Fun, But At What Price?

Buying Games Has Changed

Gone are the days of waiting for the weekend to buy a physical game from a store, playing it until it's finished and hoping that the next one comes out soon. In these modern times of connected, high-speed internet gaming, developers are working at breaking speeds to turn around games with the new increasing pressure to get the most out of players – both through engagement and their wallets. 

With the cost of game production growing every year, investors are turning to developers to come up with new solutions to these money-driven trends. Sometimes this benefits players, (especially if the content is great) but it can also be a much less appealing corporate cash grab. This is where the idea of the live service model comes into play.

The Components of a Live Service Game

The live service model is basically thinking of a game as a continuous service. As mentioned before, in the past, games (both single and multiplayer) would end. Maybe this was when you had beat all the challenges, or sometimes you simply didn’t make it to the end of the gameplay, for example, in the multiplayer component of Halo 1, 2, and 3 on PC. 

These days, game developers are under pressure to create games with the intent to deliver ongoing content. The Destiny franchise (made by Bungie, the developers of the original Halo trilogy) does this. Destiny ...