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GDC's annual State of the Game Industry survey reveals 1/3 of 'triple-A developers' are working on live service games

It doesn't seem like big publishers are ready to give up on the live service chase just yet.

www.pcgamer.com

We've expressed a certain creeping exhaustion with live service games more than once in these digital pages, and the catastrophic failure of Concord led to some predictions that the tide was finally turning against them. But maybe not, too. GDC's 2025 State of the Game Industry report says 33% of triple-A developers who responded to its annual survey are currently working on a live service game.

Across all respondents, 16% said they're working on a live service game, indicative of the fact that they tend to be bigger-budget affairs, made by larger studios and publishers that can afford to develop and maintain them. Interestingly, only 13% of all respondents said they'd be interested in making a live service game for their next release, while 42% said they would not. 29% said they didn't know, or that it wasn't applicable.

The GDC report describes the response as "mixed," which is perhaps a little generous given that close to half expressed a firm lack of interest in live service development. There's definitely some enthusiasm for it: Former Halo and Destiny producer Joe Tung, for instance, said in a 2024 interview that the free-to-play live service model "is so much better for developers and players," because "you can think long term in terms of what is best for the players." Tung's Theorycraft Games studio is currently working on Supervive, a 'MOBA battle royale meets hero shooter' that's currently in early access on Steam.

Some survey respondents said they also saw value in live service games, "not only on the financial side, but also in the player experience and community building." Others, though, "noted their concerns about declining player interest, creative stagnation, predatory practices and microtransactions, and the risk of developer burnout. One of the biggest issues mentioned was market saturation, with many developers noting how tough it is to break through and build a sustainable player base."

 

[BossLackey]

Idiots.

 

[bitbydeath]

Hell of a gamble.
May as well start closing up shop now.

 

[adamsapple]

Hell of a gamble.
May as well start closing up shop now.

They all want to get that Fortnite money.

 

[Robb]

33% of triple-A developers who responded to its annual survey are currently working on a live service game.

 

[Wulfer]

Videogame industry reset coming. Starting with Sony.

Hold the line don't buy!

 

[Bitstream]

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

They all want to get that Fortnite money.

Instead, the majority will win negative money.

 

[Generic]

Makes sense, the most popular games nowadays are GaaS.

NeoGAF lives in another universe.

 

[Hari Seldon]

This industry is in for a massive contraction and tbh I won't even feel sympathy.

 

[Buggy Loop]

I don’t want to act dramatic but we’re not too far from a couple of dominos tumbling and we have an industry crash. A LOT of peoples will lose their jobs for sure.

 

[bender]

Live feed of Men_in_Boxes :

 

[LordOfChaos]

gey

 

[Kacho]

I can only guess that devs prefer it because a successful live service means job stability?

 

[LordCBH]

I hate it.....A massive chunk of the industry is gambling with terrible fucking odds. Is it really worth chasing that 1% chance of immeasurable success when the other 99% chance is absolute catastrophic failure?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

If all the game studios amped up on GAAS money got 1% each from Fortnite, all it takes is 100 devs to make Fortnite go to $0! Easy peasy!

 

[Generic]

I hate it.....A massive chunk of the industry is gambling with terrible fucking odds. Is it really worth chasing that 1% chance of immeasurable success when the other 99% chance is absolute catastrophic failure?

What exactly is this "gambling" argument about? If you look at the list of most popular PS5 games, most of them are live-service:

PlayStation Store: December 2024’s top downloads

Sci-fi horror and superheroic clashes weigh in as Alien: Rogue Incursion and Marvel Rivals debut.

blog.playstation.com

It makes more sense to invest in GaaS than in singleplayer-only games.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

"catastrophic failure of Concord"

im glad is being reported as such.

 

[Wulfer]

I hate it.....A massive chunk of the industry is gambling with terrible fucking odds. Is it really worth chasing that 1% chance of immeasurable success when the other 99% chance is absolute catastrophic failure?

Here's the real problem the gaming industry is becoming creatively bankrupt and it's a safer bet to create a Live Service game!!!

