Gamers are begging publishers to put single-player stories over live-service

Variety is the spice of life or at least I’m told when it comes to games such as Baldur’s Gate 3, but perhaps not when it relates to the gaming trend that refuses to die, the live-service.

I have no issue with live service games per se. Back in the day, I used to put thousands of hours into Destiny before I grew sick to death of it. Live service games can be fantastic, as long as it has a vibrant and concurrent fanbase. If so, publishers will gladly support it with a regular flurry of content as we continually see with the likes of Fortnite, after all, publishers love those lucrative in-game transactions. However, if that particular game is deemed a failure by the publisher, it will kill it off faster than Netflix puts an end to your favourite series.

Check out our Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League preview below!

One upcoming live-service game is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which we recently previewed hands-on. Despite being developed by Rocksteady Studios and set in the Arkhamverse, this is a very different game from the Batman Arkham titles. It’s primarily a co-op third-person shooter in which you can play as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and King Shark. With that in mind, gamers on Reddit have been begging publishers to put single-player stories over the live service.

Images of live-service and single-player games with the caption “What game company executives think we want and What we actually want,” were shared by Redditor rudra285 sparking the discussion.

“That's kinda the main problem, they don't want to make a game which gamers like. They want to make one which they will buy,” replied Projectdystopia. “And the less effort needed for bigger profit, the more they want to make such a game.”

“Overwatch 2 is universally hated and probably has made more money than Baldur's Gate 3 with half the effort,” claimed Character-Today-427 to which TopHatMcFenbury responded, “Half is an insult to Larian Studios.”

“I used to love Destiny. My main turn-offs are the ever-worsening microtransactions and the rampant failure to provide good content and make the changes that players have wanted for years,” exclaimed Swordbreaker925.

Defending the honour of live-service games done right (and rightly so), echoing many of the other users in the Reddit thread, dd179 said: “Y'all are here acting as if freaking Fortnite is not the most popular game in the world and has been for the past five years.” Ryozu replied: “Yeah like, if gamers didn't want it, then why are they gobbling it up?” Both are very valid points.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what genre of game it is, as long as it’s a quality title, made with love and care, and enjoyed by many, who’s to judge? We all have our personal preferences and if any game serves a bad product, the gaming community will be the first to let publishers know.