author: Edwin Witaszek
New Projects From Warner Bros. Games Bet on Live-service Model
Everything seems to indicate that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will emphasize the so-called live-service games. This follows from the announcement on the developer's website about internship offers.
- According to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment's website, the studio's current productions are being developed with the live-service game model in mind;
- Among the games being developed by WBIE are Gotham Knights, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League and Hogwarts Legacy.
There is a good chance that upcoming games from Warner Bros. Games (WBIE) will feature numerous live-service elements. This means that the developers intend to support the titles long after their release. Twitter user MauroNL pointed out a similar possibility in the case of Warner Bros. games:
MauroNL based his prediction on internship offers from the developer's official website. In addition to the standard information about the requirements for potential interns, we can find there a mention of the studio's current projects:
"WBIE is currently involved in a variety of new projects, ranging from casual games to core games featuring our well-known franchises on all platforms (console, digital, mobile) with a heavy focus on live service."
It appears that regardless of platform, WBIE's games will be based on the live-service model. It's not yet clear exactly what solutions will be introduced. The list titles that WBIE is currently working includes LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker - Saga, Gotham Knights, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League and Hogwarts Legacy. Live-service games are usually multiplayer titles, and, for example, Hogwarts Legacy, set in the Harry Potter universe, according to the announcement, is to be a single player title. So what services are we talking about? Worst-case scenarios suggest that it may be about microtransactions, which for many players are the bane of today's gamedev.
Live-service games enjoy mixed popularity. On the one hand we have productions such as Fortnite, which remains a phenomenon that breaks records of viewership on Twitch and brings huge profits to esports players. On the other end we have games that are much less successful. A perfect example here is Marvel's Avengers, which raises concerns among players about the further fate of the game. Will a similar fate befall Suicide Squad: KTJL?
It's not surprising to hear that WBIE is looking to move towards live-service games. It's nice when developers don't forget about a game after the release, but offer further updates or even free DLC. This is undoubtedly a good way to keep attracting new players. Meanwhile, current experience with these types of games makes the community wary of devs releasing skeleton games that are only given a body of new, valuable content over time. We can only hope that Warner Bros. knows what it's doing and will provide players with good entertainment for months after the release of the announced games.
