnership stopped, the doc stopped playing the game.
hirez probably lost a lot of money because of the deal, and could be a reason why they put the game on maintenance mode
they did he got banned and they couldnt promote it on twitch because his face was all over it
Doc did get banned on Twitch and you couldn't even use Docs skin while streaming or you'd get banned also. Doc screwed this game big time with his bathroom recording move
Saying game "attracted" big streamer is so naive...
Hi-Rez payed big steamer to promote their game - that's how it should be said
@@MR_ii_5150bathroom recording?
@5150_Designs Doc didn't screw this game, this game screwed itself lol. This game would be thriving if it launched as a BR and f2p from the start. Hate it or love it, BRs are the way in today's age, MP got boring AF.
I disagree when you say that it felt « cheaper » than Realm Royale. When I first booted it up it felt like a huge surprise, the game was smooth as hell with pretty great gunfeel for a 3rd person shooter. Didn't felt like a HiRez game and it was a huge surprise on that regard.
I've never heard the complaint about the stiff animations, and honestly ? You're right. They are quite a bit stiff. I think people didn't noticed because we played PUBG and it was even worse in that regard. But besides the stiff animations, the movement was pretty fast and reactive, that's personally why I had no issues with not having more « realistic » movement, I'd rather have my character move fast than realistically.
I also disagree when you say it had no identity. The gameplay in itself was actually good. It basically was a more casual CSGO with the shop system and movement, with a 3rd person topview that actually worked GREAT because you could swap the camera's side and your character would actually hold the weapon differently. So you had no « left side advantage » like in Fortnite for example, of your character taking half of your screen like in Warframe.
But I'm glad you pointed out the Epic Games store thing. It feels like a death sentence at this point. To me it's a major point of why the game didn't succeed. When you launch your game on Steam tho it was already available elsewhere it's never going well
Maybe it's because I played loads of Gears of War, Global Agenda, and Max Payne...it just feels like it pails in comparison to all of them in different ways.
@@nestormelendez9005 Global Agenda was a Hi-Rez game, and Rogue Company was straight up inferior to Tribes: Ascend in literally every single imaginable way.
What actually killed this game, at least it's budding competitive community, was a single update: Arms Dealer. This game had a surprisingly good competitive community around it, with nightly/weekly cash tournaments for the demolition mode. The balance of the game however hinged upon balancing the abilities with the 2 weapons available to each Rogue. Similar philosophy to something like Siege or Overwatch; stronger ability toolkit, weaker weapons. This facilitated interesting team comps and stable counterpick metas that lent actual depth to the way this game was played. By 2021 the game was struggling to grow owing to the slowing updates and Hi-Rez's toxic brand recognition, but it had a solid competitive community keeping it afloat that would likely have sustained it until they could commit to larger updates, if ever.
Arms Dealer introduced the ability to use any weapon on any Rogue, an obvious attempt at selling more cosmetics at the expense of the entire competitive scene. Instantly you saw the same 5-7 Rogues with the same 2 weapons in every high-level lobby. With no remaining consideration for team-comp around good utility and strong weapons, coupled with the already slow pace of updates, the meta stagnated within 6 weeks and even the most dedicated content creators in the space were looking for the exit.
Glad to see you got your channel back
Yeah me too
Best 3rd person shooter hands down sad this game died.
Agree
Agree. The shoulder swapping combined with the rolling gave this game so much potential. All they had to do imo was add a new map and a new op every couple months and I’d probably play it for years
That's debatable, but I'll be willing to settle with *one of the best.*
@@OrionDawn15 just curious what else is up there?
@@Aaaayup I think Helldivers 2, the Gears Of War games, Warframe, MGSV, Risk Of Rain 2, Star Wars Battlefront 2(classic and modern... when I play them in third person) deserve to be up there.
Personally? I also quite like Binary Domain, The Division 2, Spec Ops: The Line, the Resident Evil games and Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet.
I love this series! Extremely well edited and I love the commentary. Keep it up!!!
Rogue company was sick before it was released, lol
I started playing at the tail end of S2 up until the beginning of S7 (S4 being my personal favourite) and I can genuinely say that this game had so much damn potential to be great, I’ve met so many amazing players and content creators but sadly dumb decisions that’s literally NOBODY asked for kept being made. Content creators kept dropping like flies due to lack of content updates, players dropping off due to terrible servers and glitches.
The Hi-Rez curse is real and will continue till the end of time.
