“We have made the difficult decision to end development of Hyper Scape and shut the game down as of April 28th. While the post was brief, it was clear that Ubisoft was disappointed that the game never caught on with the multiplayer crowd. In a blog post today, Ubisoft revealed that Hyper Scape will officially be closing down its servers later this year. Now it appears that Ubisoft’s free-to-play battle royale Hyper Scape has met the same unfortunate demise. Games like Radical Heights, The Darwin Project, and The Culling all are games that promised to be “the next big thing” but ultimately fell short. However, not all games have been able to find success within the genre. There are always games that create trends and without a doubt, between Fortnite and PUBG they helped kick off the battle royale genre into the mainstream. Live-service games, when they land, offer that constant revenue stream.Sometimes games simply do not perform the way developers and publishers believe they will. As these blockbuster single-player games grow more expensive to produce and take longer to boot, studios need to keep money trickling in. Live-service games keep making money over and over again. Even the biggest, most successful single-player games are here and gone, at least from a profit perspective. But the fact is, most of us dabble a little bit with live-service games in some form or another. There's no right answer to that question, no 'right' video games to enjoy. We say we prefer single player experiences that offer rich, self contained stories, and the success of the likes of The Last of Us Part 2, God of War Ragnarok, Elden Ring, and Red Dead Redemption 2 shows that to be true, but when these behemoths aren't around, are we checking out the less polished double-A options of single-player experiences, or are we all aboard the Battle Bus? Live-service games made without creativity usually result in bad monetisation practises, a lack of interesting upgrades, and piles of needless currency that make playing the game a grindy chore. Live-service is often viewed as unpopular, but that's only because of how badly it fails when it goes wrong. Fortnite has continued to reign supreme after a resurgence, Call of Duty: Warzone 2 still packs players in despite heavy criticism of stale gameplay, Apex Legends is going strong, Pokemon Go made over $700 million last year despite being a 'dead game', and then there's Destiny 2, World of Warcraft, Genshin Impact, GTA Online, Sea of Thieves, and Final Fantasy 14, but I'll spare you a sentence explanation for the popularity of every mainstream live-service game out there. Live-service games remain the most popular genre out there. Related: The Less Glamorous Side Of Esports A couple of them might fail, especially if it's a smaller studio trying to wade in or Ubisoft throwing everything at the wall in the hopes it will stick, but it feels like the end of the beginning rather than the beginning of the end. And let's be honest, how many of you had really heard of Crimesight? Many of the upcoming live-service games are being pushed by Sony, who tend to drive industry trends. While the upcoming games could simply be doomed to failure post-burst, that seems like a knee-jerk reaction in the wake of the rapid cancellations. Looking at all the games yet to come, you might feel like it is just beginning. Looking at the recent cancellations (and extending back longer than just ten days, you can toss in the likes of Battleborn, Hyper Scape, Anthem, Marvel's Avengers, along with a host of others), you might feel like the live-service bubble has burst. Live-service games are dying and coming back to life over and over again, like ceaseless zombies marching towards piles of cash that they will never reach before their flesh rots off and they crumble to ash. If you said "hey Susan, those are all upcoming live-service games either confirmed or rumoured!" then again, it's Stacey. If you said "hey Sarah, those are all live-service games cancelled in the last ten days!", then you’re close. Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero’s Bonds.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |