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[semiconscious]

SIE had previously said it planned to have 12 live service titles in the market by its fiscal year ending in March 2026 – up from three during its last business year ended this March...

We are reviewing this… we are trying as much as possible to ensure [these games] are enjoyed and liked by gamers for a long time,” he said. “[Of] the 12 titles, six titles will be released by FY25 – that’s our current plan. [As for] the remaining six titles, we are still working on that...

how's this a delay? 6 released fy25 + 6 'still working on' released fy26 = 12 released by end of fy26, right? not really seeing how this 'seemingly confirms' anything, really...

game journalism, to a great degree, seems to simply be a matter of inferring shit, & seeing whatever it is you choose to see. me? i'm sticking with my magic 8-ball...

 

[yurinka]

I get what your saying, and do understand why they're trying to make their own successful gaas, but as a traditional playstation fan I'm not happy with it.

They already did several successful GaaS: PS Home, Little Big Planet, MLB, Gran Turismo Sport and 7 plus Destiny 2 are some of them.

how's this a delay? 6 released fy25 + 6 'still working on' released fy26 = 12 released by fy26, right? not really seeing how this 'seemingly confirms' anything, really...

What Totoki said is that in previous reports they had planned to have all 12 released before April 2026. And that several of them have been delayed, to focus on quality to make sure gamers will love them for years.

As a result of that, on March 2026 they'll have released 6 of them, but still don't know when the other 6 will be released (but most likely/most cases of these 6, after March 2026).

We also have to consider that MLB, GT and Firewall Ultra already are released, and that Helldivers 2 will be released very soon. So now from early 2024 to March 2026 they only need to release a couple more to be on track, which I assume will be Concord and Marathon.

And who knows, maybe some other one may be on track to be released before 2026, as could be Fairgame$.

Still makes me laugh the idea of bungie vistiting studios and indescriminatly wrecking shop. "Shit, shit, shit, garbage, shit..."

Well, this never happened because Bungie doesn't review, greenlight or approve the milestones of the other studios.

Bungie, SIE publishing and PS Studios are together in a GaaS excellence team where they review the GaaS specific things of the Sony (which includes the Bungie games) GaaS titles only: monetization, internal related metrics, launch readiness, post launch roadmap and a handful similar things more.

 

[Little Chicken]

They already did several successful GaaS: PS Home, Little Big Planet, MLB, Gran Turismo Sport and 7 plus Destiny 2 are some of them.

Servers dead for all but two of them.

 

[ShadowLag]

Here’s a crazy idea..

Fucking cancel all 12 of em

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Their R&D spend is huge
Their marketing spend is huge
Their studios cost a lot to run
They aren't making much money on PS5 hardware
Running PSN is expensive

Yes they make a lot of money on 3rd party games but that gets eaten up very quickly.

Thats the point I'm making.

Do an estimate on how much PS5 console sales are as part of their annual gaming division financials. Now subtract that out of gross sales. They probably make hardly any money on consoles. Maybe even a loss with the $100 discounts they were doing early in the year. Now divide the annual profits of $2 billion across the remaining sales. The margin is high. And that's even if you leave in all the other bullet point you mentioned.

If Sony made more AAA games (which all seem to sell a to of copies) they'll rake in the cash. You were saying in your post SP games is not the answer which makes no sense because their biggest selling games the past 10 years are SP games where some games like Spiderman 1 sold over 20 million copies.

However they prefer banking their $2 billion/yr profit (about $15 billion since 2016 or 17). That can fund a lot of AAA SP games. Thats their bread and butter. Not chasing MP games just because Fortnite and FIFA and COD rake in the money. But their vision changed to GAAS. Now that half are delayed it looks like their stampede to 12 GAAS by 2025 has been dialed back.

 

[Negotiator101]

Looks like Jim is getting out just in time, goodness gracious me.

 

[Shadowstar39]

Oh really? How come Fortnite just set a new record with 44 million players in one day? Looks like a plenty of "nobodies".

No adult plays them I guess they want to get teens , and kids, go right ahead, but they don't have all the money. If they stop making games us long time 30-50 year old gamers like then bye bye.. ps5 will be my last console outside of whatever Nintendo has.

 

[yurinka]

Servers dead for all but two of them.

I'd say MLB 21, MLB 22, MLB 23, GT Sport and GT7 are more than two.

And well, PS Home and Little Big Planet are PS3 15 years old games, so obviously their servers are down.

