The new PC title Moonbreakers is a turn-based strategy / table-top simulation game. It was celebrated by some at gamescom. It started early access on Steam on September 30th – but the number of players is horrible. Now the team decides to take a blatant step: they take the in-game shop out of the game.
What is Moonbreakers game? The idea of Moonbreakers: You treat the characters like miniatures in table-top games, i.e. like physical collectibles that you can buy in Warhammer, paint and slide across the table.
Superman Henry Cavill is crazy about miniatures like this. The actor spends hours painting them – that’s what some people do, spending a ton of money on the characters.
The figures can also be painted in Moonbreakers. Putting together a squad is the focus of the game. Moonbreakers comes from the creators of Subnautica, a popular survival game.
Moonbreaker: Gameplay Reveal Trailer
How was the game received at gamescom? In a first trailer it looked like a lover’s game that comes from a good studio and breaks new ground. Not a “typical off-the-peg game” where you already know exactly what to expect after the trailer.
The website “digitaltrends.com” even made it their main game at the gaming fair. Said it was a “surprise title that totally stole the spotlight.”
The strategy part of the game feels great – and painting the characters is especially great.
MeinMMO already said in August: Hardly anyone will play it
Were there also negative voices? The bad-tempered page MeinMMO, on the other hand, wrote after the opening night of gamescom (August 24): Moonbreakers look “as good as dead” before the start and the first allusion reports – it looks like a mix of “Battleborn and Atlas Reactor”. Those are two of the worst PC flops of the last 10 years.
Even then, we pointed out that the trailer generated only a few views and likes and that many already said: You don’t understand who should play it.
I say: gamescom 2022 already has a big winner – and one game is as good as dead
Moonbreakers enters Early Access on Steam
How is it going on Steam now? Moonbreakers was released September 29th on Steam in Early Access without much fanfare. The game has good reviews with 81%.
Above all, people praise the graphics and the game ideas, the mechanics are solid and easy to understand: Think of X-Com, but with weird robots and crazy alien plants.
However, the positive reviews also note that the game looks as if they want to take money out of the pockets of buyers who get the game on Steam for €30 with additional microtransactions. That’s not the case in the game, but it’s a deterrent if you just take a quick look.
Apparently, many now have a stomach ache with “in-game shop” and “purchasable characters”, and this is exactly the problem that caused Evolve to fail many years ago.
Is the game going well? No not at all. Player counts on Steam are really bad. According to the Steamcharts site, very few people have even bought it and now almost nobody plays it:
That’s practically nothing for a game from an established studio.
Moonbreakers deactivates the in-game shop after one month
What is the studio doing now? It has apparently been recognized that microtransactions act as a deterrent. The studio changed unit unlocking in a first patch on October 27th so that all units are unlocked when you buy the base game (via Steam).
The in-game shop will be completely abolished.
It is said that it is now in Early Access and that it is important to develop the game together with the community.
Unlocking characters in Kaufspiel is apparently an absolute no for many
This is behind it: These are already radical and strong measures that the studio is taking here. And the game is also in Early Access and wants to experiment.
But Moonbreakers will obviously always have a hard time winning players because of its weird concept. Because many say they want innovative ideas – but then they prefer to buy Call of Duty or WoW instead of getting involved with something new.
In addition, “unlocking characters for money” in a paid title is really something that many see as “just not possible”. You noticed that with Evolve and it was last seen with Blizzard’s Overwatch 2. No matter how fair the model may be, it is simply not accepted by players – even if it is standard in LoL.
I say: gamescom 2022 already has a big winner – and one game is as good as dead