Well many live service games are just that, but actually don’t feel like a scam. Warframe for instance, still considers itself in beta if you ask the devs. Their reasoning is that when the game releases, the development stops, in the old fashion game development point of view.
Sounds more like warframe is using the early access model to me. I think that’s fine. Many great games are in early access that are worth their price even in their unfinished state.
Star Citizen feels different, even though it’s also early access. In part because of the weirdly priced ships. There are ships that cost thousands dollars. Like, what’s the justification for that? Most people spend way less on games for a year, but this game asks this price just to gain access to one asset?
Another part is the ever expanding scope. It feels like they don’t really want to release the game. They’ve found there’s no point in actually finishing the game when they can just keep selling the promise of the definitive space sim game. Keep giving them more money and they will promise more.
I would say Warframe has been release-ready and effectively released since The Second Dream in 2015. It’s been a complete game that you can play for a long time and have lots of fun for about that long. The Second Dream is the first really big and meaningful main quest that definitively ended a chapter of the game’s story. You can finish The Second Dream and say “That’s it, I’ve experienced Warframe’s story, and I’m satisfied. That was cool and interesting.” Everything from that up until The New War would have been Warframe 2 under a traditional release model. And we’d currently be playing Warframe 3. Warframe just happens to be an MMO using the live service model, so we get 3 full games’ worth of story for free instead. Because Warframe is awesome.
Well many live service games are just that, but actually don’t feel like a scam. Warframe for instance, still considers itself in beta if you ask the devs. Their reasoning is that when the game releases, the development stops, in the old fashion game development point of view.
Sounds more like warframe is using the early access model to me. I think that’s fine. Many great games are in early access that are worth their price even in their unfinished state.
Star Citizen feels different, even though it’s also early access. In part because of the weirdly priced ships. There are ships that cost thousands dollars. Like, what’s the justification for that? Most people spend way less on games for a year, but this game asks this price just to gain access to one asset?
Another part is the ever expanding scope. It feels like they don’t really want to release the game. They’ve found there’s no point in actually finishing the game when they can just keep selling the promise of the definitive space sim game. Keep giving them more money and they will promise more.
I would say Warframe has been release-ready and effectively released since The Second Dream in 2015. It’s been a complete game that you can play for a long time and have lots of fun for about that long. The Second Dream is the first really big and meaningful main quest that definitively ended a chapter of the game’s story. You can finish The Second Dream and say “That’s it, I’ve experienced Warframe’s story, and I’m satisfied. That was cool and interesting.” Everything from that up until The New War would have been Warframe 2 under a traditional release model. And we’d currently be playing Warframe 3. Warframe just happens to be an MMO using the live service model, so we get 3 full games’ worth of story for free instead. Because Warframe is awesome.