Most Game Developers Are Doubtful About The Sustainability Of Live Service Games

Over the past few years, we’ve seen the video game industry shift from one-off buy-to-play titles into live service games which now make up a good chunk of the market. If done right, live service games have the potential to generate continuous revenue for developers and publishers. The drawback is that they also require constant upkeep to roll out regular updates and keep the servers running 24/7.

Unfortunately, only a bare handful of games have managed to keep players engaged enough to make them worth the time and resources. Others have simply fizzled out of existence as their playerbases dwindled over time. That’s assuming that they even had a sizable playerbase to begin with. It’s gotten to the point where even developers are doubting the sustainability of the business model.

The Game Developer Collective recently conducted a survey to take the pulse of the development community on games-as-a-service (GAAS). Of the 600 respondents, 39% said they were mildly concerned about the current state of live-service business models, while 31% said they were very concerned. The rest either couldn’t care less or were unsure.

Furthermore, 44% of respondents said they had mixed views on the impact of live service games on the gaming industry and the experience in general while 45% felt that it had a negative effect. As for the perceived sustainability of the business model, a whopping 65% expressed concerns about players losing interest, while 57% admitted that they were struggling to maintain long-term engagement.

Feelings about various monetization models like battle passes and monthly subscriptions were mixed, but most developers apparently agree that one-time payments and DLCs are the best option for monetizing a game.

However, these opinions are mostly from rank-and-file developers who more often than not don’t really get to weigh in on how their games should be monetized. That decision falls on the C-suite executives and upper-level management who seem determined to milk every penny they can get from live service tiles before eventually pulling the plug.