Black Friday 2015 analysis

Black Friday. The day everyone waited for with baited breath. The day we'd all been saving for over the course of the last few months. The day the game's developers could be sure of a large windfall of cash from its devoted players. And the day that delivered one of the great let-downs in Restaurant Story history.

Before I go to town with my thoughts on this year's big sale, let's get the housekeeping done. There were six items made available in the market, all for a 40% discount on their original price.

Notification for Black Friday 2015 sale

Indeed these items are still available at the time of writing with a four day banner applied to each of them. So they should hang around until Tuesday, by which time the entirety of Black Friday weekend - including Cyber Monday - will have passed. We've never had such a long and apparently rigid Black Friday sale before, so it is pleasing that there's no immediate rush to develop a gem spending strategy.

Here's the visual representation of the content:

Black Friday 2015 sale items

And now a neat table of this stuff:

Item	Cost	Notes
Holiday Cake Display	11 gems	Originally available in Dec 2012
Baby Reindeer	9 gems	Originally available in Dec 2012
North Pole HQ	3,000 coins	Originally available in Dec 2012
Grandma's Kitchen	24 gems	Limited time offer in Dec 2013
Lazy Sunday	42 gems	Originally available in Value Pack in Jun 2015
Gem Dispenser*	270 gems	Discounted (normally 450 gems)

(*) The Gem Dispenser is not available on Android devices

Clearly there's a bias towards Christmas here, with the Lazy Sunday being the only decoration not related to the festive season. The Lazy Sunday was a Value Pack exclusive back in June, and has never previously been available for in-game currency, nor have Android players ever had a shot at it. A 4x4 sized beauty, the biggest selling point with this kitchen orientated piece is that it includes a cheery Gran-Gran. Everyone's favourite cook hasn't appeared all that often in the game, so her presence really does increase the appeal.

Having said that, at 42 gems this is still an expensive buy. Going by the real money cost of the Value Pack the Lazy Sunday was in, I'm not convinced this is as good as 40% off as is advertised. After much pondering I made the call to turn it down. I've already spent more gems on kitchen content than anything else and am perfectly happy with my current kitchen layout. so passing this quality decoration is easier than I thought it would be.

As for the Christmas stuff, the Grandma's Kitchen is another item which belongs in the kitchen. Originally a limited time offer in 2013 for 40 gems, this one was then up for 28 gems on Black Friday last year. So this is the cheapest deal we've seen for it, and yet I'm again turning it down. Grandma's Kitchen does have some festive charm, but it's only 3x3 and the scale of the stove and pan is all wrong when compared to the appliances.

The Holiday Cake Display was also re-released on Black Friday in 2014, and like the Grandma's Kitchen is now available at its cheapest ever price. This is the third opportunity I've had to invest in it, but again I'm saying no. There's nothing really wrong with it, but I just feel there are better uses for my hard-earned gems.

Then there's the Baby Reindeer. Not to be confused with the Christmas Reindeer which was a goal prize last year, this reindeer is very cute, but it's difficult to justify parting with 9 gems for a rather small and diminutive item. At least the same can't be said for the North Pole HQ which is a coin re-release. First appearing in 2012, this 3x3 effort has never really inspired me, mostly because of the inclusion of walls. These really take away the flexibility, forcing you to place it in such a way that there's nothing hidden behind it.

All that remains is the Gem Dispenser. Normally coming at a cost of 450 gems, this is clearly an excellent deal at 270 gems if you fancy giving yourself a continuous income of premium currency. But nevertheless it's not as good an offer as we had when it was first introduced and was priced at 225 gems - 50% off. Then there's the simple fact that it still isn't available on Android. What a kick in the teeth to not only continue to neglect Androiders with this game-changing instrument, but to then provide a special sale on it exclusively for iOS players on Black Friday!

 Special sales

 20/12/14 Christmas 2014
 29/11/14 Black Friday 2014

 30/11/13 Black Friday 2013

As I'm sure you can tell, I'm beginning to boil over here having stored up my emotions until now. But that can't last any longer...

Six items?! Five if you're on Android?! A farce if there ever was one! And to think that we were all royally disappointed by the selection of stuff on offer on Black Friday last year - at least there were 20 items on sale that day!

Not for the first time we've suffered the illogical business decisions that are increasingly following Storm8 around. The difference this time is that it's happening right under the spotlight when expectations are high. I didn't come into Black Friday with particularly high expectations, but would never have predicted such a shoddy sale.

Where is the sense in only re-releasing six items? The gamemakers have demonstrated that they are still attached enough to the game to be bothered with doing a Black Friday sale, and yet they couldn't be bothered to offer a reasonable number of decorations. I refuse to believe that Storm8 weren't well aware that only giving six items would cause an avalanche of acrimony, so why do it?

There can be few types of update simpler than a re-release. When designing new content or fixing bugs there are many steps have to be undertaken, but that cannot be the case when it comes to throwing existing stuff back into the game. The amount of effort needed to do this is small relatively speaking, which only serves to heighten my bewilderment.

In truth I should be grateful for any form of sale, and yet I can't help but feel let down. I'd rather see this beautiful game go out in style on the highest of highs, not with a stumble and fall. Perhaps I'm living in a fantasy world where such endings just don't happen.

Beyond the quantity of items I also have strong feelings with regards to the type of items. I think it was made pretty clear by the players as a whole following last year's debacle that a better mix of content was needed rather than a skewing towards Christmas stuff. It appeared that Storm8 learned from that by providing a more rounded and diverse sale in the lead-up to Christmas, and yet here we are with the same situation 12 months later, except it's more extreme.

Of course there is scope for the game's developers to pull their socks up and repeat the feat of last year with a Christmas bonanza. But I certainly won't be preparing a victory speech in anticipation, and even if there is one it won't erase the fact that this year's Black Friday has been a real disappointment.

And that's before we even consider the lack of a 40% off gem sale. This is something which has been a constant through the years so to see no such sale this time round is so deflating.

Limited time 40% off gems offer provided in previous years

I am not a gem buyer so it doesn't effect me personally, but I know there are scores of players out there who were prepared to spend real money and capitalise on a generous deal. Instead Storm8 have chosen to just not bother, a decision which hasn't gone down well. There's not even a 20% or 30% offer for all players - it's just a standard day with some getting a sale and some not.

The lacklustre nature of this year's event does have me once again raising the question of what the future holds for the game. The same uninspiring sales have appeared in Bakery Story and Farm Story too, giving a common denominator of the Story games with a sequel title being the ones left short-changed on Black Friday.

I probably said this last year, but I do think we'll be lucky to get through another year of Restaurant Story. The weekly updates may still be coming right now, but there has to be a time when things start to wind down in favour of the new generation games. That's understandable, but it doesn't make it any easier to stomach.

So that's it. Not the style of Black Friday post I had hoped for. The fact I haven't bought anything really says it all. I'm sitting on over 150 gems with another 100 waiting to be gained from recipes one batch short of mastery. And those gems are staying exactly where they are for now. I'll continue to wish for fine décor to spend them on, but my expectations have taken a severe hit this weekend.

The perfect way to sum it all up is to repeat a hilarious line from one of my neighbours, A Chilly Corner: 'gifted my neighbours screws... cuz we got screwed!'