Asphalt 8 is Dead. Here's Why

Sorry I've been away for a while, hope you liked my slightly pessimistic video about Asphalt 8! I feel as if it is overshadowed by Asphalt 9, and doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. Although Asphalt 8 has players, I do feel as if Asphalt 8 is dead

Like if you liked, subscribe if you enjoyed!

#asphalt8 #asphalt9 #asphaltlegendsunite #asphalt

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Tags:

Asphalt, Asphalt 8, Asphalt 9, Asphalt 8: Airborne, Asphalt 9: Legends, Dead games, This game is dead, Gameloft, Vivendi, Asphalt 8 Gameplay, Asphalt 8 Airborne Gameplay, Asphalt 9 Gameplay, Asphalt 9 Legends Gameplay, Asphalt 8 multiplayer, Asphalt 9 multiplayer, Asphalt 10, Asphalt 10 multiplayer, Asphalt Legends Unite

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[FordGTStronk]

Thanks to those who have showed up early, the last couple months have been rough for me, and I haven't uploaded in a while. I hope to maintain a frequent upload schedule during the remainder of the year. I'd like to get two more videos in before the end of this year!

[radicaIized]

I’m a day 1 veteran of Asphalt 8. Once I saw the tokens update back in 2015, I already knew the terrible path gameloft was walking down with alternative currency

[kevinalberto]

The day they updated the prices for cars, making them extremely expensive but keeping the same rewards, they killed the game for me. It was such an addicting game and seeing that Gameloft keep killing it because of money makes me very sad. I hope the community could make some unofficial servers with the good old game when the company finally kill it and move to asphalt 9

[IDFOLEY]

They should reconsider adding a new track instead of just cloning cars that are impossible to obtain.

[brandie]

I installed this game again recently to relive some nostalgia. It’s completely unrecognizable now. It’s so sad

[donnycorn]

I love that this is the first video that addresses the fall of Asphalt 8, especially that the new-release bias of A9 is mentioned. However, as a 5-years veteran, I think it's best to talk about the reason why the game still managed to hold up today.

Asphalt 9 is good, but not great. The more I played the game, the more I became irritated. Fuel system, janky physics taken from Asphalt Xtreme (an absolute gem when it was alive), new updates with new car restrictions most players can't get through because it's exclusively for a certain car, and the worst offender, unless those cars are meta or is the only available choice for daily/special events, those certain cars are to no use. A9 did nothing to solve that, instead they kept on pushing for more and more updates with newer limited events, basically FOMO.

After claims of Gameloft copying games, in 2013 they decided to prove that they are still capable of making new, original games. Asphalt 8, with the physic system built from the ground up, held the racing up to a respectable degree. The controls are simple, the cars are weighty and reactive, and the maps are well-designed for the physic engine. This is what sets this game apart from the NFS MW12 mobile and became the biggest hit in mobile racing, because Asphalt 8's gameplay loop allows players to keep racing and not limiting players behind a fuel system like A9 do. This is THE game that defies the greatest of bigger companies, the game that defines the genre on the mobile platform, the one that made the biggest leap for the better.


Since Vivendi took over in 2017, things has gone downhill. I was too young to realize back then, but the content update headed towards keeping players away from making fast progress, from removing replay from mastery (known for credit farm) to increasing car price (I got my 12C for 90k credits, now it's 200 tokens). Then, 2019, fusion coins, battle pass. The worst update known to the community. From this point forward, every updates was just to make the game look worse than it was before, and by locking players behind rewards that looks like an average worker's payout, it forces microtransaction boundaries to keep churning out money. Hell, there's a spending limit implemented in the game, how screwed up is that?

Asphalt 8 is not like Asphalt 9. Asphalt 8 is so clear of what it is, covering it in crap doesn't hinder its identity of a great arcade racer. Asphalt 9 is the exact opposite, it's a mess that's being held up by the amount of care the company gives, because it makes money. Mind you, Chinese players are more interested in A9 than A8, and that means market expansion, means more money. Another point that drove A8 to its grave and piss on it.