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Live feed of Men_in_Boxes :

When I said "It's the future of the medium" I meant "It's the future of the medium."

 

[bender]

When I said "It's the future of the medium" I meant "It's the future of the medium.

I hope you washed your hands before you posted this.

 

[TheGodfather07]

What exactly is this "gambling" argument about? If you look at the list of most popular PS5 games, most of them are live-service:

PlayStation Store: December 2024’s top downloads

Sci-fi horror and superheroic clashes weigh in as Alien: Rogue Incursion and Marvel Rivals debut.

blog.playstation.com

It makes more sense to invest in GaaS than in singleplayer-only games.

The problem is getting that crowd to play a different live service game. Its almost impossible. Which is why live service games fail so miserably. With single player games you have a much better chance of success if your game is high quality because that audience is much more open to playing different games and actually supporting the industry. People who play single player games go from game to game. They aint married to one franchise for 20 years.

 

[Calico345]

So I know that I'm immediately avoiding 1/3 of AAA games in the future. Excellent.

 

[StereoVsn]

They all want to get that Fortnite money.

And instead will get Concorded for like 90% of them. Hell, half or more probably wont even release.

This is so dumb as this is a huge Hail Mary gamble now days. For every Helldivers 2 we get 9-10 failures at least.

 

[Humdinger]

Makes sense. The big AAA studios have the resources to place some bets on Live service titles. The money from all those microtransactions must be very attractive.

I'm actually glad to hear that 84% of average devs are not working on them.

So I know that I'm immediately avoiding 1/3 of AAA games in the future. Excellent.

Note that it isn't "1/3 of AAA games are Live Service." It's 1/3 of AAA devs are working on a Live service title - along with whatever else they are working on.

 

[StereoVsn]

I don’t want to act dramatic but we’re not too far from a couple of dominos tumbling and we have an industry crash. A LOT of peoples will lose their jobs for sure.

That’s ok, plenty of games left and there is also Japan and now Korea and China. Mind you all three countries also make a lot of Live Service trash (especially on mobile side), but there are more then enough games coming out to last multiple lifetimes.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Not if Hermen, the GAAS Slayer, Hulst has anything to say about it once he's done.

Absolute Chad undoing all the bad work of Jim Ryan

 

[YeulEmeralda]

I don't understand GaaS. If someone spends hundreds of eurodollars on one game they are likely not going to switch to another one. We saw this with all the Warcraft clones back in the day.

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Men_in_Boxes

 

[bitbydeath]

What exactly is this "gambling" argument about? If you look at the list of most popular PS5 games, most of them are live-service:

PlayStation Store: December 2024’s top downloads

Sci-fi horror and superheroic clashes weigh in as Alien: Rogue Incursion and Marvel Rivals debut.

blog.playstation.com

It makes more sense to invest in GaaS than in singleplayer-only games.

I gather you’re counting yearly sports games as GaaS which are popular because they are sports games.

New GaaS isn’t competing in the sports market.

 

[BossLackey]

Videogame industry reset coming. Starting with Sony.

Hold the line don't buy!

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Not if Hermen, the GAAS Slayer, Hulst has anything to say about it once he's done.

Absolute Chad undoing all the bad work of Jim Ryan

he is "undoing" all this shit because his neck is on the line.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

he is "undoing" all this shit because his neck is on the line.

He's doing it because he was never on board with it to begin with, he was told to do it by Jim and now he calls the shots instead

 

[Topher]

He's doing it because he was never on board with it to begin with, he was told to do it by Jim and now he calls the shots instead

According to?

 

[bundylove]

Imagine you buy a 5090 or a pro or what ever for a ton of money.

And all you get to play is gaas.

And you wonder where are the games.
And you wonder what happened to new experiences.
And you wonder why all these remakes remasters.

I am blessed i started gaming on the 2600 in 84 and grew up with the industry . All its ups and downs. And what a journey it was.

This is the end guys.

 

[bender]

According to?

Bob Dole's pen.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

According to?

