15 ms·

Farewell from Paradise Bay

62 points by jqgatsby 8y ago

ceejayoz 8y ago
You've really messed up your Farmville clone if it's losing money.
- xnyan 8y ago
  I didn't play (to be honest, I think the genre is exploitative), but knew some people who did. The game was high quality in its category, particularly the art. I imagine this was a big reason they are being shut down - Activision Blizzard, Inc is panicking for a variety of reasons and this game was way too costly, even if they were turning a profit, when you can have the same developers shovel out crap at higher margin.
  - ceejayoz 8y ago
    "High quality in its category" doesn't really change my opinion that any app offering a $99.99 "speed up the game" option is exploitative and gross.
  - kalleboo 8y ago
    They laid off the developers, they're not being reallocated to a different game
- serf 8y ago
  they didn't lose money, they were part of a branch of a larger division that decided to shut the entire branch down. the linked story is higher in the thread -- don't worry, there is still time for that Farmville clone project you've yet to release ;)
VectorLock 8y ago
I wonder how many people are going to be upset that their "in-game purchases" are going poof.
- omg_ketchup 8y ago
  Seems like a lot of angry people in that thread, but I'm not sure what they expected?
  - elsonrodriguez 8y ago
    The concept of a game being transient is still a new one. There are 20 year old Pokemon cartridges out there with their original batteries keeping still kicking, keeping their Pikachus intact. Combine the surprise of transience with the use of real money to buy fake goods and it can be a true shock. This is especially true for casual gamers who have yet to experience their first game shutdown.
    - mjevans 8y ago
      What's worse is when you spend money on something, thinking it's one kind of game, and then it mutates in to something else. I was realistic and didn't spend that much, but I can't imagine I'm the only one to feel that way. I've now got an even stronger stance against online only games/communities.
      - fx1994 8y ago
        That happened with WoW, mutated to something after it was bought by ... Activision... so that's why community made their own server. Thousand of players on Lights Hope these days, and now they want to release WoW classic to harvest more money but I think it will fail for good.
        Tecuane 8y ago
        I've played WoW for something like 11 years, from its peak in around 2008-2010 and through its slow decline since. Logging in now and having the reality that this game is actually genuinely fading away is difficult for me to properly process. The gp comment mentioned how non-transient games such as Pokémon are, and how games that do actually fade away are a new thing. I hadn't really thought about this before until the last couple of WoW expansions and its effects on the playerbase. It makes me really sad to think about; WoW (and video gaming in general) has been a huge part of my life and tinkering with video games under the hood was the kickstarter for my career. I don't know if I will ever find a replacement for it when it's gone.
jqgatsby 8y ago
My wife has been playing this game on her phone for years, and is super sad that they are closing it down. She's probably bought a fair number of "gems" from them too, to beautify her island and trade fruit, I guess. Some of the comments are funny, in a heartbreaking way. People really invested a lot in this game, emotionally and financially. They are wondering who is going to feed the pets they bought to live on their digital island. The funniest/saddest thing about it is that, as a last hurrah, the maintainers of the game gave everyone 10 million gems to spend as they see fit in the remaining 2 months that the game is online. On the one hand, the players are kind of pissed off at the belated awareness that the gems they were hoarding were always fundamentally worthless, but on the other hand they want to buy the final superpet or whatever for their island before the volcano blows up.
- b_tterc_p 8y ago
  Is 10 million a lot? Relative to your typical whale?
  - ceejayoz 8y ago
    https://www.pocketgamer.biz/the-iap-inspector/61882/iap-inspector-paradise-bay/ https://www.pocketgamer.biz/the-iap-inspector/61882/iap-insp... says $99.99 would get you 7,250, so 10M is about $140k "worth".
- teach 8y ago
  Paradise Bay is an excellent game and it's a darn shame it's shutting down. There's no game quite like it that I'm aware of, and I suspect that many of their players are players that won't switch to another game. I've been playing since 2106 and my wife and 70-year-old mother also play. There's really an opportunity here for some other studio to pick up the pieces of this and make some money.
  - luckman212 8y ago
    > I've been playing since 2106... Hello future! Nice to know the singularity hasn't wiped us all out by then.
overgard 8y ago
Surprised they didn't have a longer sunsetting period. Unless the server costs are massive it seems like a year or so would be more appropriate. Maybe their 28 day retention is just low enough that they didn't think there were enough long term players for it to matter.
