The domination of new live service games in the games industry is on the way out in 2024. According to games industry analysts, the oversaturation of live service titles is leading companies to pull out of the genre.
With huge games like Halo Infinite and Battlefield seeing drastically lower-than-expected player numbers on launch and new live service games shutting down just months after launch, the genre is becoming inaccessible to newcomers.
While existing popular live services such as Fortnite, Call of Duty and more will continue to dominate, studios are expected to be less likely to release new live service games as time continues.
Via GamesIndustry, Newzoo lead analyst Tom Wijman revealed that the market is expected to crunch on the releases of new live services following ballooning development costs and low return on investment.
Wijman predicts an end of live service “domination and market saturation” while a select few titles “continue to be massively successful and dominate most played and grossing charts”.
“Developers and publishers will pivot back to premium game development,” he said. “Oversaturation in the PC and console markets is evident, with a handful of titles monopolizing playtime; 60% of playtime is eaten up by 19 games and 75% by the top 33 by playtime.”
This change in the market has already been seen by companies such as Electronic Arts. Once known for chasing the live service genre since its conception, EA has pivoted back to single-player adventures including Dead Space Remake and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor to huge success.
Following the massive sales success of Larian Studio’s Baldur’s Gate 3, the focus on single player adventures is expected to become industry wide. With studios like Warner Bros seeing its biggest success with the single-player Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy and poor reception for its upcoming Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League game, it seems evident that the live service bubble has popped.
“The industry, having swiftly descended from the engagement peaks of 2020 and 2021, is undergoing restructuring, making funding for massive projects a lower priority,” Wijman continued. “Venture capital is scarce, making it more challenging for independent studios to secure funding.”
With the sheer demand for single player games over the past few years, perhaps the shrinking of the live service market is a great move for the consistency of the games industry.