Live service games are controversial, but if they are successful they can make a studio a lot of money for years. The numbers are shocking as to how many studios are working on such titles.
Live service games are a tricky topic. Quite a few players hate them. Online compulsion, constant DLC packages, expensive cosmetics and often questionable pricing and practices. But there are enough players who are jumping on the bandwagon. Successful studios love them because they bring in a lot of money if you do it right – like GTA Online, Fortnite and the like.
It is therefore hardly surprising that there are always new attempts to establish a live service game in the hope of making a big splash. A survey by Griffin Gaming Partners and Rendered VC among 537 development studios revealed that a whopping 95 percent of studios are working on a live service game or are already running one. 66 percent are even of the opinion that live services are necessary for the long-term success of a game.
The risk is gigantic. According to the survey, the development of a live service game should take up to five years, while “normal” games can be created in two to three years. There is also work on new content to keep players happy.
“Across the industry, live services teams reported that their ideal production schedules are weekly to bi-weekly for live ops and bi-weekly to monthly for game content updates,” the report said. “In the context of game development, which typically spans several years, production schedules for live services are moving at a rapid pace.
If you hit the right nerve, you can be successful with a game like this for years to come. But not everyone can do that, the list of games and developments that have now been discontinued is long. It will be interesting to see what proportion of studios working on live service games will still exist in a few years.
“The Chop Shop” is the next major update for the long-running GTA Online.
