An Observation on "games as a service" . (Gaming)

by stabbim , Des Moines, IA, USA, Wednesday, April 24, 2019, 18:48 (2047 days ago) @ Cody Miller

So why people don't make games at a normal pace, release them, let players enjoy them for however long they enjoy them, and then move on is beyond me. Like, there's a bazillion games out there. We can stay occupied until your next one comes out.

The only possible explanation is that those games are making more money despite the worse experience all around. Someone is looking at the books and seeing bigger numbers coming from those games. That won't mean that only those games get made, but sometimes there'll be a choice in front of someone, and they'll choose the one that's likely to generate bigger numbers.

I can only think of two scenarios where that business model suddenly makes less profit. One is players just abandoning them en masse, which is possible but not likely, for reasons explained here:

Just kidding. Mostly I've just been on an Archer quips kick.

The other, maybe, is that games employees finally manage to unionize. The games-as-a-service model might get more expensive to produce, either through higher wages or through unions simply refusing to put up with the hours. I can't actually say that'll make the model unsustainable - that's impossible to know without specific numbers. But it would necessarily make production more expensive by SOME degree.