- VectorLock 8y ago
  Why would they spend another penny on servers for a game they see no future in?
  - overgard 8y ago
    To not alienate customers that may pay for future games.
- caymanjim 8y ago
  The server costs are likely trivial compared to the employee cost. They'd need to retain support staff, both for the technical side (server maintenance) and in-game moderation and customer management. I've worked on a number of medium-to-large systems. They're literally always held together with duct tape and prayers. The entire thing would probably collapse in a few days if someone weren't there babysitting the storage infrastructure alone.
  - overgard 8y ago
    I suppose it depends on how robust your infrastructure is. I know one place I worked, we sunset a game and essentially there was only one person supporting it part-time; with events being automated through a calendar. I'm sure if Apple or Google were to make some sort of major breaking change that would require engineering time to keep the game running they'd shut it down, but otherwise AFAIK it's still running on autopilot about 8 months after they made that decision.
  - soup10 8y ago
    this really depends, i'm sure many of us here run servers that have been humming along for years and are rarely even thought about
b_tterc_p 8y ago
Seems like activision acquired and is now axing it. I can’t imagine it isn’t profitable, so it’s really going to be activision deciding that it’s not profitable enough to meet some metrics. Frustrating.
adamredwoods 8y ago
Too bad there isn't a market for large game companies to "sell off" smaller games, assets, or communication protocols (for self-hosted servers) to indie developers who could find a way to make these games sustainable. It seems like this game has a passionate base. Probably some monetary value in that.
- mabbo 8y ago
  Zynga sold YoWorld to Big Viking Games this way.
  - CaraLynn 8y ago
    Yup, same story a couple of years ago with the game Bubble Safari... in the midst of great gameplay, they shut it down just like that. Only difference to Paradise Bay: There were no characters involved that you could get attached to!
- georgeecollins 8y ago
  There are companies that pick up live operations for mobile games. It happens all the time. It is not a super profitable thing to do, so maybe in this case the owners thought it was better to just shut down.
- apsdsm 8y ago
  For a lot of these games, and especially any social game company, a passionate base of users isn’t enough to offset the amount they sink into advertising and running the game. From their perspective it’s just not worth it. Being able to run the games on independent self hosted servers is the only way they could stay alive after their owners decide they’re “not profitable”.
- sbuttgereit 8y ago
  Standing Stone Games is something along the lines you're talking about (http://standingstonegames.com/ http://standingstonegames.com/) with Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online. I can't remember all of the details, but basically Turbine (the original studio) was acquired (Warner?) and the new owners wanted to focus on mobile games and basically were going to abandon the MMORGP titles. Somewhere, somehow, some of people involved managed to convince the right people to basically allow them to create a new studio for the purpose of running and continuing development of those games. Again, I could have some of that wrong as that was awhile ago... but that's the gist. I'm sure both games still would have had a reasonable player base to make it feasible.
danso 8y ago
Apparently related to Activision's layoffs last months: https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/12/king-shuts-down-former-z2live-mobile-game-studio-in-seattle-cuts-78-jobs/ https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/12/king-shuts-down-former-z2... > Activision Blizzard said it is laying off hundreds of employees today, and part of the fallout is that King’s mobile game studio in Seattle will be shut, resulting in the loss of 78 jobs, according to an unnamed source... > ...One of the studio’s games, Paradise Bay, was successful. The studio generated an estimated $200 million over the last few years, but it was still shut.
- deleted 8y ago
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- skellera 8y ago
  Oh what a coincidence. So I purchased a used MacBook Pro that is connected to z2live’s device enrollment. I had to call King and make sure it wasn’t stolen and stuff and it wasn’t in their newer system. They gave me the all clear but I keep getting that damn pop up saying I need to enroll it with z2live. I’m hoping this means I don’t keep getting that pop up as they should be closing out their z2live Apple account... anyone have any idea if that’s how it’ll work?
  - ChrisCinelli 8y ago
    I stumbled on this yesterday by accident: https://duo.com/labs/research/mdm-me-maybe https://duo.com/labs/research/mdm-me-maybe
rwallace 8y ago
