What your PC game’s LiveOps strategy can learn from mobile gaming

pcgamesinsider.biz:

This is a guest post by Mika Patiala, Co-Founder & VP of Business Development of Metaplay:

There are few topics that divide opinion as much as ‘LiveOps’; a catch-all term for active management of and updates to a game that don’t require a new version to be released. Commercially-minded developers might set out to build a forever game, but others want to create a discrete piece of art. Many players like the constant flow of new content and season pass grind, while others find it antithetical to a casual pick-up-and-play experience. Regardless of how you feel about LiveOps, it’s here to stay. A recent survey from Griffin Gaming Partners showed that 95% of studios are working on or aim to release a live service game. 

The LiveOps we know today is a relatively recent phenomenon that has powered free-to-play mobile gaming to a 50% share of global games industry revenues. However, it’s also very visible in popular cross-platform (but PC/console-first) titles such as Fortnite and Apex Legends and is increasingly commonplace in many present-day releases. So, is there anything left for PC games to learn from how mobile games approach LiveOps? I’d argue there is. 

Successful LiveOps delivery has been key to the success of both mobile and PC titles. Both the top 10 downloaded mobile games in July 2024 and Steam’s most played titles for the week of 22nd July see classic titles that continue to receive regular updates through LiveOps (and UGC) firmly embedded in the charts. Just three titles out of 10 on each list were released within the last year. 

While releasing new mobile games is uniquely difficult at present, 2024 has been a year of smash hits on PC. Where are they now? 

Palworld, though released in ‘early access’, was clearly not set up to capture the level of interest it initially achieved (an astonishing 2.1m concurrent players on Steam). With players starved of new content, interest rapidly dwindled. But the ‘Sakurajima’ update at the end of June instantly saw peak