Soapbox: Astro's Playroom PS5 Did Live Service and You Didn’t Even Notice 1
Image: Push Square

Live service has become a curse word among enthusiast gamers. While ostensibly a business model, many associate the phrase with multiplayer and microtransactions. It’s true that free-to-play games like Fortnite are live service, with regular iterations introducing seasonal gameplay mechanics, systems, and themes. Right now there’s a big Marvel event occurring in Epic’s battle royale, which has seen the introduction of Doctor Doom-style quests and locations.

The thing is, live service effectively just means ongoing development, and Astro’s Playroom recently exhibited some of the advantages of the model – albeit on an admittedly smaller scale. You’re feeling conflicted right now, aren’t you?

While much is criticised about the contemporary state of gaming, one of its real advantages is that a game can be iterated upon after its release. This obviously comes with undeniable downsides: some titles release broken and unfinished, with missing features. That’s not good enough. But when it comes to evolving and introducing – shock horror – live service events, there are tons of possibilities.

Soapbox: Astro's Playroom PS5 Did Live Service and You Didn’t Even Notice 2
Astro's Playroom's live service in action, showing how our site's traffic fluctuated with each Special Bot update and how the title shot up PSNProfiles' most played list with the release of the fourth update — Image: Push Square

Astro’s Playroom demonstrated that in the subtlest of manners recently, and no one criticised developer Team ASOBI for following said path – largely because it did it in the right way. But make no mistake, the semi-regular release of Special Bots, which introduced new puzzles and encouraged players to return to the title multiple times in the lead-up to Astro Bot’s launch, was an example of live service support.

Now it’s true that the developer didn’t monetise this, aside from the entire campaign acting as interactive marketing for new game Astro Bot. And it’s also accurate that the team eschewed FOMO (or fear of missing out) by ensuring the content will always be available to be unlocked. But this gradual ongoing support is an example of how live service can be implemented positively – and even culminated in a countdown event, similar to the new year stuff in Fortnite.

Soapbox: Astro's Playroom PS5 Did Live Service and You Didn’t Even Notice 3
Image: Push Square

I understand people are going to bristle at this article; they’re going to point to the calamitous launch of Concord and claim what Team ASOBI did here doesn’t count. But the whole point I’m writing this is to attempt to open your eyes: live service doesn’t have to be bad; it doesn’t have to be evil. In fact, when used effectively, as is the case here, it can be pretty cool. Don’t automatically write off what’s possible just because of your predetermined notions of what the model entails.

What did you think of the Special Bots updates to Astro’s Playroom? Did you enjoy completing the regular puzzles, and did it help build your anticipation for Astro Bot? Did you join the countdown for the new game’s release? Keep calm in the comments section below.

Did you enjoy unlocking the Special Bots in Astro's Playroom? (1,089 votes)

  1. Yes, it was a great primer for Astro Bot%
  2. Meh, it was okay I suppose%
  3. No, I didn't find these puzzles fun at all%
  4. I didn't unlock the Special Bots%