Pretty much same as you. Plus, one comment from me that wasn't really touched here - balance issues, especially when they decided that every hero can use every weapon from allowed class. Which led to rogues losing their identity and stuff like Lancer running with Arbitrator (for non-players: arbi was your typical 2-shot shotgun with huge dmg on close shot with terrible reload, once at the time, and slowly. Lancer has a skill so whenever she rolls around, she reloads her weapon instantly and also the fastest hero around. Go figure). It took them about 3 or 4 seasons to finally nerf this interaction, and there were tons of more issues. So yeah, that also happened.
Such a shame, because as simple as Rogue Company is, it still plays so well. One of my favorite shooters. Once you got the mechanics down, it was such an incredible rush to play. There were some crappy overpowered things but even those could be countered (insert Phantom here.)
This game had so much potential that it gets me pissed that it’s pretty much dead, tdm is the only was to get go matches. This game had me in a chokehold for like a year.
this was a good game to play with the homies in between other games and when ranked first came out we grinded it out.. sucks to see it fail years later
I played Rogue Company in last november. Here how the core game was :
-Good and fun
here is what went wrong:
- Different gameplay locked behind insane heroes paywall
- almost no players and half the team is bot doing weird useless thing.
- Weird matchmaking. I was winning a lot, then loosing a lot with 1/20 "team mates" (bots)
I had fun, until i got stuck in being the only real player in my team against a full of real players team
Divine Knockout is a truly dead Hi Rez game that only lasted 4 months before the plug was pulled. I’d love a death of a game video on it.
Glad you got your channel back!
Me an my best friend played this game so hard, we both have the platinum trophy. Yes, it is a clone and kinda generic, but it really hits the sweet spot between casual and very strategic/tactical. The mechanics like shooting your guns and your abilitys felt very good and solid. And also it mostly felt balanced. We both loved it. But we also noticed towards the end, that it was very hard to find matches. So it was obvious that not a lot of people shared our love.
I played this game from beta and still play it to this day. I still really enjoy it. They lost alot of players when they canceled the LAN competitions. The "pro" players had twitch/YT audiences and when they bailed they took their viewer base with them.
i feel like i can’t trust games anymore for these exact reasons. i’m scared to put time into a new game(especially a free one), when there’s a huge possibility it won’t be fully fleshed out
Gotta keep it real with you, had no idea it existed. Nice video. Keep up the good work.
My roommate and I really enjoyed Rogue Company when it first came out and we were locked in our apartment due to covid. But we eventually fell off it just because he was annoyed that he didn't ever improve at it and there wasn't anything about it that kept me coming back on my own. Realistically, it was always just a fun time killer rather than anything truly gripping.
I didn't even know run the jewels did the soundtrack, until I actually listened to the music and sorta realized the style of the music
I remember enjoying the game a fair bit when it launched on Epic. For me, one of the biggest failures from this game is that it does everything just "good enough", there are no bad systems, but there's also nothing it shines on. Also, at least for me, the very basic movement, shooting and the clash between serious weapons and cartoonish characters made it feel like a mobile shooter with better graphics.
I feel like this video could have been 5 seconds. "It's a Hi-Rez game that's not smite."
smite 2 comes out, first probably dropped as well
I actually was very addicted to this game during beta and 2021.
and I mean ADDICTED, it's not often I grind a game and watch developers updates and actually play the game for hours on end.
I think they tried to make this game competitive which I'm all up for, but then they completely shifted from that direction and started going random places.
it took them forever to bring Ranked mode, which was very lackluster and only had 1 or 2 playable game mode? not even the popular ones like Strike out.
Then they delivered the finishing blow to the game where they allowed the guns to be used across all characters. causing major imbalance. such a shame they killed this game.
I still play Rogue company, and i have to say i still very much enjoy the game, the thing that kills it for me is the fact thwy force crossplay and cant turn it off, i dont want to play agaisnt people on pc because they're so good and sometimes ive run into people with aimbot or walls
Majority of PC players cheat that's why you think they are good
Now that paladins is in full maintenance mode, you should do that one next. Hi-rez's second most successful game
Man I miss this game. Had so much pro potential
I was definitely into this game for a while, but with Hi-Rez games they never go above a certain level of quality and always have some accompanying jank that eventually makes you quit.
As someone who’s played Smite for the past 10 years. “Classic Hi-Rez” was enough to sum up this video.
my main issue with this game was that it felt like each player deserved their own unique campaign and when i found out it was just some online service shit i got turned almost immediately. i think they should’ve created a campaign for the game and had multiplayer as a separate thing
I mean leaving hi rez to become a lead on hunt showdown is a pretty big glow up tbh.
