SelectiveGamer Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 This might just be me and my opinion (and it probably is...) but I don't really think it's an issue of people not wanting multiplayer games or wanting single player games more. It's an issue of this seeming severe push towards live service games a.k.a. GaaS (Games as a Service) that are full of microtransaction, battle pass, monetization, P2W, insert other scummy monetization methods here garbage that most (I won't say all) don't seem to like or care for (which obviously includes me) If you took that crap away (which lets be honest that will never happen) then I'm sure multiplayer games would still be successful and even fun at times. But I'm obviously not an expert here so just ignore me I guess? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kittens Are Awesome Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 You'd be amazed at how many people would just rather pay to have something done quick. I'm surprised this model hasn't taken on like Sony had hoped. People might be shocked at how often I'm hit up to do stuff on fighting games Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infected Elite Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 5 hours ago, DEI2EK said: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/10/the-last-of-us-multiplayer-game-is-basically-on-ice-right-now just scrap it. lol. It's been too long to make a multiplayer game that probably would end up be a little more refined from the first game. Don't care if they get laid off 😂 25 minutes ago, SelectiveGamer said: If you took that crap away (which lets be honest that will never happen) then I'm sure multiplayer games would still be successful and even fun at times. But I'm obviously not an expert here so just ignore me I guess? you're not wrong. The thing that's annoying is the battlepasses etc tend to have free tiers which generally consist of garbage, vs paid tiers which have more expensive garbage. The big issue for me is more so my own, in the fact i am able to buy every big release and more so i am always moving onto something else. But would i like to play an MMO or a game with multiplayer without the need to have to pay to keep up to date? sure. But won't happen. I think these pay-gates actually deter some from even touching certain games. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floorkiller74 Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 4 hours ago, iriihutoR84 said: What makes you think the current live service trend has been rejected? Ever heard of Fortnite? Minecraft? Destiny 2? Forza Horizon? GTA V? Rocket League? Genshin Impact? I've never heard of Genshin Impact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidnightDragon Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 Ya think? Hopefully they reverse course sooner rather than later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lronHulk Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 People think live service games are dead, but the reality is that they make a lot of money. They also dont care about tryhards. They target casuals and dads and they have no idea what’s going on because they don’t go on forums or on reddit. They just casually play their game and buy cosmetics/battlepasses. We are a minority now and there’s nothing we can do about it. Just check Diablo 4 for example. Trashed to the ground on metacritic and yet they will sell millions of expansions every year. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post SwiftGuyver Posted October 4, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted October 4, 2023 (edited) We're nearly 3 years into the PS5's life cycle and we haven't seen a brand new true next gen title from Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, Guerilla, Sucker Punch or Bend, only Insomniac, Housemarque and Bluepoint have delivered one game each so far (Insomniac have a second releasing soon) that couldn't also be played on a PS4. Depending on how long this console gen lasts we might only see one new single player game from each of those studios now. In my opinion Sony should have left the live service content to be covered by the new studios they've bought specifically for that task (Bungie, Firewalk and Haven etc) and kept the other first party devs on the traditional single player titles that millions of players around the world love. Edited October 4, 2023 by SwiftGuyver 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkrequiem7 Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 (edited) 6 hours ago, iriihutoR84 said: What makes you think the current live service trend has been rejected? Ever heard of Fortnite? Minecraft? Destiny 2? Forza Horizon? GTA V? Rocket League? Genshin Impact? They are bringing in a constant flow of bazillions of dollars and that's why they are supported year after year. Look at the most played games on TrueAchievements and TrueTrophies. Live service games are completely dominating outside your bubble. No one is rejecting them. Consumers are feeding them more and more time and money and that's why we are seeing these investment. It's a tough market to break into but that's where the big money is if you are successful. Did you know that a larger percentage of Sony's revenue comes from add-on content than full games? DLC and microtransactions gives Sony more money than full game sales from digital and physical combined. And this is in 2023 where most of their first party games aren't even live service. That is why Sony wants to invest in live service games. Epic just laid off some folks, so Fortnite revenue isn't what it used to be. Minecraft updates are free (licensed content aside). So is GTAO for those who want to grind. Rocket League, Apex Legends and Genshin Impact are free to play. So is Destiny 2 kinda. How old are most of those live service games at this point? Genshin Impact is fairly new but is still 3 years old already. Generally speaking the live service games and its audience has probably plateaued. How many live service games failed trying to be the next "big one?" Meanwhile we've had several decent single-player games launch this year with 2 more months to go (December tends to be light in game releases so I didn't count it). I'd be curious how wide the add-on money pool comes from. Is it just 5-10 games that provide around 90% of the add-on revenue, or is it a lot wider than that. Or what amount of add-on revenue comes from paid titles vs free-to-play titles. Edited October 4, 2023 by darkrequiem7 double-submission Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majob Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 I think a lot of people are walking into this with the wrong perception. As mentioned earlier, Sony has made the bulk of their profit in Playstation from services. i.e microtransactions, DLC, and subscriptions. The GAAS pipeline was established before Ryan even became CEO for that matter but he did make the biggest contribution by acquiring multiple studios focused on developing GAAS titles. Sony also has not stopped development of single player games, what they have done is allocate more funding towards the GAAS pipeline since they're making them from scratch. People claiming the trend is dying are also sorely mistaken, Some of the popular players may be seeing a drop but others like Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail and mobile games like Fate Grand Order (which Sony owns by the way and its success is part of the reason they've invested more in GAAS) are still on top in terms of revenue. If you think the trend is dying then the numbers don't agree with you. This article is trying to make what amounts to standard corporate