Look, I'll start by saying that I'm someone who absolutely loves single player games. That said, I'm no stranger to live service titles either. Having sunk over 3,000 hours into Rainbow Six Siege, along with a healthy amount of time with Helldivers 2 ( review ), I know what this model brings. While I'm not the biggest fan, I understand that developers are feeding this machine to keep the profits going. But as it turns out, there is trouble in paradise.
Why does almost everyone HATE live service games?
A recent survey conducted by Game Developer took 600 different developers and asked them questions about video game monetization. And what do you know? Of all developers surveyed, over 70% believe that live service games are not sustainable and could fall apart. Let's break it down, shall we?
Of the 70% of developers who believe live service is not sustainable, 31% were very concerned, while 39% were somewhat concerned. To dive deeper, the survey also asked why they felt what they did. For all the reasons you think live service games fail, players losing interest wouldn't be one of them. As it turns out, it is. Image Courtesy: Game Developers
Over 63% of game developers believe that a loss of player interest will drive this decline. Additionally, competition from other live service games was a close second, with a combined strength of 62%.
