Here is yet another PS5 title you can add to the ever-growing Games as a Service wasteland that's built up over the past few months: Bloodhunt. Released for PS5 just over a year ago, developer Sharkmob has announced it will no longer be supporting the Battle Royale game or making any more content for it. The online servers will at least remain switched on "for as long as we have an active player base and community," the studio said.
To combat the lack of upcoming content, an update will be deployed to incorporate a user voting system that allows the community to pick what items should be unlocked next. Then, on 26th September 2023, the ability to purchase Bloodhunt's premium currency — known as Tokens — will be turned off. "Before this happens, we will implement a way to earn in-game tokens more easily so players can continue to play and unlock cosmetics beyond this date." Besides these two patches, future updates will only be related to game maintenance.
Sharkmob says it's moving on from the title because it hasn't "been able to reach the critical mass needed to sustain development. This has led us to the decision to stop further development of Bloodhunt." Indeed, even if a live service title manages to generate a bit of buzz, a lot of the time it can be difficult to sustain that popularity enough to where it can monetarily support a whole studio. The likes of Fortnite and Warzone 2 have always been the exception.
"While we are as sad as you are that Bloodhunt development has now come to an end, please know that this was a difficult decision to make, and we take this experience with us in the development of coming games," Sharkmob signed off saying. Of course, this is the sector Sony plans to massively expand into in the coming years, with 10 live service games planned.
[source bloodhunt.com]
Comments 38
RIP. Hope the devs find work.
Live service games are definitely dying and I'm happy about it. They are just so forgettable when comparing to a good story experience. And also most of them are super generic in gameplay so I'm fine with this
This one was OK... But nothing more.
Generic Battle Royal in Masquerade universe. Spent a couple of funny evenings in this one, but can hardly imagine someone playing it over and over again.
These ten new GaaS reveals are going to be fun to watch.
@AFCC Everybody is happy about it.
There's no point in trying to break in to the Battle Royale space right now. People only have so much time in the day and the majority of those who are interested are playing CoD or Fortnite or one of the other already established titles.
Regarding Sony's 10 games, was it last week or the week before that they were saying they won't be releasing the same old copy/pasted live service games?
Everyone seems to be expecting 10 Battle Royale games or something like that.
The more of these that die early the less people will start the next one.
What game is this, never heard of it before, no wonder it's gonna be dead
Sony should really take note of this before investing heavily trying to find a cash cow in games as a service, specially with the recent rumors that Sony is pulling away from Deviation games and even that their game might be cancelled, l really don’t like this trend of buying unproven studios only for multiplayer games at the same time they neglect their own studios with unique ideas such as PixelOpus.
As long as Horizon and Ghost of Tushima get full trilogies, I won't mind too much. Live service is a vague enough term that I might like at least one of them, hopefully.
@Wheatly "In the end the GaaS model is there to empty your wallet and eat all your free time and I don't ever see how that can work for me with a job, family and other interests."
Couldn't have put it better. You summed it up perfectly.
Factions and Horizon Online are what I'm looking for from Sony in this space. I won't have time for more than that. (Depending on what they offer of course.)
The GaaS trend really needs to go away. The limited time I have for gaming would only be able to support one GaaS, and knowing my history with the likes of Destiny and The Division, my interest would wane after 6-12 months. I can’t imagine trying to support two at the same time, much less 10 all at once.
It's not that surprising. Not many people have interest in live service games as basically cash grabs, especially with the way the economy is and inflation levels etc
The console market is close to saturation point and people are more precious about time and it's value. I think developers and publisher's are finally starting to realise that there isn't room for a ton of GaaS and the difficulties in trying to launch and compete with the few that are already established and successful.
Royal stuff not for me. But waiting for The First Descendant. Games like Destiny are more my type of format.
Like how people try to pretend stuff like FF14 or paying an extra $55 for battle packs (basically 1 character, outfits and a new Arena) across the years on a $60 fighting game are not GAAS also.
It's going to be a good laugh over the next few years watching Sony try to desperately convince people to invest in the 10 they have. I think besides TLOU Factions thing the rest will fail. The gameplay leak I seen from the MP Horizon game was complete Fortnite cringe.
I always see YouTubers play games like this (and including this) once and never again. Usually because the money has gone into a Fortnite or COD battlepass and as people have said there isnt enough time for all this live service games. What used to be easy money is now a death sentence for devs unfortunately
You can have a single player game as a service that works. Just look at Assassin's Creed. The only issue with those, if you aren't wearing your hate tinted glasses is that they can burn you out - I must have spent about 150 hours on Odyssey throughout its lifespan. A bit less on Valhalla.
Oh no.
Anyway.