Okay, I'm curious; does anyone have any idea why? Is there a way I'm not seeing, that it can fail to be profitable to keep this game running? Or a reason I'm not seeing, why a corporation – in the second Gilded Age, when money is supposed to be the measure of all things – is throwing away profit?
- mysterydip 8y ago
  Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard said “While our financial results for 2018 were the best in our history, we didn’t realize our full potential." https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190212005925/en/Activision-Blizzard-Announces-Fourth-Quarter-2018-Financial-Results/ https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190212005925/en/Act...
- dabbledash 8y ago
  Opportunity cost. They believe whatever they’re expending on this game can generate higher profits if used for something else.
  - rwallace 8y ago
    Okay. That leads to some other questions. 1. This was basically a scenario of 'leave that computer turned on, and people will keep sending us money.' (I know it's never quite as simple as that, but it was as close to it as it ever gets.) What's the return on capital of that, expressed as an APR? I would expect it to be far higher than anything else ever gets in the real world. 2. What, exactly, might the something else be? If this was four decades ago when there were so many opportunities that interest rates were in double digits, maybe I could buy it, but now? What else could they possibly be spending the capital on, that would generate a higher return? 3. Speaking of interest rates, they are currently practically zero, and the world is awash in capital looking for good investment opportunities. If they really had a better opportunity than leaving an already developed and proven successful game running, they should have no difficulty laying hands on capital with which to exploit that opportunity. So I still don't see any way it makes sense. What am I still missing?
mesozoic 8y ago
Apparently gone from the app store. Any way I can still download and play until they shut down?
Thaxll 8y ago
It's probably possible to re-implement a game server since most likely that game is using a REST backend.
caymanjim 8y ago
It's always sad to see a community you like disappear, but I think it's a good lesson when freemium games with in-game purchasing go away. It's an evil, terrible model that uses psychological trickery to slowly milk enormous amounts of money from people. Losing that should make everyone think twice before falling for that trick again. At least with a monthly pay-as-you-go model, you don't feel like you're investing in an asset. When a free game gets you to spend hundreds of dollars on cosmetic trinkets, you feel like you're buying something permanent.
- CaraLynn 8y ago
  I totally agree with you! :) I must admit I've been playing this game from the start and I loved it, BUT (at least almost) the whole time I was very much aware of my addiction and the senslessness of the whole thing..... :/ So in a way, thank God it's going to be over soon - just watch out not to fall for the next “shiny new thing“, like you said already!!! ;)
mythz 8y ago
Never heard of Paradise Bay but it's sad to see years of creative effort disappearing from the face of the earth like that. A game of this quality could've definitely have been sold off and kept running on a skeleton crew which would've saved some jobs, so I'm assuming the decision to shutdown is to keep it out of competitors hands or some other corporate or political reason. From the forum comments you can see the conflict between the Users the game has cultivated who are really emotionally invested in the game and its corporate owners who are detached from it.
keerthiko 8y ago
It always fascinates me when people see the end of a game they enjoyed for hundreds of hours suddenly decide it was all a "waste of time" because the servers are shutting down. Why can't people fondly remember and cherish the memories with something or someone they enjoyed spending time with? When a loved one passes away do you decide all the time you spent with them was a waste? It's understandable to be upset or sad or angry, but to think of your past enjoyment and engagement as a waste? This probably speaks as much to the addictive chemical nature of these kind of perpetual slot machine games as much as the thoughtlessness in the expression of the community members who are upset by it shutting down.
- CaraLynn 8y ago
  Sure, it's somehow better to think of it this way, but the FACT remains that - however much you might enjoy spending time with a game like this, say: in-game ;) --- there's no denying that it REALLY IS a waste of time, since everything about it is totally virtual. I mean, if you look at it closely, doesn't it sound somehow strange that people are actually upset about having to “euthanize“ their beloved virtual pets?? ;P I think it offers a glimpse at the critical direction in which our society is heading... and that's what is truly miserable and sad. Nowadays people tend more and more to give up thinking/using their brain, instead they choose to follow brainless “influencers“ (what an expression!?) and anything their phone spits out. :( NB. Your comparison with the passing away of a loved one does not fit really, since with loved ones our memories are real. ;)