Imagine how many people would have played their game if they hadn't taken that scumbag deal with epic games
Hi-rez is the video game equivalent of the dad who went to get milk and never came back.
Hi - Res is the best sample of a company that make good games but really really really REALLY Bad to manage and do decision to their games.
Didn’t even know it was this bad. Had a lot of fun with this a couple years ago :/
This is the only game I've played where I'm just single handedly slamming the other team every single match without fail cause of the matchmaking
I think that we shouldnt disrespect Hi-Rez when it comes to Smite. That game its probably the only videogame franchise that did its thing and its still doing it.
Even tough it got "released" quite late to the MOBA genre, it managed to find an identity and survive with two monsters owning that market with League and DOTA 2, even to announce a sequel for the new gen!
But it is true that Paladins, Realm Royale or Rougue Company (this one the most "distinct" out of the others) are examples that hi rez has no idea on how to launch a new game
it’s partially the ppl who play these games too tho. I still play Paladins every couple of months. I played 2 games of Rogue Company and ppl quitting out after getting killed once was a problem.
It's so sad. I loved Rogue Company because it was really polished overall, and controlling characters + shooting felt smooth. I only got disappointed when the inevitable end became apparent. The rather low player numbers (even ~2 years ago) were nothing that could keep this game afloat longterm.
Played Rogue since closed Alpha. Had a tight community during those times. Then the game blew up and got superficial. And the competitive scene was dominated by 1 team which was wild asf. I just loved making my rogue videos and playing as Anvil
Its kinda crazy how Hirez is almost a polar opposite of Riot, constantly bringing out games and killing them off where as riot is almost solely a valorant and league company now, with everything else (wild rift, TFT, that visual novel etc) being smaller in both scale (on one end just a port to rhe other end just very simple gameplay)and in team size, meaning that the risk is low and any reward is a positive.
It really feels like Hirez took all the wrong lessons from their competitors, if they focused on making new content for existing games, rather than just pumping out and killing games until one sticks, theyd be far more successful. I love valorant and league (and heck even paladins), and this game was on its way to joining my permanent games list and competing with both of them for my time, up until the support for it stopped.
Its really sad tbh as the character design and map design were fantastic. Even though the weapon designs were more generic, those helped the game stand out and have a semblance of an image.
This game still disconnects with network errors and lag is absolutely crazy and people just dropp out of games or stay and don't actually play 🤣
i remember playing this game a bit on my switch. it's been a bit but i felt like i was gonna play it again one of these days. but apparently not as my version doesn't even exist anymore lol.
Apparently being an epic exclusive for 1 year made wonders to this game LMAO
When they added the jacked shield chick the game started going into the 🚽. Had a blast in the early days.
You just have to shoot at her feet lol but I know what you mean.
I loved this game when it came out downloaded it on every system I had so I could play it wherever. Fell off after a year of it but man can’t believe they just abandoned it after teasing one of the operators
The Detective Conan/Case Closed music at the end was unexpected
Hi-Rez is such a weird company, they have made some genuine innovation in the genres they hop into. Paladins for example offered a more casual overwatch but at the same time having a skill ceiling so high you would always feel like youre slightly improving. Smite offered some actual fun alternate game modes and again, a casual start with a large skill gap. If only they had people who cared about the games instead of just making back the bottom line
It would be interesting to see a similar video for Caliber which is a more realism/military based version of Rogue Company
Rogue Company is really fun and a great break from first person shooter sweatiness. The biggest gripe right now is the servers are crap.
I'm sad this was abandoned, I used to play this game on daily basis around 2021 or so on the Xbox.
Hi-Res games are always so fun and I always find myself sinking so many hours into them. But they ultimately abandon them every single time. Its like an abusive relationship, you stick around hoping for the next good time to come again and even when it does, it was never worth it. I played every Hi-Res game before this, Global Agenda being my favorite. Kind of funny to see that Warframe has survived as long as it did, using the same formula Global Agenda had. Realm Royale was great, but each update distorted it and ruined the original vision. I tried Rogue Company, but with the outlook that the game had a limited time span. It is truly a shame, Hi-Res knows how to make very fun and engaging games, but completely disfigures and then abandons them. Most studios struggle to even make a fun and engaging title.
Good to see you got your account issues sorted.
I still play this on and off, it's still fun as long as you just take it as it is, and not expect anything crazy from it. I never expected it to get as much attention as it did when I originally played the beta, but it does feel like it had more potential than it managed to reach.
WERE GOING ROGUE WITH THIS ONE 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hi rez is like that person that steals joke but tells it in a much less funny way so less people laugh at it.