No adult plays them I guess they want to get teens , and kids, go right ahead, but they don't have all the money. If they stop making games us long time 30-50 year old gamers like then bye bye.. ps5 will be my last console outside of whatever Nintendo has.

Not sure if you realized that there are dozens of thousands of games released every year and most of them aren't like Fortnite or targeted to teens.

The 25-45 years old demographic includes the majority of players and game revenue, so obviously won't stop making games for that group (which will become older btw).

Thats the point I'm making.

Do an estimate on how much PS5 console sales are as part of their annual gaming division financials. Now subtract that out of gross sales. They probably make hardly any money on consoles. Maybe even a loss with the $100 discounts they were doing early in the year. Now divide the annual profits of $2 billion across the remaining sales. The margin is high. And that's even if you leave in all the other bullet point you mentioned.

If Sony made more AAA games (which all seem to sell a to of copies) they'll rake in the cash. You were saying in your post SP games is not the answer which makes no sense because their biggest selling games the past 10 years are SP games where some games like Spiderman 1 sold over 20 million copies.

However they prefer banking their $2 billion/yr profit (about $15 billion since 2016 or 17). That can fund a lot of AAA SP games. Thats their bread and butter. Not chasing MP games just because Fortnite and FIFA and COD rake in the money. But their vision changed to GAAS. Now that half are delayed it looks like their stampede to 12 GAAS by 2025 has been dialed back.

Most of the revenue and profit made from console makers comes from selling (or rent via game subs) games for their consoles, and in most platforms (all except Nintendo) the big majority of that game revenue comes from 3rd party games.

So they often sell their console hardware at a loss or with very low profit, because their console is basically just a channel to sell games for it any loses generated by the hardware gets compensated by selling games for it.

 

[DForce]

Servers dead for all but two of them.

Doesn't change the fact that they were successful

 

[yurinka]

Imagine all of your in-house studios being tied up with TWELVE GaaS titles... messy.

Not the case of Sony.

These GaaS are on top of their non-GaaS investments, which won't decrease but instead will increase.

Several Sony in-house studios aren't working on GaaS.

Several of these games started to be made outside Sony.

Several of them continue being 2nd party games, not made by in-house studios.

All these projects were pitches from these studios, are things they wanted to make.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Most of the revenue and profit made from console makers comes from selling (or rent via game subs) games for their consoles, and in most platforms (all except Nintendo) the big majority of that game revenue comes from 3rd party games.

So they often sell their console hardware at a loss or with very low profit, because their console is basically just a channel to sell games for it any loses generated by the hardware gets compensated by selling games for it.

I know that.

Thats the point I said to Stealthgoblin who said making more SP games isn't the answer as Sony's gaming division runs on razor thin margins. Software is big money makers especially for Sony whose SP game sell a ton of copies. Exclude all the sales of breakeven PS5 consoles at $400-500 per unit (Sony sells what? 20 million consoles per year?) and the remaining profit margin for the division is fine based off software and sub revenue.

 

[yurinka]

I know that.

Thats the point I said to Stealthgoblin who said making more SP games isn't the answer as Sony's gaming division runs on razor thin margins. Software is big money makers especially for Sony whose SP game sell a ton of copies. Exclude all the sales of breakeven PS5 consoles at $400-500 per unit (Sony sells what? 20 million consoles per year?) and the remaining profit margin for the division is fine based off software and sub revenue.

Sony's gaming division is having more revenue and profit they always had. They aren't with razor thin margins, are performing better than ever in all areas.

The thing is that in the overal gaming market, or even in console gaming or PlayStation, the software revenue (which is the main revenue source from companies like Sony) has been changing for several years: the biggest and fastest growing segment is add-ons (DLC/IAP/passes..., so GaaS), and the game sales revenue segment has been declining.

Which means that in the long term, GaaS will dominate the market way more than they really do it right now, and that these non-GaaS that cost right now around half a billion to be made (and every generation become more expensive) will see their sales decreased to a point that some year won't be sustainable to make this type of games.

So from a corporative/finantial perspective to keep focusing on non-GaaS games only is a long term suicide. This is why all big publishers are also betting on GaaS. And for the same reason, why they also bet on mobile (faster growing and way bigger in both userbase and revenue than console and PC).

 

[VitoNotVito]

No adult plays them I guess they want to get teens , and kids, go right ahead, but they don't have all the money. If they stop making games us long time 30-50 year old gamers like then bye bye.. ps5 will be my last console outside of whatever Nintendo has.

