The live service approach takes the insecure foundation of microtransactions and transforms it into a more consumer-friendly model. The live service approach often sees a game release that the developers keep working on for at least a year or two, adding new content every few weeks to keep its player base back. This steady stream of content is then used to entice players into purchasing in-game cosmetics with real cash, keeping the game profitable long after its initial release. But if Knockout City And Rumbleverse To show the industry something, it’s that the live service model isn’t without its obvious flaws.
If Fourteen days Released in 2017, its unique approach to monetization and content almost single-handedly popularized the live service model. In the years that followed, attempts were made to capture a variety of other free-to-play titles Fourteen days‘s magic by simply mimicking its live service approach, and it’s proven time and time again that just mimicking success isn’t enough. With Rumbleverse And Knockout City Both just announced their server shutdowns a few days ago, once again highlighting the shortcomings of the live services model and proving that not every game has to be a live services title.
Knockout City and Rumbleverse prove that not every game should be a live service
The live service approach inherently implies that a game will exist for quite a while, with frequent content updates to be expected. Right off the bat, the live service approach has a number of downsides, all of which stem from just that expectation. The first problem is that this can often result in a severe lack of content at launch, with developers hiding behind the expectation that fans will be willing to wait for more content just because it’s a live-service game. game acts. Nintendo and its recent sports titles are also to blame.
This expectation can also make developers feel trapped in their own projects. What may have started out as just a fun little project may have been confiscated by a major publisher and forced to become a live service title, trapping its team to work exclusively on content for this game for the foreseeable future. Even worse is when that game is also dead on arrival. It’s often the sad case that a live service game releases and doesn’t draw a significant crowd for the first few weeks, but since the developer has promised more content, it’s forced to spend time and resources creating new assets and modes that only a tiny fraction of the gaming public will ever see.
In this modern gaming age, with a ton of exciting new titles being released every day, every title is fighting for the attention of its audience and unfortunately that doesn’t fit the live service model. Knockout City And Rumbleverse were good games at their core, each with their own set of unique and engaging mechanics, and both had fun visual styles. Both games had decent followings, but that’s still not enough to justify all the work behind the scenes, and now both games are shutting down their servers later this year and apart from a handful of private servers on PC they won’t be entirely accessible.
If Rumbleverse And Knockout City Proving that not every game has to follow a live service model. Both games were fun little time wasters, but neither offered enough depth for even die-hard fans to spend hours at a time. These titles should simply be one-and-done releases with a relatively low price point that justifies the amount of content in the game at launch. If those games then proved popular, an expansion or DLC could be released, but that shouldn’t have been expected. Publishers need to be more willing to just let smaller games be smaller games, and it’s time the live service model was reserved for games that actually fit that.
Knockout City is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S until June 6th.
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