In the graveyard of live service games Concord may just be the biggest headstone, and that seems to have focused some minds over at PlayStation. Previously the noises coming from Sony were all about the importance of live service games to its future strategy, and it had announced plans to launch more than 10 live service games by the 2025 fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2026.

Now? Not so much. A new Bloomberg report reveals that "following a recent review" PlayStation has canceled two unannounced live service games in development at subsidiaries Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games. Bend is best-known for Days Gone and, back in the day, Syphon Filter, while Bluepoint mainly handles high-profile remakes like Demon's Souls.

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[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

So far Warframe has been the ONLY example of a good live service game. It's the OG when it comes to the model, but it's also the exception, and not the rule.

[–] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Don't forget Path of Exile.

Id argue a bunch of early access games that get constant updates are Live Service games too.

And indie games like Terraria and Minecraft were the best examples of live service.

[–] stephen01king@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 hours ago

I'd consider No Man's Sky a pretty successful live service game, as well.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

"Live service" is a game that has an always online requirement. Just getting updates on the regular doesn't make it a live service if the game works just fine without an Internet connection.

Single player Ubisoft games are all "live services", due to some of them needing a constant connection to Ubisoft's servers, and them having in-game shops that only work while online.

[–] stephen01king@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I'm not sure you got the right definition of live service game. What you said is the definition of always online games.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

They're the same thing. "Live service" is how Activision-Blizzard rebranded games that required to be always online. They also solidified the outline of things publishers at the time were already doing with their always online games, such as endless content players will have to buy.

Those documents leaked many years ago, and soon after that the moniker was changed from "always online" to "Live Service".

[–] stephen01king@lemmy.zip 1 points 14 minutes ago

You got any links to one of those leaks? That sounds kinda interesting.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Destiny historically vasscilated between "fucking amazing" and "dumpster fire". The problem has always been that it is near impossible to maintain that level of quality and entertainment consistently while also innovating on a regular basis. It is very difficult and very expensive.

[–] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

They moved into "dumpster fire" territory significantly more than "fucking amazing", sadly. Like one good expansion, three bad updates and two bad expansions, one good update.