"No adults blah blah blah".
What about CoD Warzone? Or GTAV Online? Also no adults?
Nintendo is definitely targeting adults though!

 

[Shubh_C63]

People trying to kill ALL GaaS projects might be one who later wants to kill ALL open world games or ALL battle royale games.
It's wise to diversify your portfolio.

6 Games by 2025.
That means almost one GaaS game every Quarter or multiple ones in a single.

 

[Torrent of Pork]

Remember that just like Hollywood, marketing isn't included in the budget for a game. I know we're all a bunch of armchair executives that know all the ins and outs of running a videogame publisher, but the real people with their jobs on the line are saying Sony must turn more profit.

 

[Gavon West]

Don't know why you are pretending there hasn't been plenty of doom and gloom about the state of PlayStation first party output from many of us, including myself, for quite some time now.

This double standard you've dreamt up is what is hilarious.

He's sorts of right, though...

that said, Sony needs GaaS games. The task of sticking with SP only is extremely expensive and takes 5 to 7 years to complete. Sony is beyond being just a SP story driven behemoth these days. They can still make them I'm assuming but they will need residual income as SP games usually only make money once with a bit of DLC down the road. Without GaaS games, how will they continue to make SP's? They won't be getting the money they would typically get from CoD. I can't blame them for wanting to change things up a bit. I'm not a Playstation gamer but I don't want Sony leaving the business. They push Microsoft and vice versa.

Without a steady stream of income, Sony hazards being knocked down to a Nintendo of sorts in the future.

 

[Gavon West]

In what way? Sure they delayed 6 of the 12 but that schedule was stupidly over saturated anyway.

Basically with this schedule we have 6 live service games releasing in 2024/2025 and then other non live-service games on top of that. We're looking at 4-5 first party games in 2024 and 2025 each. I'd have been more worried if they were actually going to go ahead and release 12 live service games in the next 2 years.

Which other non service games and when are their planned release dates? I know of Wolverine coming at some point but, which others?

 

[Punished Miku]

Which other non service games and when are their planned release dates? I know of Wolverine coming at some point but, which others?

They said 6 before FY25.

We know of Marathon, Concorde, Fairgames and Factions already. Unclear if Helldivers 2 counts.

 

[Gavon West]

They said 6 before FY25.

We know of Marathon, Concorde, Fairgames and Factions already. Unclear if Helldivers 2 counts.

Aren't these all GaaS games? Genuine question here...

 

[Punished Miku]

Aren't these all GaaS games? Genuine question here...

Yeah. The OP says 6 GAAS games are coming before FY25. They will also have some 3rd party stuff, maybe some non-GAAS stuff like Wolverine.

It's actually sounding fairly stacked, but the majority will definitely be GAAS from the sound of it.

 

[Topher]

He's sorts of right, though...

that said, Sony needs GaaS games. The task of sticking with SP only is extremely expensive and takes 5 to 7 years to complete. Sony is beyond being just a SP story driven behemoth these days. They can still make them I'm assuming but they will need residual income as SP games usually only make money once with a bit of DLC down the road. Without GaaS games, how will they continue to make SP's? They won't be getting the money they would typically get from CoD. I can't blame them for wanting to change things up a bit. I'm not a Playstation gamer but I don't want Sony leaving the business. They push Microsoft and vice versa.

Without a steady stream of income, Sony hazards being knocked down to a Nintendo of sorts in the future.

Nah....he's not right, but probably should just agree to disagree on that. Now I get your argument that Sony needs to expand its offering, but 1) it should not be at the expense of single player games (hopefully that is not the case, but also......where the hell are the single player games, Sony?) 2) I don't know why they thought trying to push out 12 Gaas games all at the same time when they have had very little experience making any of them was a good idea 3) They acquired Haven and Bungie for the purpose of creating Gaas games and that is fine, but I get the sense that they are forcing their other studios down this road of creating games based on a business model first, creating great games second. So my concern isn't necessarily that they are trying to make money with Gaas, but how they are trying to accomplish it. But as I've said plenty of times, I hope my concerns are unfounded and I will continue to get the Sony games I love and Sony is able to expand their business and stay viable in the industry. Time will tell.

 

[DryvBy]

I think Live Service for online multiplayer is perfectly fine. But not when they force always online for a single player like GT7.

But a thing that makes a game like GTA:O feel different to me is that the product doesn't feel like a store. There's a lot of stuff to buy with real cash but I am not greeted with a FOMO count down in the main menu or in between anything I do. How a game like Fortnite feels is it's a store with a game inside of it. Knock that crap off.

