MUD and MMO players are pretty much the original victims of “games as a service” mentality. News that Nintendo is shutting down the Wii Shop, meaning nobody will be able to download digital purchases from it ever again for old Wii consoles, comes as no surprise to us, the children of innumerable MMO sunsets – there but for the grace of some bean counter or an angel investor go all our games eventually.
Will we learn our lessons? Probably not. Apparently Apple is now getting in on the GAAS bandwagon, planning a Netflix-esque sub service for bundled games access and publishing. As if being made to trust Steam and Epic and aren’t bad enough. Yay, instead of losing one game, you’ll lose a whole fleet of titles when Apple gets tired of playing at publishing and helping ensure that even single-player titles can one day meet the same fate as MMOs.
Meh. Do you trust companies selling “games as a service”? Are you as sick as I am of the term and the push to rent us video games that aren’t designed to require online service in the first place?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
