From the beginning, our games had a rigid linear progression through the players users could obtain, only gaining access to popular and legendary players well into the game. While this progression made sense, it inevitably meant that new users were exposed to forgettable and unrecognizable names that carried little to no value.
By abandoning our restriction of one 'version' of a player in the progression, we were freed to make many versions of the same 'player' at varying power levels as to not upset the game mechanics. Furthermore, we used these copies to create a collection meta game to create the ultimate 'end game' version of a particular player. This crucial design departure allowed us to expose new users to a wide range of memorable players while expanding the meta game and maintaining the progression towards end game content.
Finally, we fashioned these special versions into themed series, called Limited Editions, that were regularly scheduled and only available for a limited time. The limited nature of the feature ante'd up the perceived value of the content and boosted retention of users who could now expect regular injections of new content.
CBS Sports Franchise Football 2015 was the first game to introduce this feature and in our generation 3 games, has become a full integrated with our game's structure, design and workflow.
Once per month per game, a new Limited Edition series is released. The workflow involves swift conceptualization of a theme, creation of key art and logos, and extrapolating art into assets such as icons, packs and cards. Making each series feel unique and valuable is a factor which we believe contributes to the value users place on this content. Assets are optimized and implemented into the client to be released with the regularly scheduled app update.
