It certainly feels like live service is being tacked on to many recent game releases (whether it makes sense or not), which of course leads to worries among gamers and industry watchers that the walls of this bubble are likely to burst soon. If it’s any consolation, most game developers reportedly feel the same way, at least if data from a recent survey is any indication.
A survey conducted by the Game Developer Collective interviewed 600 developers between February and March about their feelings towards game monetization, with a particular focus on the games-as-a-service (GAAS) model. Overall, 39 percent of participants had mild worries over current live-service business models, 31 percent were “very” concerned, and a collective 29 percent either had no concerns or were unsure.
Breaking the responses down further, the survey finds 44 percent of devs have a mixed view of live-service’s impact on gaming while 45 percent view the model negatively, yet a vast majority of respondents worry about GAAS sustainability – 63 percent worry about players losing interest and 57 percent admitted to facing difficulty with long-term engagement.
Opinions on what monetization is best seems to be a bit more scattered, as there’s a one-to-four percent difference in future projects having battle passes, being included in subscription services, and so on. Most agree that that upfront payment is best, and there appears to be a swing in favor of DLC. Of course, the people working on games don’t really have a say in what the C-suite and leadership wants, but it’s clear they have opinions.