 

[Thirty7ven]

Marathon
Concord
Fair Games
MLB(x2)

There’s one missing. Maybe Twisted Metal.

 

[Gavon West]

Yeah but Xbox hasn't really a good game in 10+ years. Even their premier games like Halo and Starfield were mildly received. Sony at least has had excellently rated and revered first party games for the better part of a decade.

This isnt true. Starfield was/is extremely successful. Halo was/is also successful. HiFi Rush, FH%, Pentiment, Grounded, SoT and many others. they may not be your bowl of rice but it doesnt change the fact that there are very successful IP's on Xbox. Maybe not high profile titan SP games like on Sony's platform but, very successful nonetheless.

 

[DryvBy]

This isnt true. Starfield was/is extremely successful. Halo was/is also successful. HiFi Rush, FH%, Pentiment, Grounded, SoT and many others. they may not be your bowl of rice but it doesnt change the fact that there are very successful IP's on Xbox. Maybe not high profile titan SP games like on Sony's platform but, very successful nonetheless.

If they were all highly successful, then they wouldn't need to buy up the industry. They would have been happy with what they have now.

I'm not going to pretend Hi Rush wasn't a great game this year or anything like that but they're probably not the financial successes they want. Especially since the GP numbers weren't raised substantially.

 

[Gavon West]

I think there's enough evidence in market now to use in order to create a good live service game. The original approach they had of "12 games see what hits" shouldn't be something they do when quality is their brand.

take your time, create good and quality live service games and I am confident it will be successful.

also, why are xbox fans crying in this thread. wtf is going on, get over it guys lol

Xbox fans arent crying. We just understand that GaaS is necessary for Sony to survive because of the revenue they bring in. Again, Sony doesn't have that CoD money coming in anymore so they will need to do something. I'm almost betting that their SP games will dwindle, at least for a little while until they can get all this stuff fixed. If not, THEY WILL struggle in the coming years. I personally don't want to see that, myself.

And its not as easy as just" take your time, create good quality live service games". Gaas games are tricky. And most fall by the way side pretty hard.

 

[Gavon West]

If they were all highly successful, then they wouldn't need to buy up the industry. They would have been happy with what they have now.

I'm not going to pretend Hi Rush wasn't a great game this year or anything like that but they're probably not the financial successes they want. Especially since the GP numbers weren't raised substantially.

They didnt buy these studios because they werent successful. In fact, just the opposite. They were seeing much more success with Gamepass and needed more developers and studios to create more games and keep the Gamepass monster fed.

All that said though, HiFi Rush probably didnt move the needle much but HiFi rush, FH5, Forza and Starfield together moved the needle plenty. Starfield on its own garnered the most subs to Gamepass in the history of the service. Thats the goal.

 

[gatti-man]

Screw releasing 12 GAAS games I’d love to hear how Sony plans on supporting even 6 of them. GAAS games need tons of content. Bungie was a 600+ person studio that could barely handle destiny. This seems like a disaster even if Sony releases 12 good GAAS games there is zero chance they can keep up with the content flow requirements.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Are we expecting a showcase in December. Would be good to get an idea on what is coming in 2024, from all companies to be honest.

I guess VGA will be the big one this year?

 

[yurinka]

Again, Sony doesn't have that CoD money coming in anymore so they will need to do something.

Sony will continue getting the CoD money:

MS signed with Sony a deal to continue releasing CoD for the next 10 years and to meet them again in 10 years again to negotiate the extention of the deal.

In addition to this, MS gave Ubisoft got the cloud gaming rights of all the previous ABK games plus the ones to be published in the next 15 years to negotiate them with the other services including rival ones. Meaning, Sony now could get them -including CoD-.

Sony will now save the money they spent on the CoD marketing deals, which I assume now will be spent marketing their own Sony shooters intead.

Screw releasing 12 GAAS games I’d love to hear how Sony plans on supporting even 6 of them. GAAS games need tons of content. Bungie was a 600+ person studio that could barely handle destiny. This seems like a disaster even if Sony releases 12 good GAAS games there is zero chance they can keep up with the content flow requirements.

They already released some of these 12 with no issue: MLB, GT7, Firewall Ultra and soon will release Helldivers 2.

They have makers of Halo and Destiny 1 making the Firewalk one, makers of CoD and other top shooters making the Deviation one. Bungie making Marathon and minimum another one (Matter?), makers of Rainbow Six Siege, Assassin's Creed and others making the Haven one.

