Publishers 'eject too soon' on their live service games, says Warframe developer's CEO: 'It comes out, doesn’t work and they throw it away'
While you might be sick of all the live service games that swarmed us last year, there's every chance you've played at least one one for a substantial amount of time—Fortnite, Destiny 2, Apex Legends—these games are popular for a reason.
The fact remains that if a company can find the golden goose, it'll be set for years if not decades. This has led, however, to a ton of otherwise promising games signing their own death warrant—Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is this year's prime example. If they don't perform well immediately, they'll shut their doors months later—years, if they're lucky.
Digital Extremes (Warframe) CEO Steve Sinclair argues in aninterview with VGC, however, that companies are too quick to pull the ripcord if their games don't do gangbusters on release: «They think the release is make or break, and it’s not. They have a financial way to be persistent, and they never do it … It comes out, doesn’t work and they throw it away.»
Sinclair seems to argue that most live service games, namely those backed up by huge publishers, can probably have their ship steered away from the iceberg, stating it's a «shame when you put so many years of your life into iterating on those systems or building technology or building the start of a community, and because the operating costs are high, you get terrified when you see the numbers … We’ve seen this with amazing releases that I think have massive potential, and I think they eject too soon.»
When it comes to the tragedy of a live service bomb, you'll hear no argument from me. I don't think Suicide Squad is some put-upon underdog or anything, and I certainly don't feel bad for a publisher with deep pockets stepping on a rake. I do, however, feel bad for the people who put the thing together. Every game takes a ton of hard work to make, even if the result isn't great.
I will, however, quibble a little bit here. Warframe is absolutely a success story, cementing its place in the live service market after a long
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