Games shifting into the live-service space is often seen as a cynical one due to the heavily monetised aspect of these titles. Since games likeFortnitemade it big and ushered in a world of battle and season passes, repeatedly earning money from a game, beyond the initial launch, has become appealing.
Take a look atConcordbelow
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However, we saw with the release ofSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguethat a pivot towards something that either the public doesn’t want, or doesn’t suit the developers is a death knell. While the superhero co-op adventure lasted much longer thanConcord, both games seemingly failed because they couldn’t read the wider audience and both were somewhat chasing trends, capitalising on an unneeded model, likeSuicide Squad, or arriving too late forConcord.
On the latter, hero shooters simply aren’t the trend now, while eight years ago, hell even four years ago it could have seen much more success. Now, I can’t say what goes on behind closed doors at Firewalk Studios or Sony, perhaps both companies had invested so much money in the game that they had to release something, but with the gaming public moving on from this genre of shooter, the writing had to be on the wall.
This is reminiscent of the battle royale trend of a few years ago. While the genre is still popular with players, there is a hierarchy of winners in that genre and the top spot hasn’t changed.Fortniteis still king, despite how muchCall of Duty: WarzoneandApex Legendsbite at its heels.
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Who was going to keep coming back toSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League? Certainly, not enough players to keep buying passes for new cosmetics, that’s for sure. Do fans ofOverwatchand, to a lesser extent,League of Legends, really want to jump over toConcorddespite having invested hundreds of hours and their hard-earned money into their favourite game? Unless you’re bringing something radically different, or attaching a recognised IP to an existing genre (seeMarvel Rivals), players are likely going to stick to what they know.
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Nobody wants to see a game fail. Even the diehard gamers don’t want to see people out of a job, or a game shut down its servers after investing a lot of money into production but trend-chasing is dominating the industry.
Of course, there will always be failures to launch, like in every area of entertainment, sometimes things just don’t find an audience. Companies follow the money, not reading what the audience is actually feeling.
I guess this is a plea that will fall on deaf ears to stop looking at what’s hot because you’re going to miss the boat. I don’t think it’s a radical statement to say we just want to play great games, not everything needs to last forever or be in direct competition with games of other genres just because they make a lot of money.
Topics:PlayStation,PC,Bungie,Fortnite