Guerrilla has the Killzone 2 MP and Rainbow 6 Siege director directing Horizon Online.

Naughty Dog always did a great job with the multiplayer in Crash Team Racing, Uncharted or TLOU, and generally always nailed their game. With the help from GaaS experts from all these other teams, they'll nail TLOU too.

These folks know a thing or two regarding MP games and GaaS.

And Hermen said that their GaaS will be of different sizes, genres and types, that their idea wasn't to make 12 games of he size and scale of Fortnite. Jimbo also said that they don't expect all 12 games to be super successful.

Also, Sony's original idea was to release 'more than 10' GaaS in 6 years. Later specified 12 when they acquired Bungie, which is an average of 2 games per year. Now they said that several got delayed to ensure great quality and that apparently half of them won't be released before April 2026, meaning that on average it will be less than 2 per year.

Regarding Bungie's size, as of 2023 they're 1100 people. The lead team studio of a AAA traditionally has 200-250 people in-house and the rest of their team (around 90% of the related workforce) in support, outsourcing or publisher studios. Meaning, Bungie has enough manpower to be working on 3 or 4 big ass AAA games at the same time.

 

[tmlDan]

Xbox fans arent crying. We just understand that GaaS is necessary for Sony to survive because of the revenue they bring in. Again, Sony doesn't have that CoD money coming in anymore so they will need to do something. I'm almost betting that their SP games will dwindle, at least for a little while until they can get all this stuff fixed. If not, THEY WILL struggle in the coming years. I personally don't want to see that, myself.

And its not as easy as just" take your time, create good quality live service games". Gaas games are tricky. And most fall by the way side pretty hard.

Your POV on this isn't crying. It was others in the thread talking about how mean people are to Xbox and not Sony.

Sony has enough brand value that if they made a quality LoU live service game it would be huge, i agree its not that simple to just create one (especially a new IP) but in the context of their already popular IP's it can do extremely well.

 

[StealthGoblin]

Screw releasing 12 GAAS games I’d love to hear how Sony plans on supporting even 6 of them. GAAS games need tons of content. Bungie was a 600+ person studio that could barely handle destiny. This seems like a disaster even if Sony releases 12 good GAAS games there is zero chance they can keep up with the content flow requirements.

On this note i'd like to chime in and say that Sony have internal support studios (Valkyrie and Malaysia) but they've also leveraged 3rd parties to run things. NCSOFT are doing a Horizon MMO for example, but there are also other contracted studios who are producing the content for their GAAS games.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Screw releasing 12 GAAS games I’d love to hear how Sony plans on supporting even 6 of them. GAAS games need tons of content. Bungie was a 600+ person studio that could barely handle destiny. This seems like a disaster even if Sony releases 12 good GAAS games there is zero chance they can keep up with the content flow requirements.

I dont think Sony is even serious supporting all of them.

As one of the execs said a year or so ago when their GAAS strategy came out, he even said that "all it takes is one to be successful to cover the rest".

No game studio leader would project making 12 GAAS games with 11 being potential losers in hope one game saves the day. But they are banking one will be a FIFA or Fortnite. Sony also has a history of shutting down servers fast when things dont go well for their old MP games. So in the next few years when all 12 are released and perhaps a few are successful and 10 bomb, those employees better get their resumes ready for another company because there is no way all 12 will be super successful. That assumes all 12 are new IPs. If some of those 12 include their annual baseball game and GT7 or whatever, that's fine. You can reduce it to 10 new GAAS games.

 

[scydrex]

That's a lot of GaaS.

They should bring back Playstation Home.

Yeah with psvr2 support.

 

[Gavon West]

I dont think Sony is even serious supporting all of them.

As one of the execs said a year or so ago when their GAAS strategy came out, he even said that "all it takes is one to be successful to cover the rest".

No game studio leader would project making 12 GAAS games with 11 being potential losers in hope one game saves the day. But they are banking one will be a FIFA or Fortnite. Sony also has a history of shutting down servers fast when things dont go well for their old MP games. So in the next few years when all 12 are released and perhaps a few are successful and 10 bomb, those employees better get their resumes ready for another company because there is no way all 12 will be super successful. That assumes all 12 are new IPs. If some of those 12 include their annual baseball game and GT7 or whatever, that's fine. You can reduce it to 10 new GAAS games.

As I mentioned before, GaaS games are tricky. Too much into the transactional for digital perks and gamers will abandon that game like a covid covered pancake.