Just imagine, if this game reverts itself back to 2015, in the time when NFS has to take a break, Forza becomes stagnant of its identity, Gran Turismo strives for the real world, a racing game with visuals rivalled to the consoles of its time. Asphalt 8's fall was the combination of financial trouble, corporation greed, and predatory practices. What is left behind is a legacy almost unspoken to the racing genre, a moment of airborne crushed into bits and pieces by the harsh reality. I'm glad that I got to play Asphalt 8, the memories will never be forgotten, because there will never ever be a game like Asphalt 8: Airborne.

Sorry for this long essay of a comment.

[shauryadash]

This game made my entire child hood....
idk what I can say
But damn i miss my well earned Lamborghini veneno

[Chimera]

Asphalt 8 is dead since 2021 when the main menu of this game changed to A9-designed one.

[zard]

To be honest ever since when they change their name to car racing game because this is the main reason why it was a bit ruined and they completely took away 2 laps and 3 laps which so many people missed a lot

[Legomaster-jvll]

The real deathblow for me was when they decided to reduce payouts from 6, 000 to 300. I remember using a double credits boost and grinding the Mercedes Benz Silver Lightning Dubai race over and over again.

Despite what you’d think, it felt doable. Yeah, there were a lot of cars that were too far out of reach, but a good chunk of the cars and upgrades were well within reach. Each race felt like I was getting 1 step closer to that next car, or that new upgrade.

But once they made those races worth 300 credits each, it became impossible. They had already increased the prices across the board, and having to now do 20 times the races just became impossible.

At that moment imo, gameloft had killed whatever fun A8 had. I would check back in every so often, but the game just has nothing left.

Sure they’ve got like 50 new cars, but none of them are affordable. It used to take maybe 10 races to get 100k now takes 160. And that’s assuming it costs 100k. If it costs in the millions, then just forget it.

Asphalt 8 died a long time ago, and nobody can tell me otherwise. What remains is not Asphalt 8, but the zombified remains of Asphalt 8.

[rodracer]

I played A8 a ton back in middle school (around 2013-14ish)

The selling point for me is that it was a major mobile racing game that didnt have a premium currency.

Then tokens happened.

I powered through for a while until they made it so tokens are required to max out on upgrades, that was the final straw thay made me quit the game. Looking at the game now, it seems things have only gotten worse.

[nullcandyy]

Sad to see coming from an a8 veteran. Bring me back to the days of multiplayer tuning my 330p4 to battle with vulcans. Bring me back to championships, edd's and those oh so difficult r&ds

[okuu_utsuho]

This is why I am finding older versions of the game. Ngl, back in 2018 and 2020, A8 was enjoyable. I remembered back in 2020 when I got back to the game, I was excited when I got to max pro a car without any difficulties. Now, they removed that and forcing players to use fusion coins and cards to fully upgrade a car. Not just that, they nerfed a lot of my favorite D-class vehicles that used to perform good and can go up to 325 km/h with the purple nitro like the DeZir or the F150. I also remembered when you can vote for how many laps and tracks in mp back then. Well, I guess Gameloft and other game companies are gonna sacrifice their playerbase for money. 😢

[skm]

This was a game of my childhood. I had many great cars, and was pretty good at it. One day when I returned from a break I found huge shift in car classes, making my best S class cars shift to A and even B class. Some cars simply disappeared. After that day I no longer played the game.

[thxndabolt]

As someone who has been playing regularly for years, I agree with a lot of your points, but I think some are a bit unfair. The game is dying out but I wouldn't say it's dead - especially at the higher levels of skill where players are still pushing themselves to get better, improve their times, rival world records, place at the top of event leaderboards etc.

I believe starting out in Asphalt 8 is basically impossible now, so the playerbase will only get smaller, but there are many groups within the current community who still love the game, whether they spent real money or not.

