Live service games are hard to preserve, so many will disappear for good.
Live Service Games Are The Norm
Live service games areamong the most polarizing video game topics.
From the days ofUltima Onlineback in 1997, live service games were proving profitable.
It’s those roots that lead us to games likeHalo InfiniteorGTA Online.
Preserving Old Games Is a Big Deal
Some games can never be played again.
Other gamesneed emulators to run, since their hardware no longer exists.
Offline games, though fraught with preservation issues of their own, can be saved.
But what happens when we’re talking about games that depend on a server?
There was no concern for the players who loved the game and still depended on the servers.
Lucas Gouveia / How-To Geek | Dado Photos /Shutterstock
But it’s an example of how live service gamescanbe preserved.
But what if the game doesn’t have such a dedicated fan following?
But this usually requires ahuge update to the client.
Epic Games
The update usually changes the client completely.
So, at the start of each new season, you’re playing a whole new game.
What about the old version?
Halo: InfiniteTim Brookes / How-To Geek
you might’t get that back even if you want it.
And even if you did, what would you do with it?
Servers would prevent you from joining games as all the current-version players can’t play with you.
Live service games also age.
In time, these games drop in popularity and their servers are no longer viable to the publisher.
When they shut down, players are left in the same boat thatThe Crew’s fans found themselves in.
The game is dead and there’s nothing they can do about it.
These elements make preserving live service games a challenge that’s a lot more difficult than most gamers realize.
Yet, that doesn’t stop some players from asking for just that.
Having something is better than having nothing, after all.
While that’s a brave sentiment, it misses an important part of why preserving these games is difficult.
Anyone who played the original iteration ofWorld of Warcraftcan attest to this.
All the quirkiness of vanillaWoWwas lost as the game went through its expansions.
Yet, the desire from the community for vanillaWoWservers was there.
VanillaWoWis still a live service game, and the demand for it is what made its publisher resurrect it.
No one would play a single-player vanillaWoWclient, because a huge part of the game is community and interaction.
We can’t do much about this, but publishers can.
From Software titles likeElden Ringalready use a systemthat allows for a combination of offline or online play.