rambojazz 8y ago
They should release at least the server code as open source, and let users download their data as well, so that people can keep playing.
- falsedan 8y ago
  That server code is probably mostly third-party middleware and shared across products
forheartclover 8y ago
I have played paradise bay since just after its launch. I have never been captivated by a tablet game as I was this one, there were so many levels you could play, but hard to explain in full detail if you weren't a long time player and understood the resource management it needed. You could stack your mills for one. Each mill would hold 999 items in the order you put them in. I had several mills stacked to max capacity, this helped with the all too frequent tradefests or retofests. I had 3 island 2 of which 'fed' my main island. I had a huge notebook to keep a record of every item in order in each mill. (Sad I know) They had frequent builder events and then there were pet stickers, doubloons and map pieces etc... I could go on and on. You also collected pets, follwed by their stickers to lvl the pets up. The ability to decorate your island was only limited by your imagination. You could actually turn it into 'your paradise' I'm not angry, I'm very sad. I didn't invest much money into the game as I played strategically learnt from long term play. I was always conscious it could also be gone any day! I don't think ppl playing these games think about that much. Hence the shock and anger at losing their game and money. This game took over my love for playing mmorpgs. I have played SWG, EQ2, Wow from vanilla. I would of happily payed a monthly sub to keep Playing PB. No timed raids or ppl evaluating your performance on your dps. You could pick up PB for 5 mins or 5 hours. It truly will be a sad day on may 17th! I don't think AB actually realised what a gem of a game they had. There was also an awesome wikia that was maintained by awesome players because they wanted to :) bay.fandom.com/wiki/Paradise_Bay_Wikia There certainly isn't a game out there to fill the void in my spare time. So I just hope someone has the foresight to fill that very big hole in a lot of ppls spare time.
- gloflo 8y ago
  How much would you attribute to logic puzzling fun and how much for addiction to a incremental, time-spent based reward system.
  - fourheartclover 8y ago
    It wasn’t a puzzle type of game at all. I just meant you could play it casually or take it more seriously. Most of the serious players had maxed all event builder items, pets, storage. They were proud of their efforts and displayed it for all to see. (You could visit your friends islands and help them out on dives etc) The graphics are stunning. All the thought that had gone into the little details was brilliant. Even your pets look up at you through your screen and each one has at least 3 animations. They would interact with different items just for them. The characters in the game all had storylines and you built up reputation with them unlocking new recipes for the mills. I also think the story lines made it more time consuming to add new levels as there was so much thought behind it. Island space was a big issue with players. There was so much you could do to decorate and never enough room with the pets constantly been added to the game. In all it’s time there was only 1 land expansion. Maybe this was due to high level of graphics? I for one bought a new iPad in 2017 just to play PB so it ran smoother. I know as the game progressed some couldn’t run it on their tablets. But as with all games, as they improve we have to upgrade. PCs, consoles, tablets. I maybe naive but I hope someone can take this game and keep it running. That would be a bonus! If they don’t then I’m slowly coming to terms with another gaming love been over.
lizzypoo 8y ago
I sm so upset the game is being shut down. This is a classic game that would have been enjoyed by generations to come. Just like the Monopoly board game can be enjoyed by generations to come. I am so sad the game is being shut down. It is such a waste to see the enormous creativity the designers put into it just disappearing! I've played for years. Have elaborately and beautifully decorated my island with flowers, walkways, fences, arches, fountains, etc. It's truly a beautiful game. And I feel proud to have designed such a magical place. There were multiple challenges and fabulous pets which exhibited such nice behaviors. It truly was a magical place. I think I'm most sad because there really isn't a game to switch to. Playing Paradise Bay wasn't just about completing challenges and winning prizes. It was about beautifully decorating a magical land you created. And enjoying the visually prettiness of the island. Butterflies abound, the characters were all sweet, and the island was uber friendly. Other games totally lack the estetics. I wish the owners of this gem would reconsider shutting it doen. There is no game for us to move to. Very sad.
lizzypoo 8y ago
Can anyone suggest a replacement for Paradise Bay? I haven't found anything that is as besutiful or rnjoyable.