Another thing that will be an uphill battle is, the Sony fanbase is pretty accustomed to 3rd person adventure games. That's been Sony's M.O. for decades. It wont be easy to sway those gamers to adopt GaaS games. I know one thing however: if Sony goes in on GaaS and doesnt stick with it, dropping games that aren't huge successes out of the gate, they're all ready losing the battle. They'll need to stick with some that aren't huge successes from the onset. Microsoft did that shit for years. So many potential titles they squandered simply because the first IP didnt sell gangbusters.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

As I mentioned before, GaaS games are tricky. Too much into the transactional for digital perks and gamers will abandon that game like a covid covered pancake.

Another thing that will be an uphill battle is, the Sony fanbase is pretty accustomed to 3rd person adventure games. That's been Sony's M.O. for decades. It wont be easy to sway those gamers to adopt GaaS games. I know one thing however: if Sony goes in on GaaS and doesnt stick with it, dropping games that aren't huge successes out of the gate, they're all ready losing the battle. They'll need to stick with some that aren't huge successes from the onset. Microsoft did that shit for years. So many potential titles they squandered simply because the first IP didnt sell gangbusters.

Yup.

Problem with Sony when they go MP, is they oversaturate the market. During the PS3 era, they had so many shooters it's overkill. Of course the user base thinned out. Some of those shooter games got solid scores and people said the MP was good. Problem is the user base was spread too thin. Count the number of shooters games and IPs and it was as many as MS, Activision and EA combined. Sony even tried porting over those grand battle PC shooters like Planetside or whatever.

MS was Halo/Gears. Activision was COD, EA was MoH and Crysis. Sony was KZ, Resistance, MAG, SOCOM, MAG, Starhawk/Warhawk, those PC franchises. They even partnered for Haze. Probably some more I missed.

Who knows what these GAAS are, but they are skewed a lot of shooters or brawlers it'll be overkill again.

 

[RickMasters]

I want to see Sony make interesting AA games that’s much more experimental like….

Wouldn’t be a bad idea. Smaller games inbetween big hitters. I’ve always said that’s the best way, to do this. Also… patapon was another one. Sony used to make a bunch of interesting stuff they just seemed to forget about in favour of third person over the shoulder cinematic games with woke themes and ugly female leads.



Also…. RIP Sony Japan studio. Ico and shadow of the colossus really was peak Sony first party game design.

 

[Alebrije]

Good , now just wait January 2024 for the other 6 delay

 

[Danjin44]

Wouldn’t be a bad idea. Smaller games inbetween big hitters. I’ve always said that’s the best way, to do this. Also… patapon was another one. Sony used to make a bunch of interesting stuff they just seemed to forget about in favour of third person over the shoulder cinematic games with woke themes and ugly female leads.



Also…. RIP Sony Japan studio. Ico and shadow of the colossus really was peak Sony first party game design.

Oh I remember Patapon it was such charming little game... Sony first party games used to be interesting and diverse but now it has become so fucking dull.

 

[mckmas8808]

If this was Jim Ryan's doing, I am glad that POS is gone.

It IS his doing. I'm happy too that he's gone. Dude is a joke!

 

[Shake Your Rump]

And how do you suggest they have the money to continue to provide the games you want?

This feels akin to relying on lottery revenue to pay for schools. It’s gross. Why do we need to use predatory schemes to pay for everything? I mean, I’ve lived through at least 35 years of great games without commercial gaming resorting to this. Why do they suddenly need to do this just to survive?

 

[StealthGoblin]

This feels akin to relying on lottery revenue to pay for schools. It’s gross. Why do we need to use predatory schemes to pay for everything? I mean, I’ve lived through at least 35 years of great games without commercial gaming resorting to this. Why do they suddenly need to do this just to survive?

Costs are sky high and are only going up.

Plus, whether we like it or not, GAAS is big business and lots of people play and like them.

They aren't for me, but I think having a diverse portfolio (genre and business models) is wise.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

Some would argue the GaaS can be fun. Sea of Thieves for example. Or Counter Strike 2. Fortnite. They are fun games.

Any of these could have been released in a completely static form and been just as fun. I mean, I played Quake 3 for years without any “new content”.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

This feels akin to relying on lottery revenue to pay for schools. It’s gross. Why do we need to use predatory schemes to pay for everything? I mean, I’ve lived through at least 35 years of great games without commercial gaming resorting to this. Why do they suddenly need to do this just to survive?

Because unlike 35 years ago, most gamers today prefer Live Service games.

It's not that complicated.