What IF Live Service Games are the latest Gaming Grift?

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2023)

What if AAA live service games that are the latest gaming grift? As someone that enjoys live service games when they're well implemented it does seem to be the next "big thing."

I can see board rooms of execs and greedy CEO's frothing at the mouth over converting studios to make live service games because they see the monetization opportunities and the recoup of investment, only making one game.

Without the full understanding that few survive and even less are prepared to pivot over the years as Destiny and Warframe have.

These are just examples from games I've played and not necessarily aimed at Suicide Squad.

-No one understands what makes live service games successful so publishers/developers keep attempting it. Thinking if you just keep mining, you might strike gold. They just see the big dollar signs that games like Fortnite, Destiny 2, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six: Siege and others can generate.

-In-game stores with high cosmetic prices even if the game isn't free to play. Sometimes players invest if the game is good. When the game is broken, harsh critiques hit the entire team when there's more of a focus on the marketplace than the content of the game.

-Since you only make one game, don't have to invest in a series of expensive sequels over the next 10 years. Only have to pay to keep the servers up, keep adding content, especially cosmetic outfits that are recolors.

-Often a team that is more experienced in single player narrative games is chosen to go live service/looter shooter. So sometimes it doesn't fit what the developers skillset is, which leads to financial ruin when the game is shut down in less than a year.

-Live service game doesn't have all the features available at launch. "Soon" there will be raids, patches that fix live service instability, new weapons, new armor, new characters, the initial storyline will be drip fed in DLC rather than part of the full package of the game at launch.

It might be the latest grift. Sometimes it's done really well, sometimes not. I don't think all studios are working under this mentality. It may be the higher ups forcing this on them, but it's a hard sell when the majority of games offer big promises with little to show.

Much like how crypto has been mostly scams, money laundering, and counterfeiting. The few legitimate cases that shine through, where people get rich off crypto don't prove it's for everyone.

Market trends and grifts can align though. The market has been trending to VR, Crypto, Live Service games, all can and do have grifts.

For all of these successes: Fortnite, Destiny, Warframe, etc. there's a dozen failures that died within a year or more. Anthem, Knockout City, Lawbreakers, Battleborn, Marvel's Avengers, Evolve, Babylon's Fall, Radical Heights.

So even if you're a major developer with major success in single player narrative games like Bioware, Crystal Dynamics, or Rocksteady, they can still fail in the Live Service space.

Even if you have a big brand like Marvel or DC Comics, it's not enough to save you.

It's really hard to copy Fortnite or Destiny and make it fun enough and different enough, with replayability and a loot pool that people want to grind for gear in.

Destiny spent years trying to figure out the proper flow of releasing and creating DLCs and content. Players would rush through the new content within hours and then be begging for more. In Destiny 2, they began experimenting with seasons and dripfeeding weekly storylines. Marvel's Avengers had no roadmap and inconsistent drops of content that was once every few months or half a year or so. Anthem didn't bother to listen to their playerbase and had little endgame so it was dead within weeks.

Destiny was built on FOMO. From vaulted content, battle passes that expire even if you spend your hard earned money on them, limited seasonal events that drop gear that sometimes is only attainable ONCE. Even Fortnite and other games offer new characters and skins that are limited time and once they're gone, they're gone.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League at least has a seasonal plan and some interesting endgame even if people find it repetitive, hopefully with more narrative bits but that's the nature of live service. Every game sends you back to the same locations with similar objectives to level up and get cool gear and skills.

I guess my main point is the "we'll fix it in post" attitude of live service games isn't resonating with gamers. That's how it feels like a grift. We pay $70 or more and we don't even get a full and complete storyline, game breaking bugs, more cosmetics that are often just recolors than there is content in the game, recycled boss fights and gear. I would argue that even the ending of Suicide Squad felt really incomplete and lacked a sense of finality. End one chapter but then start a new one. Now we're left hanging to defeat 12 more Brainiacs. I'm keen to do it, but what's the value proposition? Where's the excitement? We killed the Justice League, that's an unpopular thing to do.

Some of the microtransactions in the games can add up to thousands of dollars even if they're optional.

There are even times like when Destiny 2 sunset a lot of weapons and gear; that was years worth of grinding rare and hard to unlock weapons instantly rendered useless and 3 years playing the game were wasted. Even content that we've paid for has been vaulted to optimize the storage space of the game. There's many ways players can feel cheated, deceived, and now live service games leave a bad taste in people's mouths.

I love live service games especially when they're done right and I'm willing to give them all a chance. I think just because there is no intention to make it a grift doesn't mean that players won't see it as a grift. Trust is earned. Grand Theft Auto V has spent a decade adding content and building rapport with fans that have already enjoyed their single player experience.

Suicide Squad came in at a time where people really don't like live service games, we've seen a lot of them sink lately and would have preferred a Justice League game, or a co-op game about the Suicide Squad.

Not something we have to sink time and money into for the promise that "someday it might be something great."

That's where live service games feel like a pyramid scheme. Buy "The Boys" skins in Call of Duty, you'll have more fun while wearing these, we're adding new maps and modes. Everything now days is hinging on the possibility of "someday" and asking for the money up front.

I may not think some of these games are grifts, but it certainly seems like gamers see it that way. Without the gamers, nobody makes any money.

If we look at Helldivers 2 we can see that a well implemented live service game can be done right, and players will invest accordingly.

Let me know what you think in the comments.