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@JohntheRaptor to be super honest, they're all aberrant. Single player games with coins/gems/digital currency are part of what's wrong in gaming these days.
It's never a case of "just don't buy them" either, because they are still here, regardless.
What is games as a service? What does it mean?
It's both funny and sad how such a cool concept like gaas games ended up so hated. If you told 13 year old me that video games in the future would be update with new content overtime i would've lost my little mind but unfortunately devs these days, or maybe the greedy higher ups they work for, have went about that concept in the worst way possible leaving mostly disdain for them
@CutchuSlow they're basically free to play games or regular games that are updated overtime with new premium content. Games like fortnite, destiny, overwatch, etc
As I say every time I don't mind if I'm getting a full game to begin with and if they support a game I love over years with support I honestly don't mind that one bit.
If people just don't like online Multiplayer direction I understand. But let's not pretend online Multiplayer is new to Sony First and second party let me cast you back to PS3 Socom, Mag, Warhawk, Starhawk, Twisted metal, Crash commando even Killzone and Motor Storm were heavy online.
As for bloodhunt game was OK it was pretty minimal and bit late to the party in saturated battle royal market. When it launched with almost forced PC crossplay with lots of people cheating on PC, even though you could turn it off, it was on by default and you wouldn't match with PS players if you turned it off. As at launch no aim assist on controller either which made the game very difficult for average player.
@Wheatly "In the end the GaaS model is there to empty your wallet and eat all your free time and I don't ever see how that can work for me with a job, family and other interests."
They don't want your time and money. They want your adolescent to college-age kid's money and time. For all the "adults play games" trends, it's pretty clear that the real money is still the adolescent market, and that's where the industry still targets all it's suckers, and where these GaaS services thrive. There's no escaping that games are still mostly aimed at the 12-25 segment, at least in terms of the bulk of revenue.
@CutchuSlow a easy definition is
In the video game industry, games as a service (GaaS) represents providing video games or game content on a continuing revenue model, similar to software as a service. Games as a service are ways to monetize video games either after their initial sale, or to support a free-to-play model. Games released under the GaaS model typically receive a long or indefinite stream of monetized new content over time to encourage players to continue paying to support the game. This often leads to games that work under a GaaS model to be called "living games", "live games", or "live service games" since they continually change with these updates.
most people assume its a battle royal type game , but there are plenty of examples of games that are live service games , that aren't multiplayer heavy. an example as of recently is assassins creed has been considered as a live service game , with constant updates , and season passes , same with fighting games such as street fighter or tekken.
@Wheatly Those demographics are very skewed though as it doesn't capture how much "spend" is for the consumption of those older gamers and how much is older individuals engaging in spend to be consumed by the 12-25 bracket. It's also dubious as to how that data is being captured across retail sales other than self-submitted surveys which are, themselves, self selecting.
Based on what content is produced, and they way it's monetized, marketed, and designed, it's very very clear that that core demographic has not changed. The industry knows where they get their money, and endless timesucks and streamer-driven sales aren't coming from the 40-65 demo lol
@AFCC don't be so quick to celebrate the death of live service games. Games as a service is only the latest in a long line of (potentially) scummy initiatives for publishers to squeeze more money out of consumers (and to cripple the used game market before that). Over the years we've had online multiplayer passes, DLC season passes, battle passes, microtransactions, loot boxes, games as a service... If games as a service dies out completely (which I don't think it will), something equally as - or more - predatory and scummy is 100% guaranteed to replace it.
The ten gaas games Sony are currently developing are gonna fail spectacularly. Its gonna be weird to watch this trainwreck.
Great news. Let's get back to a single player focus.
@IOI they never bought that studio lol just deal on a game
Not sure why some think this is the future of gaming
Jim Ryan said he sees live servics as the future of gaming over subscription services?
All I see is live service games dieing all the time. Sony could be in trouble betting so heavily on it, only time will tell
That sucks, I actually enjoyed that game😔
Other than the week it released did anyone ever see it advertised or talked about ever again?
@twitchtvpat @Pepsiman_100
Oh. Thanks for answering. I guess I don't mind those type of games. It happens with mmo's, too, where they add new content or expansion. Is it that? I think its good that they do that. Well as long as its a free expansion, I don't mind it.
@Bazooka I never even heard of it until now. I even forgot the name just a few seconds ago haha. Scrolled back up to check what the name was hehe.
@Markatron84 GaaS won't die, it'll just be concentrated in the hands of developer/publishers who do it best or got there first. That's actually a positive, because it means that other developers will give in trying to compete with behemoths. Fortnite and Overwatch aren't going to fade away and vanish, but they'll probably remain the only extant instances of live service titles, forcing developers to actually be creative and genuinely innovate.
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