62 points by jqgatsby 8y ago

ceejayoz 8y ago

You've really messed up your Farmville clone if it's losing money.

xnyan 8y ago
I didn't play (to be honest, I think the genre is exploitative), but knew some people who did. The game was high quality in its category, particularly the art. I imagine this was a big reason they are being shut down - Activision Blizzard, Inc is panicking for a variety of reasons and this game was way too costly, even if they were turning a profit, when you can have the same developers shovel out crap at higher margin.
- ceejayoz 8y ago
  "High quality in its category" doesn't really change my opinion that any app offering a $99.99 "speed up the game" option is exploitative and gross.
- kalleboo 8y ago
  They laid off the developers, they're not being reallocated to a different game
serf 8y ago
they didn't lose money, they were part of a branch of a larger division that decided to shut the entire branch down. the linked story is higher in the thread -- don't worry, there is still time for that Farmville clone project you've yet to release ;)

VectorLock 8y ago

I wonder how many people are going to be upset that their "in-game purchases" are going poof.

omg_ketchup 8y ago
Seems like a lot of angry people in that thread, but I'm not sure what they expected?
- elsonrodriguez 8y ago
  The concept of a game being transient is still a new one. There are 20 year old Pokemon cartridges out there with their original batteries keeping still kicking, keeping their Pikachus intact. Combine the surprise of transience with the use of real money to buy fake goods and it can be a true shock. This is especially true for casual gamers who have yet to experience their first game shutdown.
  - mjevans 8y ago
    What's worse is when you spend money on something, thinking it's one kind of game, and then it mutates in to something else. I was realistic and didn't spend that much, but I can't imagine I'm the only one to feel that way. I've now got an even stronger stance against online only games/communities.
    - fx1994 8y ago
      That happened with WoW, mutated to something after it was bought by ... Activision... so that's why community made their own server. Thousand of players on Lights Hope these days, and now they want to release WoW classic to harvest more money but I think it will fail for good.
      - Tecuane 8y ago
        I've played WoW for something like 11 years, from its peak in around 2008-2010 and through its slow decline since. Logging in now and having the reality that this game is actually genuinely fading away is difficult for me to properly process. The gp comment mentioned how non-transient games such as Pokémon are, and how games that do actually fade away are a new thing. I hadn't really thought about this before until the last couple of WoW expansions and its effects on the playerbase. It makes me really sad to think about; WoW (and video gaming in general) has been a huge part of my life and tinkering with video games under the hood was the kickstarter for my career. I don't know if I will ever find a replacement for it when it's gone.

jqgatsby 8y ago

My wife has been playing this game on her phone for years, and is super sad that they are closing it down. She's probably bought a fair number of "gems" from them too, to beautify her island and trade fruit, I guess. Some of the comments are funny, in a heartbreaking way. People really invested a lot in this game, emotionally and financially. They are wondering who is going to feed the pets they bought to live on their digital island. The funniest/saddest thing about it is that, as a last hurrah, the maintainers of the game gave everyone 10 million gems to spend as they see fit in the remaining 2 months that the game is online. On the one hand, the players are kind of pissed off at the belated awareness that the gems they were hoarding were always fundamentally worthless, but on the other hand they want to buy the final superpet or whatever for their island before the volcano blows up.

b_tterc_p 8y ago
Is 10 million a lot? Relative to your typical whale?
- ceejayoz 8y ago
  https://www.pocketgamer.biz/the-iap-inspector/61882/iap-inspector-paradise-bay/ https://www.pocketgamer.biz/the-iap-inspector/61882/iap-insp... says $99.99 would get you 7,250, so 10M is about $140k "worth".
teach 8y ago
Paradise Bay is an excellent game and it's a darn shame it's shutting down. There's no game quite like it that I'm aware of, and I suspect that many of their players are players that won't switch to another game. I've been playing since 2106 and my wife and 70-year-old mother also play. There's really an opportunity here for some other studio to pick up the pieces of this and make some money.
- luckman212 8y ago
  > I've been playing since 2106... Hello future! Nice to know the singularity hasn't wiped us all out by then.

overgard 8y ago

Surprised they didn't have a longer sunsetting period. Unless the server costs are massive it seems like a year or so would be more appropriate. Maybe their 28 day retention is just low enough that they didn't think there were enough long term players for it to matter.