Idk how they still exist when their games are so... souless
I’m guessing smite. There are several companies that constantly make questionable decisions, but they don’t really feel the need to change because they have one title that keeps them afloat.
I’m still playing this game and love it to death but honestly, the decisions that were made for this game have been ridiculous and such a waste of an incredible game and opportunity.
I don’t play many games but it seems the ones I do die and end up shutting their servers down. It’s getting frustrating dealing with a modern corporate world trying to suck every cent from our pockets with a potentially great product that ends up being trashed, run into the ground and replaced with another.
Sad. Just so very sad.
Are these videos getting shorter intentionally? Great work NerdSlayer.
I really loved this game and there was a moment where the community was super active and everything felt right.
It is so sad that in this last 2 years you can't even find a match
Man! Some times i get the feeling this guys care about expanding the reach of their games over actually developing the games post launch
0:54 I think one thing that should be mentioned is Doc did not play the game by choice. He was paid millions of dollars to stream it a few times and help "design," a map. When he streamed the debut of his season, he outed himself as only having less than 20 games played and not knowing what any character does. Implying he did not build the map at all, and actually doesn't even know the basics of who does what.
You know, an amount of money that could've brought on a solid ten person team for two years.
This game could have been huge.
Bought the game on epic, played around 5 hrs, next day I open the game can't find the SEA server. They removed SEA server without any notification and after that I got stuck with 200+ EU PING. AND can't even refund cause of 5 hours playtime 😢
It’s genuinely sad that Rogue Company has failed. It was legit super fun and good for a long time :/
Do “The Finals” next
I played it a bit about a year or so ago. It was pretty fun, at least in that small dose. I haven't gone back to it in quite a while. I wonder if maybe I should while I still have the chance, before it's gone forever.
UR DA GOAT FOR USING THE DETECTIVE CONAN OST IN THE END ❤❤❤❤ LOVE IT
Yooo the atmosphere of that intro!! I love it
“ That’s rough buddy. “
You forgot to mention also at a bit higher level or ranked there were at least 80% cheaters. (Level 200)
Also unlocking new rogues would of taken ages.
Also some updates like upgrade system made so many meta changes it was no joke when big updates happen everything was almost broken OP. The rogues had very not so unique abilities. At this point even Caliber is doing better as a tactical TPS shooter
Shame. Because if this can be call a dead game, then "The Finals" is also dying.
Briefly: How dead is The Finals?
Dude no. The finals has had 20k players playing in the last 20 minutes, whereas rogue has had 800 players this month. You need to do some research before you open your mouth.
@@zombieslayer7776 No one will remember The Finals by the end of the year just like nobody already remembers XDefiant.
@@spartanboosts This is what I am worry about. Unlike XDefiant, The Finals is fun - for me. For people who like to kill and use combat score over objective score, they can only blame the teammates so much before the loss get to them and claim the game "suck"
Nah finals update was sick@@spartanboosts
@@spartanboostsnobody remembers xdefiant because it hasn't come out yet, there's nothing to remember except a goofy trailer and a really fun play test
I remember when they removed the Run the Jewels music from the game, that was when it died
High rez makes games based on other games, and don't update them for long
Games still found within a few minutes for 6v6 tdm. This game is so good, would love a resurgence of it.
Unlike most dead games that i’ve shown a general sense of indifference or distain for. Rogue Company was one i had the pleasure of playing before its decline. I enjoyed my time playing it, even if I suck at it. I can hope that Hi-Res will wise up and support this game again, but I won’t hold my breath
"Didn't know there was a Switch launch" (10:51)
Wait, really? Rogue Company was initially announced with a trailer in a Nintendo Direct presentation (September 2019), so I'm actually surprised that a detail like that was looked over.
Seemed like Hi-Rez really wanted to push a game like this for the Switch audience since there weren't any comparable shooter experiences on the platform, and they felt that Paladins did well enough there to warrant another look.
Hi-Rez's 3 steps of game development:
1) Game
2) Has good potential
3) Abandonment
HiRez will never change.
I feel betrayed. I have so much love for this game.
All that makes it even more confusing (and as a fan great) that Paladins just refuses to die, even after over 7 years :D
If just the devs would listen feedback and instead the mostly focus on the monetary aspect.
The game was really problematic since launch, and with issues around like balancing and even the matchmaking
Hi-hez really leadership really is a completely mess,
This was and still is my favorite multiplayer game. Only thing is I have not played this game in almost a year because of how dead it is and because the devs have abandoned the game.
Brooo! How did you make my iPhone have a haptic feedback on the transition at 5:07-5:09?!?!?