A scene from 'Shadow of the Colossus'. The industry's shift toward live service games that are updated for years has studios unwilling to embrace the power of mortality. — Handout via TNS
Twenty years ago, while the credits rolled on Shadow Of The Colossus, I left my PlayStation 2 console powered on and took a somber lap around my neighbourhood.
I had just defeated the last of the game’s 16 colossi before being violently flung across the desolate battlefield. The game’s themes of sacrifice, obsession and the morality of violence stitched together an unforgettable narrative.
As I walked around a nearby basketball court, I was full of contemplation over the ending’s meaning and a yearning that I didn’t want the game to be over. But that’s precisely why the protagonist Wander’s journey left such an indelible mark: It ended.
Too many games nowadays are unwilling to embrace their own story’s mortality. Live service games, which are continually updated for months or even years, have become extremely popular for studios because successful ones can be financially lucrative.
By the end of the year, Fortnite is projected to have generated more than US$40bil (RM169.09bil) in revenue since its 2017 release, drawing players back with regular updates and special events like an AI-powered Darth Vader and concerts featuring J Balvin and Juice WRLD.
A survey of game studios that was taken in 2023 revealed that 95% of them were working on a live service game or intended to release one. Sony, which created Shadow of the Colossus, has leaned into live service in recent years with very mixed success.
The trend needs to end.
Live service games rely on questionable microtransaction tactics, with some giving advantages to people who spend more money. They can be overly competitive, with players pouring hours into mimicking their favorite content creators. And they are becoming painfully unimaginative, with new hero shooters and extraction shooters looking like clones of their popular predecessors.
For decades, video games told stories that ended but lived on in the cultural impact of their characters, their themes and their myths. Narrative-driven games are still being released – Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Ghost Of Tsushima, the modern God Of War – that leave players with a sense of overwhelming grief or intense satisfaction.
The steady encroachment of the live service model, however, means that artistic finality is clashing with the hope of financial perpetuity.
Bigger budgets for blockbuster games have transformed the industry, and many studios consider live service a better bet. But because players can’t easily devote dozens of hours to multiple live service games, there have been a few big winners and many, many losers.
Anthem, a multiplayer role-playing game by Electronic Arts, stopped receiving updates two years after its release and will have its servers turned off in January; Sony’s hero shooter Concord lasted two weeks. Even a successful live service game like Destiny 2 has seen player counts plummet, with each expansion introducing changes that can overwhelm players who are returning to the game.
The model has other problems. Studios that need players to return to the same game for months or years often tantalise them with seasonal items or quests, a predatory “Fear of Missing Out” model.
Some players spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars within sports titles like EA Sports FC and NBA 2K; when the game’s servers are inevitably shut off, they own nothing regardless of how many times they’ve virtually swiped a credit card. There is even a “Stop Killing Games” petition that is trying to combat that trend.
Although industry trends seem to favor the live service model, there is still some room for contemplation and reflection in an industry that seems to be picking up speed.
In recent years, games like The Last of Us Part II and Alan Wake 2 were praised for their tightly contained, emotionally driven narratives. They emphasised thoughtful relationship building between characters and offered immersive experiences, core tenets of games with a focus on narratives that end but never leave us.
Shadow Of The Colossus was critically acclaimed but never even received a sequel. Wander’s story would lose its potency if, after defeating the final colossus, players needed to wait for Season 2 to continue his journey. – ©2025 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