VectorLock 8y ago
Why would they spend another penny on servers for a game they see no future in?
- overgard 8y ago
  To not alienate customers that may pay for future games.
caymanjim 8y ago
The server costs are likely trivial compared to the employee cost. They'd need to retain support staff, both for the technical side (server maintenance) and in-game moderation and customer management. I've worked on a number of medium-to-large systems. They're literally always held together with duct tape and prayers. The entire thing would probably collapse in a few days if someone weren't there babysitting the storage infrastructure alone.
- overgard 8y ago
  I suppose it depends on how robust your infrastructure is. I know one place I worked, we sunset a game and essentially there was only one person supporting it part-time; with events being automated through a calendar. I'm sure if Apple or Google were to make some sort of major breaking change that would require engineering time to keep the game running they'd shut it down, but otherwise AFAIK it's still running on autopilot about 8 months after they made that decision.
- soup10 8y ago
  this really depends, i'm sure many of us here run servers that have been humming along for years and are rarely even thought about

b_tterc_p 8y ago

Seems like activision acquired and is now axing it. I can’t imagine it isn’t profitable, so it’s really going to be activision deciding that it’s not profitable enough to meet some metrics. Frustrating.

adamredwoods 8y ago

Too bad there isn't a market for large game companies to "sell off" smaller games, assets, or communication protocols (for self-hosted servers) to indie developers who could find a way to make these games sustainable. It seems like this game has a passionate base. Probably some monetary value in that.

mabbo 8y ago
Zynga sold YoWorld to Big Viking Games this way.
- CaraLynn 8y ago
  Yup, same story a couple of years ago with the game Bubble Safari... in the midst of great gameplay, they shut it down just like that. Only difference to Paradise Bay: There were no characters involved that you could get attached to!
georgeecollins 8y ago
There are companies that pick up live operations for mobile games. It happens all the time. It is not a super profitable thing to do, so maybe in this case the owners thought it was better to just shut down.
apsdsm 8y ago
For a lot of these games, and especially any social game company, a passionate base of users isn’t enough to offset the amount they sink into advertising and running the game. From their perspective it’s just not worth it. Being able to run the games on independent self hosted servers is the only way they could stay alive after their owners decide they’re “not profitable”.
sbuttgereit 8y ago
Standing Stone Games is something along the lines you're talking about (http://standingstonegames.com/ http://standingstonegames.com/) with Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online. I can't remember all of the details, but basically Turbine (the original studio) was acquired (Warner?) and the new owners wanted to focus on mobile games and basically were going to abandon the MMORGP titles. Somewhere, somehow, some of people involved managed to convince the right people to basically allow them to create a new studio for the purpose of running and continuing development of those games. Again, I could have some of that wrong as that was awhile ago... but that's the gist. I'm sure both games still would have had a reasonable player base to make it feasible.

danso 8y ago

Apparently related to Activision's layoffs last months: https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/12/king-shuts-down-former-z2live-mobile-game-studio-in-seattle-cuts-78-jobs/ https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/12/king-shuts-down-former-z2... > Activision Blizzard said it is laying off hundreds of employees today, and part of the fallout is that King’s mobile game studio in Seattle will be shut, resulting in the loss of 78 jobs, according to an unnamed source... > ...One of the studio’s games, Paradise Bay, was successful. The studio generated an estimated $200 million over the last few years, but it was still shut.

