The gaming industry, in many people’s eyes and minds, is currently teetering on the edge of disaster. The reason for this is obvious to anyone who has seen the news over the last eight months. First, the AAA games that should bring in “millions upon millions” of sales aren’t always doing that. This leads to the second reason for the issue, which is the numerous layoffs and “shifts in focus” within both developers and publishers due to the lack of profits they’re getting in titles. While many have thoughts on this, Live Service Games are the titles that many point to when it comes to things that are “ruining the industry.”
The sad irony is that plenty of people are trying to make AA or indie titles that are truly great, and are worth people’s time, but they’re not getting the attention of big publishers because they “aren’t the biggest money makers.” You don’t have to take our word for that, though; you can take it from insider and developer Xavier Nelson, who went onto the Limit Break Network to highlight the key problem that many devs and publishers have right now:
“Everyone who has the money to do a AA revolution instead wants to make a new Fortnite, and that new Fortnite might get canceled before it ever gets released.”
While that might seem harsh, we know for a fact that this has happened just this week with the reveal that Concord was getting shut down not even two weeks after its release! That title was worked on for EIGHT YEARS and is possibly the biggest financial flop in gaming history. That’s saying something, by the way.
Going back to the Epic Games title, that may be the “golden goose” regarding microtransactions, but that doesn’t mean that all Live Service Games can match that. That was very much a “lightning in a bottle” situation that Epic Games has been able to keep going despite all the knockoffs and others trying to get its spotlight.
What has infuriated many is that in the last few years alone, numerous single-player titles of AA and AAA scope have done incredibly well sales-wise across Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox, and yet, only The Big N is focusing on making great single-player titles of various ranges, while Microsoft and Sony are trying everything they can to make more live service titles, even when it means shutting down people like Tango Gameworks, despite the fact they made an incredible AA title in 2023.
Things need to change, or else it’ll only get worse from here.