grumblings come off as ill tidings 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPtheNeurotic Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 14 minutes ago, darkrequiem7 said: Epic just laid off some folks, so Fortnite revenue isn't what it used to be. I feel like that’s more because of their lawsuit against apple and the epic games store 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majob Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 (edited) 2 minutes ago, JPtheNeurotic said: I feel like that’s more because of their lawsuit against apple and the epic games store Not to mention corporate layoffs have been going on everywhere for roughly 2 years since we're in the midst of a recession. The gaming market doesn't exist in a vacuum Edited October 4, 2023 by majob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandedBerserk Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 How can that be said so proudly when they haven't even released any of the planned games yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post shadaik Posted October 4, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted October 4, 2023 6 hours ago, BrandedBerserk said: How can that be said so proudly when they haven't even released any of the planned games yet Because people don't even understand what "live service" means and somehow conflate it with multiplayer. That in tunr is most likely because the parroting of a few people who know little about what they talk about is strong in the gaming community. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voland44 Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 58 minutes ago, shadaik said: Because people don't even understand what "live service" means and somehow conflate it with multiplayer. That in tunr is most likely because the parroting of a few people who know little about what they talk about is strong in the gaming community. not really. when ppl think about live cervice they always bring up MTX part. thats why live cervice usally hated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadaik Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 1 hour ago, Voland44 said: not really. when ppl think about live cervice they always bring up MTX part. thats why live cervice usally hated Oh, live services are certainly bad, no doubt about that. It's just that, as a business model, they seem to work, but because people don't understand what they actually are, they point to a few shut down multiplayer games and claim "live services are dying". Never mind cloud gaming is live service. Server-side save files are live service. Season passes are live service. Always-on anti-piracy measures are live service. Steam is live service, as are PS Plus Extra and Premium (Essential is a bit different). Nintendo has a plethora of live service games running successfully and I see very few complaints, if any. They started that on the 3DS. And, of course, there is always Genshin Impact as the big one everyone tries to displace. The sad truth is, just because something is a bad product does not mean it isn't printing money. It's even perfectly in line with how media companies, including game companies, work: They are fully aware not everry project will be a major hit, so they aim for getting about one hit in every ten releases. Live services are specifically geared to make as much money from such a situation as possible while also funneling as much of that money directly to the publisher. Though I have to admit, I have no idea what MTX is and there are too many things abbreviated such to yield any useful results when googling. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConAir Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 20 minutes ago, shadaik said: Oh, live services are certainly bad, no doubt about that. It's just that, as a business model, they seem to work, but because people don't understand what they actually are, they point to a few shut down multiplayer games and claim "live services are dying". Never mind cloud gaming is live service. Server-side save files are live service. Season passes are live service. Always-on anti-piracy measures are live service. Steam is live service, as are PS Plus Extra and Premium (Essential is a bit different). Nintendo has a plethora of live service games running successfully and I see very few complaints, if any. They started that on the 3DS. And, of course, there is always Genshin Impact as the big one everyone tries to displace. The sad truth is, just because something is a bad product does not mean it isn't printing money. It's even perfectly in line with how media companies, including game companies, work: They are fully aware not everry project will be a major hit, so they aim for getting about one hit in every ten releases. Live services are specifically geared to make as much money from such a situation as possible while also funneling as much of that money directly to the publisher. Though I have to admit, I have no idea what MTX is and there are too many things abbreviated such to yield any useful results when googling. MTX in this case stands for microtransactions. Or how to monitise more money from the same player... There are many succesfull live service games and yet somehow the cases that failed are better in our memory. But at some point even that market is full. You can only play 1 game at a time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VigilantCrow Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 The only live service game I've enjoyed was Gems of War. Simple match 3 game, where I can drink or smoke the green, do zero thinking and play after a rough day of work. Sony should focus on making games instead of copy/pasting the same mechanics on different skins. Everything is a third person shooter for first party. There's almost zero variety, challenge is non existant on the games and characters have the same boring personality traits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majob Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 (edited) 6 hours ago, VigilantCrow said: The only live service game I've enjoyed was Gems of War. Simple match 3 game, where I can drink or smoke the green, do zero thinking and play after a rough day of work. Sony should focus on making games instead of copy/pasting the same mechanics on different skins. Everything is a third person shooter for first party. There's almost zero variety, challenge is non existant on the games and characters have the same boring personality traits. Sony makes what they do well right now and as a company they've always leaned more on third party games offering the variety than themselves. The "unique" games they used to make sold terribly which is why they stopped making them Edited October 4, 2023 by majob 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevengeancePrime Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 Live service works and it's not like we've actually seen these multiplayer titles yet as the article specifies. One of Sony's biggest money makers is FGO, which hit $7 billion this year despite that game being outdated in several ways. I think these upcoming mp games could do well if Sony markets them right and more importantly has a steady stream of content coming in. I believe this is one of the reasons gachas like Genshin Impact, Arknights and FGO are so successful. There is a constant stream of content in various forms (characters, events, stories...) to look forward to every month. If they just launch a live service game and go silent for weeks or months then the game will simply die off. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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