This morning the developer behind co-op shooter Previous 4 blood–-released in 2021 on console and PC – announced it’s moving forward after the release of several updates and three expansions. And the reaction to that was mostly negative, with players declaring the game dead and suggesting the team abandon it. But really, I think it’s good when developers make games, give them a little support and then move on. Not everything has to be like a live service game Fourteen days or GTA Online. In fact, I miss those happier days when studios were allowed to move on and do something new.
Released in October 2021, Previous 4 blood is a left 4 Dead-like zombie shooter developed by Turtle Rock Studios, the team behind the first left 4 Dead. And yes, Previous 4 blood was not as good as its spiritual predecessors. But it wasn’t a train wreck either. I actually had a lot of fun with the game and have since gone back a few times to replay with friends for many hours of fun. It also received three expansions, added new content while fixing some bugs and balance issues.
Now, a year and a half later, it’s the developers turn onwards to something “bigger, bolder and better” and I’m curious what that is. Previous 4 blood will not shut down or kill. It will remain playable on all platforms it was released on. The game lives on while the team behind it gets to do something else. And that’s how it used to work.
Before, say, 2013, games could be released, supported a little, and then the developer could move on. Rarely have people blinked their eyes at this. Nobody expected a developer to stick with a single game for five, seven, or 12 years. There were of course some exceptions, big MMORPGs like e.g EverQuest II or insanely popular PC games like counterstrike or The Sims. But these were rarities. For a long time, games were launched, people played and enjoyed them, and developers moved on. If a game was really good and sold very well, then maybe could get an extension. But most of the time, hit games never got more content or seasons, and players were fine with that.
halo 3 Got a handful of packs of cards and then Bungie moved on, but players continued to play the original version of the game until the Xbox 360 servers shut down
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Well, to be clear, online games that shut down servers after just a year or two are terrible and should be criticized. (I am Look at Epic and its recent shutdown of Rumbleverse
And it’s not like Turtle Rock came out in 2021 promising a decade of content for the game. The studio made a zombie shooter, released it, made some DLC, fixed bugs and is now moving on. If you wanna play Previous 4 blood It’s still there. Turtle Rock not adding another big expansion doesn’t hurt anything.
See I love a good live service game. I play destiny 2 the whole time. It’s great to have a game that grows and expands over time. However, not all my games need to do this. Musical action platformer with surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush is great and if it never gets any DLC or expansions it will still be great. This constant thirst for content isn’t what we need right now, and it would really help if more people were okay with games not going on forever. A developer leaving a project shouldn’t automatically mean failure. Instead, it should just be a normal part of the industry. Like in old times.