My belief. Either way, he’s doing the right thing now and course correcting fast

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

This industry is in for a massive contraction and tbh I won't even feel sympathy.

.

It feels like the industry has been purging itself over the last couple of years. I wonder if this year we are going to keep seeing the same amount of high-profile flops across the board/layoffs/pivots

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Men_in_Boxes

Who is surprised by this?

It's the largest part of the market.
It's growing faster than traditional games.
It's significantly newer.

Love GAAS or hate GAAS you can't deny those three facts. Those three facts inevitably mean massive investment.

I swear, the bubble is not good for you people.

 

[Jinxed]

I don't understand GaaS. If someone spends hundreds of eurodollars on one game they are likely not going to switch to another one. We saw this with all the Warcraft clones back in the day.

Marvel Rivals is doing very well.

The problem isnt GAAS, the problem is shitty developers who create one marvel rivals out of 20 games

 

[LordCBH]

We’re going to see a lot of studios close because the market cannot support all these live services. There’s already too many.

 

[laynelane]

The industry goes through cycles/fads - one company achieves unimaginable success and then a bunch of others try to emulate that success - happened with WoW, CoD, Fortnite, etc. It all eventually fades and things settle back down, but the allure of GAAS and how the industry is governed by corporate interests over passion (in many cases) makes me think this cycle is going to take a while to pass.

The thing is people only have so much time and the audience is also limited - not everyone cares for GAAS games. I'm one of them, just no interest whatsoever. So, all that's left is to try to drag the people who like games like that away from their favourites and/or hope you attract players that aren't typically into the genre. It's quite the gamble and I think we're going to see many more studio closures and job losses due to this.

 

[Wulfer]

Who is surprised by this?

It's the largest part of the market.
It's growing faster than traditional games.
It's significantly newer.

Love GAAS or hate GAAS you can't deny those three facts. Those three facts inevitably mean massive investment.

I swear, the bubble is not good for you people.

So, what's next we don't own our games like the film industry is currently changing in digital release movies? I got two words for them!

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Who is surprised by this?

It's the largest part of the market.
It's growing faster than traditional games.
It's significantly newer.

Love GAAS or hate GAAS you can't deny those three facts. Those three facts inevitably mean massive investment.

I swear, the bubble is not good for you people.

No one is surprised.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

So, what's next we don't own our games like the film industry is currently changing in digital release movies?

You will own the opportunity to connect to the server and maybe play the game if they let you, until they don't.

 

[RCU005]

He's doing it because he was never on board with it to begin with, he was told to do it by Jim and now he calls the shots instead

Incredibly naive to think he is "undoing" anything. Their strategy is falling apart, which is different.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Incredibly naive to think he is "undoing" anything. Their strategy is falling apart, which is different.

They’ve had one massive success and one massive bomb, it’s not really a “failed strategy”

The Helldivers IP is now cemented as a huge GaaS game supported for years to come that will dwarf many failures by itself

They’ve just come to realize if it doesn’t have that hook/quality it needs to be cut quickly rather than trusting all these teams to release a commercial product

 

[RCU005]

They’ve had one massive success and one massive bomb, it’s not really a “failed strategy”

The Helldivers IP is now cemented as a huge GaaS game supported for years to come that will dwarf many failures by itself

They’ve just come to realize if it doesn’t have that hook/quality it needs to be cut quickly rather than trusting all these teams to release a commercial product

It's not ONE massive bomb, it's several. The fact that they have cancelled so many projects means that they are not good. It's wasted resources and work time. If you are making 10 GaaS games and already cancelled 6. It's a massive failure.

Helldivers while successful, it's definitely not for the long term. Also, Sony almost killed the game with their stupid PSN requirement.

The undeniable fact is that PS Studios is in a terrible position when it comes to leadership and organization. They are as bad as Microsoft have been for the past few years.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Helldivers while successful, it's definitely not for the long term.

Sure it is, they’ll come out with Helldivers 3 for ps6 or whatever and it’ll be another massive hit. These GaaS titles, once they hit, don’t easily go away