Hey all,
As both an avid Clash of Clans fan and a student of business, I have taken a particular interest in both Supercell and the mobile platform gaming industry as a whole.
I'm here to offer my theories and predictions for the next release. Keep in mind that these are purely subjective and not based off any actual/factual information (unless otherwise stated).
I'd love to hear your opinions on these theories and would definitely be interested in hearing some of your own theories!
Without further a due;
Clash of Clans - 2014 v1.0 Release Predictions
Theory 1: Supercell have become complacent. Because business it booming, they've spent the past few weeks at home, chilling with their families, smoking cigars and popping open champagne bottles whilst maniacally laughing at us poor, clueless players in the community.
Likelihood: Highly unlikely (although, sadly, most posters obviously genuinely believe this is case).
Theory 2: As one of the CoC developers stated in the interview with PlayClashofClans, in Scandinavia they don't really celebrate Christmas the same way the rest of the world does; their 'extended' holidays are usually in the summer season. Unless you believe all corporations are evil, this pretty much discredits the previous theory. My second theory is that they are working on something big. Not big enough to change the dynamics of the game, but big enough to start off 2014 with a bang, to keep us happy until the next update, and to show us that, despite their silence, they mean business. This update would be a content update, with little or no change to the elements already in place within the game.
Likelihood: Very likely
Theory 3: After many meetings over the Christmas holidays, the team has assessed their content priorities. Updates as big as Clan Wars, Clan Villages, etc... Are very hard, if not impossible, to be released in a single update. Over the course of the next few updates they'll be implementing small content updates, as well as bits of code here and there, which are slowly but surely paving the way for the juicy stuff we've been craving for months (and years).
Likelihood: Definitely a possibility
Theory 4: The next update will just be a regular update with a few bug fixes here and there, nothing major or exciting.
Likelihood: Unlikely
Release Date
Depending on the scale of the update, I believe it should be released either at the end of this month or the beginning of next month. I'm sure they would have loved to schedule the release for the 1.000.000 Facebook page likes, but WOW this game is popular! If by the end of February there's still no update (highly unlikely) we can be more or less certain that it's going to be something big like Clan Wars or Mastermind's Daily/Weekly/Monthly quests.
I personally hope that there will be no sneak-peaks or previews. It should be, in my opinion, a total surprise that hits us when we least expect it!
Conclusions
Although it's pretty easy for us players to sit here and dream up amazing update content as well as complain about the things that currently don't work, video game development is actually a long, hard, tedious process. Especially for multiplayer, combat-based games like these where balance is key. There's a fine line between succumbing to player demands whilst still remaining rigorous enough to be profitable. You should all read Daddy's post on how we, the community, should be handling tense pre-update situations like these. You can find it here.
I've personally come to admire the 'cell'-based structure of the company. All recent evidence shows that working in small, independent teams boosts productivity, motivation and creativity tenfold when compared to standard, rigorous corporate structures (EA, anyone?). Despite this, keep in mind that Supercell was recently bought by a bigger company, and they'll be expecting a return on investment. This means, in my opinion, the game isn't going to get any easier. Gems translate into dollars, and while I'm certain the Supercell team wants to keep the game as f2p accessible as ever (especially seeing as they're also players), they'll also have to keep up with certain corporate expectations.
Anyway, I digress.
I'd love to hear your thoughts, and please enlighten me with some of your own theories as to what's going to happen in the next update!
EDIT-- It's also important to take into account that Supercell now also has to code for BOTH iOS and Android. This means nearly double the work, if not more. Thanks to S3an for pointing this out!
Community Predictions!
- kevinr1 predicts the addition of a 5th Gold & Elixir storage!
- squishy23456predicts the addition of level 6 minions and rage spells!
- RandomKidFromDownTheBlockpredicts the addition of new troops!
- DarkrymoZe predicts a revamp of the Village Edit Mode!
- Caesar predicts that the next update will be all about offence!
- Shadowkungfu predicts level 3 witches!
- gamerof13 predicts a buff to collectors/mines and reduced nexting cost, and hopes for daily quests! (don't we all, my friend!)
- S3an predicts a small update (:(), with reduced nexting, another hidden tesla level and the removal of chrimbo effects.
- cbsexton51 predicts level 8 tesla, level 6 minions, level 6 rage spell, decreased nexting cost and Masterminds quests!
- kozalaqung predicts a Lunar New Year theme, chinese dragons, lion dance, hongbaos and more! (Wow, that's creative and original!)
- nismook predicts a new dark elixir troop!
The community seems to be split between Supercell doing something absolutely amazing, or not doing much at all. In general, most people believe the update will be troop/attack-related and some form of new content will be released!
Update** Due to the popularity of this thread, I won't be updating the community predictions section anymore. A lot of forumers have put a lot of effort into coming up with their predictions, many of which I find very interesting, and I think you guys should go check them out yourself (from page 3 onwards) :)