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skellera 8y ago
Oh what a coincidence. So I purchased a used MacBook Pro that is connected to z2live’s device enrollment. I had to call King and make sure it wasn’t stolen and stuff and it wasn’t in their newer system. They gave me the all clear but I keep getting that damn pop up saying I need to enroll it with z2live. I’m hoping this means I don’t keep getting that pop up as they should be closing out their z2live Apple account... anyone have any idea if that’s how it’ll work?
- ChrisCinelli 8y ago
  I stumbled on this yesterday by accident: https://duo.com/labs/research/mdm-me-maybe https://duo.com/labs/research/mdm-me-maybe

rwallace 8y ago

Okay, I'm curious; does anyone have any idea why? Is there a way I'm not seeing, that it can fail to be profitable to keep this game running? Or a reason I'm not seeing, why a corporation – in the second Gilded Age, when money is supposed to be the measure of all things – is throwing away profit?

mysterydip 8y ago
Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard said “While our financial results for 2018 were the best in our history, we didn’t realize our full potential." https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190212005925/en/Activision-Blizzard-Announces-Fourth-Quarter-2018-Financial-Results/ https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190212005925/en/Act...
dabbledash 8y ago
Opportunity cost. They believe whatever they’re expending on this game can generate higher profits if used for something else.
- rwallace 8y ago
  Okay. That leads to some other questions. 1. This was basically a scenario of 'leave that computer turned on, and people will keep sending us money.' (I know it's never quite as simple as that, but it was as close to it as it ever gets.) What's the return on capital of that, expressed as an APR? I would expect it to be far higher than anything else ever gets in the real world. 2. What, exactly, might the something else be? If this was four decades ago when there were so many opportunities that interest rates were in double digits, maybe I could buy it, but now? What else could they possibly be spending the capital on, that would generate a higher return? 3. Speaking of interest rates, they are currently practically zero, and the world is awash in capital looking for good investment opportunities. If they really had a better opportunity than leaving an already developed and proven successful game running, they should have no difficulty laying hands on capital with which to exploit that opportunity. So I still don't see any way it makes sense. What am I still missing?

mesozoic 8y ago

Apparently gone from the app store. Any way I can still download and play until they shut down?

Thaxll 8y ago

It's probably possible to re-implement a game server since most likely that game is using a REST backend.

caymanjim 8y ago

It's always sad to see a community you like disappear, but I think it's a good lesson when freemium games with in-game purchasing go away. It's an evil, terrible model that uses psychological trickery to slowly milk enormous amounts of money from people. Losing that should make everyone think twice before falling for that trick again. At least with a monthly pay-as-you-go model, you don't feel like you're investing in an asset. When a free game gets you to spend hundreds of dollars on cosmetic trinkets, you feel like you're buying something permanent.

CaraLynn 8y ago
I totally agree with you! :) I must admit I've been playing this game from the start and I loved it, BUT (at least almost) the whole time I was very much aware of my addiction and the senslessness of the whole thing..... :/ So in a way, thank God it's going to be over soon - just watch out not to fall for the next “shiny new thing“, like you said already!!! ;)

mythz 8y ago

Never heard of Paradise Bay but it's sad to see years of creative effort disappearing from the face of the earth like that. A game of this quality could've definitely have been sold off and kept running on a skeleton crew which would've saved some jobs, so I'm assuming the decision to shutdown is to keep it out of competitors hands or some other corporate or political reason. From the forum comments you can see the conflict between the Users the game has cultivated who are really emotionally invested in the game and its corporate owners who are detached from it.

keerthiko 8y ago

It always fascinates me when people see the end of a game they enjoyed for hundreds of hours suddenly decide it was all a "waste of time" because the servers are shutting down. Why can't people fondly remember and cherish the memories with something or someone they enjoyed spending time with? When a loved one passes away do you decide all the time you spent with them was a waste? It's understandable to be upset or sad or angry, but to think of your past enjoyment and engagement as a waste? This probably speaks as much to the addictive chemical nature of these kind of perpetual slot machine games as much as the thoughtlessness in the expression of the community members who are upset by it shutting down.

CaraLynn 8y ago
Sure, it's somehow better to think of it this way, but the FACT remains that - however much you might enjoy spending time with a game like this, say: in-game ;) --- there's no denying that it REALLY IS a waste of time, since everything about it is totally virtual. I mean, if you look at it closely, doesn't it sound somehow strange that people are actually upset about having to “euthanize“ their beloved virtual pets?? ;P I think it offers a glimpse at the critical direction in which our society is heading... and that's what is truly miserable and sad. Nowadays people tend more and more to give up thinking/using their brain, instead they choose to follow brainless “influencers“ (what an expression!?) and anything their phone spits out. :( NB. Your comparison with the passing away of a loved one does not fit really, since with loved ones our memories are real. ;)

rambojazz 8y ago

They should release at least the server code as open source, and let users download their data as well, so that people can keep playing.