Competing without spending real money is very much possible, myself and some others have managed it, but our potential is ultimately lower than those who were willing to drop their money on the best S class cars. Winning in multiplayer is easily possible without the best cars, but it takes a good amount of skill, which newer players won't have of course.

By ignoring the pay to win currencies and playing to improve my skills and racing with friends I've consistently had a pretty good time, but I would never recommend anyone to download the game in 2023. It's not worth the time or money investment to reach the capabilities of older players, even if most of those older players love the game very much.

[Dr._VonBlack]

started playing back in 2014 and this game made SO many child hood memories and after all these micro transactions it just became so stale and so difficult without having to pay. i remember when cars like the ds survolt was like 8 thousand credits and it became like 300, 000 and so on and so forth and fusion coins and everything it was really dead after 2020 i really miss what this game used to be man ut sucks to see it go

[Ozercraft]

i'd say the golden age of the game was 2019, before the game became pay to win. i started playing the game when san diego harbor and china maps were added and always had fun but after 2019 i stopped playing because how much cars that are literally impossible to get without paying money were added, i also liked collecting card boxes (those which gave blueprint and pro upgrade cards) but then they removed it which made me sad

[sayaneechan]

I've been playing this game since 2014 so I've seen the many changes throughout the years. In fact, I remember when credits were the only currency present in-game.

I remember when there were max upgrades only. Then pro upgrades were added in. We used to refer to fully upgraded cars as "max pro" or, if they weren't, we used to say things like 0500 5050 to state our current tuning of one car. It's no longer that way.

Many cars were also changed in class and rank. Remember the SLK SE? It used to be an A class car, which had a starting rank of 885. Needless to say, it decimated lower rank lobbies because its speed was much higher than the rest. Well apparently now it's a class D car.

The Chevrolet Impala was a class A car when it released. It was later relegated to D class as well. Both these cars also had "Elite Tuning", a feature which was also completely removed.

F1 cars only had "pro" upgrades when they released. Why? Idk I guess GL wanted us to pay more money opening boxes for the cards required to upgrade them? Fact is, I bet new players were confused as to why these had "pro" only upgrades unlike the rest.

I remember the Research & Development, Championship and Enduro Double Down events.

We used to farm credits with Season 9 and Car Mastery. It was a great way to practice laps while earning credits for it.
But of course, the Fast-Lane Update had to come in and make Mastery unreplayable. Later, Season 9 farming was also reduced so much, it was no longer worth it. Mastery was later removed altogether.

Farming is just gone now so nowadays I spend like 2 or 3 hours on a lap while earning nothing from it aside from bragging rights.
The Double Credits booster is completely useless now. Why is it still in the game?

And don't get me started about the introduction of Fusion Coins. What a mess it was.

At some point, the upgrades' weight distribution of cars were also changed. Upgrading the Top Speed now will shoot your rank up to the stars, while upgrading Handling or Acceleration all the way will only net you like 5 or 6 rank points up. This was likely done to prevent cars like SLK SE and R8SE to decimate lobbies with their high speed while maintaining a low rank.

Also, licensing issues. Want these RUFs, 9FF, and Hot Wheels etc? Well you're out of luck, sorry 🤷‍♀

[daniel_naaden]

Used to play this game a ton, man... on an old Lenovo laptop that was supposed to be for school. It came pre-installed, so I spent many hours on that game. It was a tough game to master, but it used to be a lot friendlier to beginners. I never wanted to install Asphalt 9 because I loved Airborne, but I guess I should give it a shot at one point. Now I want to go back and play it again, even though it totally became a pay-to-win scheme and punished me for simply being younger. I miss my DS Survolt...

[mitrashailendra]

I spent a lot of time grinding for the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage, which was at the time of release, one of the best cars in the game. I practiced hard, and I beat the nearly-impossible to beat AI for the challenge.
And then they demoted it to the bottom of C class. I have never even opened Asphalt 8 since.