Despite getting several chances, Foamstars is still doing poorly. Foamstars was pitched as somewhat of an alternative to the Nintendo-exclusive Splatoon, and while the Square Enix release has plenty of potential, the game has had difficulties finding its footing. Even though Foamstars hasn't even been out for a full year yet, things are looking particularly grim for the free-to-play project.

Square Enix attempted to give Foamstars a boost after the company noticed the game was having a hard time, getting rid of its $30 price tag after having already released it on PlayStation Plus. Even then, Foamstars players didn't stick around, and consequently, Square Enix has scrambled to find a more devoted pool of players. Foamstar s' plight bears similarities to Concord, both existing as titles with plenty of AAA support without finding the large pool of players that could have justified the investment of resources. However, Concord's price tag was a big barrier to entry that Foamstars did away with, so its continued struggle is concerning. As such, the chances that Foamstars ends up facing a similar fate as Concord seems to increase the longer the game sticks around.

TrueTrophies reports that Foamstars is struggling even more following its launch as a free-to-play title. Having experienced its second pricing model shift in one year, there was an initial jump in its player count after Foamstars re-launched as a free-to-play title, going up by 48%. However, that increase was still a 97% dip compared to its launch on PlayStation Plus. It appears that despite all the attempts to pull players in, player retention contuines to be a struggle for Foamstars.

Statistics from TrueTrophies show that Foamstars lost 95% of its player base two months after its launch. The strategy to shift the game's payment model has largely been an uphill battle for Square Enix. Although there is some interest, it hasn't been enough to make the game a significant competitor to the line-up of other live-service titles available. Because of Foamstars' similarities to Splatoon, some thought that it could draw some of that attention from the increasingly popular Nintendo shooter, but that has proveb to be a harder task than originally anticipated.

It's unclear what the next steps are for Foamstars. Square Enix has been reassessing its sales strategies intending to land bigger hits, even considering Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth a sales failure, and in cases like these, Foamstars is surely not an exception. Though purely speculation, it feels like there's a chance that the game could be taken offline in the future, much like Concord. The catalog of de-listed Square Enix flops seems to grow every couple of years, with Babylon's Fall being a notable recent bomb. The future doesn't look very good for Foamstars, so gamers who were curious about the title may want to check it out while they still can.

Posted: Oct 17, 2024 7:19 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://gamerant.com/foamstars-square-enix-game-free-to-play-flop/