Most Gamers Played 6-Year Old Live Service Games Like Fortnite Last Year, Over Baldur’s Gate 3 & Spider-Man 2

A significant number of game developers are unsure about the long-term sustainability of the live-service monetization model, according to a recent survey. Generally, live-service games are those that receive continual updates after launch, often divided into seasons or chapters, and are usually accompanied by a monetization scheme like battle passes. The goal is to keep players engaged and continuously playing the game and spending money, and the model has proven extremely lucrative for developers.

According to a new survey by the Game Developer Collective, 70 percent of developers have concerns about the sustainability of live service games.

It's fantastic news for any hardcore fans of PlayStation's somewhat forgettable loyalty program, as it's now possible to grab a copy of Helldivers 2 without spending any extra money. Unfortunately though, that's assuming that you've already spent lots of money in the last year and a half, to the point where claiming this reward really doesn't seem realistic for a lot of people.

If you're an Avatar: The Last Airbender fan, chances are you were looking forward to the recently launched Fortnite collaboration that has seen Aang, Zuko, Katara, and Toph (sorry Sokka) head to the island. All four characters have been added to the Item Store to celebrate the collaboration, along with some emotes and Avatar-themed items, but many players have been coming away furious after seeing the prices.

Earlier this year, The Elder Scrolls Online announced that it had made more than $2 billion in customer spend, and its studio director says that figure got highlighted partly to help shine a light on that game's ongoing success.

Dragon Quest's series producer is reportedly stepping down from the role, and Nier's series producer could possibly replace him.

Older live service games like Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft make up more than 60 per cent of the gaming community's overall playtime, a new report from Newzoo reveals. Based on data collected throughout last year, it is said the amount of time people play games is trending down and those hours are spent playing a smaller range of titles. In 2023, games released within the past three years accounted for 23 per cent of playtime.

In a surprising turn of events, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is coming to PC, over eight years after the game was first released. Galaxy of Heroes was first released for mobile devices in late 2015 when the hype around Star Wars was enormous thanks to The Force Awakens, and at last, it's coming to a new platform.

Spider-Man 2, Starfield, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom all launched in 2023 but these blockbusters didn't stop Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch players from spending most of their time with older games like Grand Theft Auto 5 and Fortnite.

Eight years after it was first released, Stardew Valley is currently the most-played game on the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck has plenty of incredible titles available for playing on the go, but right now, Stardew Valley has become gamers' top choice once again.

The PC and console market grew by 2.6% to $93.5 billion in revenue last year, according to a new report by video games date company Newzoo (cheers, Kotaku!) That’s good, right? Growth is universally a good thing, otherwise all those nice, dead-eyed men in suits wouldn’t keep saying it was. You can’t just lie about growth, that’s a business crime. However, here’s some slightly more worrying news, depending on how much you value new ideas: Of all the game time that gamers spent gaming in quantifiable Big Year for Gaming 2023, just 20% of that time was gamed on games other than the 66 specific games mentioned in the report.

Games that are at least six years accounted for more than 60 percent of playtime in 2023, a new report suggests.