Studios with a long tradition in single-player and story are suddenly developing multiplayer online games like Anthem or Fallout 76. It makes financial sense. But at BioWare and Bethesda, it sounds as if they accidentally ended up there, believes our author Schuhmann.
Single players can do well, but not for long: Who still talks about Fallout 4 today? The RPG was released in November 2015, had three or four good months, and faded with some DLCs. Although it was a hit at the time, the revenue dried up relatively quickly.
Multiplayer Games: Indispensable for large publishers
Multiplayer is here to stay: Grand Theft Auto V (2013), on the other hand, is still breaking revenue records years after its release. It has been continuously supplied with content by Rockstar and earned a ton of money through microtransactions. In 2017, Grand Theft Auto V, a game from 2013, was the game with the highest digital revenue on PS4 and Xbox One.
Games-as-a-Service are the new “Franchises”
Companies need multiplayer: Therefore, it is economically logical for publishers to focus on multiplayer games. They need steady revenue to finance their ever-growing machinery:
- In the past, game companies needed hits – those without hits went under
- Until a few years ago, studios needed franchises, popular game series, to survive: They had to turn their hits into “series.” Those without franchises were bought out
- Today, publishers are hot for the steady revenue of a games-as-a-service. They need to turn their game series into “pseudo-MMOs” that are continuously developed and generate money through microtransactions
But the companies have a problem: Their audience actually does not want online games.
Bethesda and BioWare – strongholds of storytelling: Especially BioWare and Bethesda are closely associated with terms like “RPG,” “story,” or