falsedan 8y ago
That server code is probably mostly third-party middleware and shared across products

forheartclover 8y ago

I have played paradise bay since just after its launch. I have never been captivated by a tablet game as I was this one, there were so many levels you could play, but hard to explain in full detail if you weren't a long time player and understood the resource management it needed. You could stack your mills for one. Each mill would hold 999 items in the order you put them in. I had several mills stacked to max capacity, this helped with the all too frequent tradefests or retofests. I had 3 island 2 of which 'fed' my main island. I had a huge notebook to keep a record of every item in order in each mill. (Sad I know) They had frequent builder events and then there were pet stickers, doubloons and map pieces etc... I could go on and on. You also collected pets, follwed by their stickers to lvl the pets up. The ability to decorate your island was only limited by your imagination. You could actually turn it into 'your paradise' I'm not angry, I'm very sad. I didn't invest much money into the game as I played strategically learnt from long term play. I was always conscious it could also be gone any day! I don't think ppl playing these games think about that much. Hence the shock and anger at losing their game and money. This game took over my love for playing mmorpgs. I have played SWG, EQ2, Wow from vanilla. I would of happily payed a monthly sub to keep Playing PB. No timed raids or ppl evaluating your performance on your dps. You could pick up PB for 5 mins or 5 hours. It truly will be a sad day on may 17th! I don't think AB actually realised what a gem of a game they had. There was also an awesome wikia that was maintained by awesome players because they wanted to :) bay.fandom.com/wiki/Paradise_Bay_Wikia There certainly isn't a game out there to fill the void in my spare time. So I just hope someone has the foresight to fill that very big hole in a lot of ppls spare time.

gloflo 8y ago
How much would you attribute to logic puzzling fun and how much for addiction to a incremental, time-spent based reward system.
- fourheartclover 8y ago
  It wasn’t a puzzle type of game at all. I just meant you could play it casually or take it more seriously. Most of the serious players had maxed all event builder items, pets, storage. They were proud of their efforts and displayed it for all to see. (You could visit your friends islands and help them out on dives etc) The graphics are stunning. All the thought that had gone into the little details was brilliant. Even your pets look up at you through your screen and each one has at least 3 animations. They would interact with different items just for them. The characters in the game all had storylines and you built up reputation with them unlocking new recipes for the mills. I also think the story lines made it more time consuming to add new levels as there was so much thought behind it. Island space was a big issue with players. There was so much you could do to decorate and never enough room with the pets constantly been added to the game. In all it’s time there was only 1 land expansion. Maybe this was due to high level of graphics? I for one bought a new iPad in 2017 just to play PB so it ran smoother. I know as the game progressed some couldn’t run it on their tablets. But as with all games, as they improve we have to upgrade. PCs, consoles, tablets. I maybe naive but I hope someone can take this game and keep it running. That would be a bonus! If they don’t then I’m slowly coming to terms with another gaming love been over.

lizzypoo 8y ago

I sm so upset the game is being shut down. This is a classic game that would have been enjoyed by generations to come. Just like the Monopoly board game can be enjoyed by generations to come. I am so sad the game is being shut down. It is such a waste to see the enormous creativity the designers put into it just disappearing! I've played for years. Have elaborately and beautifully decorated my island with flowers, walkways, fences, arches, fountains, etc. It's truly a beautiful game. And I feel proud to have designed such a magical place. There were multiple challenges and fabulous pets which exhibited such nice behaviors. It truly was a magical place. I think I'm most sad because there really isn't a game to switch to. Playing Paradise Bay wasn't just about completing challenges and winning prizes. It was about beautifully decorating a magical land you created. And enjoying the visually prettiness of the island. Butterflies abound, the characters were all sweet, and the island was uber friendly. Other games totally lack the estetics. I wish the owners of this gem would reconsider shutting it doen. There is no game for us to move to. Very sad.

lizzypoo 8y ago

Can anyone suggest a replacement for Paradise Bay? I haven't found anything that is as besutiful or rnjoyable.