For almost a decade, live-service features have been de rigeur for most games – but with live-service projects being cancelled or pivoted to single player, it a
x as a service has always been a net negative for the consumer, and a net positive for the seller.
It strips them away from responsibility, because you can sell incomplete dogshit under a promise of future patches, or push something out for a price, and then continue raising the price, as you pump out more stuff into the system.
In the case of games specifically, we’ve all seen the typical outcomes. Low effort slop, with a flood of “micro” transactions at a later date, or complete abandonment
This doesn’t even touch on the fact that nobody gets to own anything anymore. I am guilty of it with Steam myself, but I also recognize the inherent flaw with the model.
Live service is a whole 'nother level above DRM though. You don’t even get to say you purchased a license with a live service game. You can’t install them and run them after the servers shut down. They don’t want us to own things, just keep paying them forever.
x as a service has always been a net negative for the consumer, and a net positive for the seller.
It strips them away from responsibility, because you can sell incomplete dogshit under a promise of future patches, or push something out for a price, and then continue raising the price, as you pump out more stuff into the system.
In the case of games specifically, we’ve all seen the typical outcomes. Low effort slop, with a flood of “micro” transactions at a later date, or complete abandonment
This doesn’t even touch on the fact that nobody gets to own anything anymore. I am guilty of it with Steam myself, but I also recognize the inherent flaw with the model.
Live service is a whole 'nother level above DRM though. You don’t even get to say you purchased a license with a live service game. You can’t install them and run them after the servers shut down. They don’t want us to own things, just keep paying them forever.
I can’t read anything about this concept without hearing Liz from TrueAnon saying “Bee to bee SaaS” sarcastically