Helldivers 2 and Nightingale expose the issues all live service games face

digitaltrends.com:

With the launches of Helldivers 2, Nightingale, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Foamstars, and Skull & Bones, February 2024 has been packed with new multiplayer games planned to have live service tails.

They have all released to varying degrees of success. Warner Bros. and analysts have suggested that Suicide Squad underperformed, while an Insider Gaming report claimed the same about Skull & Bones. On the other hand, games like Nightingale and Helldivers 2 have garnered much more interest from players.

But even when these live service games do well and are designed with respect for players’ time and money in mind, they aren’t free from issues, as their always online nature can lead to server problems and player frustration. February 2024 has demonstrated how hard it is to release a new online live service game unscathed.

Helldivers 2 has been a glaring example of this. It’s the month’s darling surprise hit, with co-op mission design and stratagem systems that create many unpredictable, hilarious moments. Helldivers 2 has gone viral online, leading to increased player interest and helping the game to achieve all-time player count highs for a PlayStation-published PC release. Although that seems like the hit status that any game developer would hope for, the fact that it drastically overshot midsize developer Arrowhead Game Studios and Sony’s expectations has led to many server problems.

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Matchmaking in Helldivers 2 has been a mess since launch, and player caps have had to be implemented to maintain stability. Unfortunately, that means some people who have spent money on Helldivers 2 and want to play it because they heard how good it is just can’t. That’s the downside to an always-online live service game: players are