The rise of live service games, or 'forever games' is one that has, without question, changed the video game industry forever. It was a change that happened slowly at first, and then all at once, after the rise of what will probably go down as the biggest 'forever' game there ever was in Fortnite.

Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against the fact that millions of people love to play Fortnite, and derive joy from it. That it's now a place where people can make games of their own, and that it's a huge part of social interaction for young people.

Epic made a game that people like. I can't be mad about that, I'm not trying to fight a fake culture war on the internet. What I can be mad about though, and what I am mad about, is the impact the success of 'forever' games had on the bean-counters at video game studios and publishers, who all seem to share a single-brain cell that tells them all to try and make the next Fortnite.

Forever games aren't alone in making the video game industry worse, but they surely haven't made it better.

3 It's your life for a live service

Taxes, dying, and daily challenges are the only certain things in life.

Finding success in video games has always been about trying to get players to buy a game, instead of something else. Which is also just how any competitive market works, but in video games it's less about buying one game over another than it was. Now, it's about trying to get players to buy games, instead of spending more time on the free-to-play live service juggernauts that take up the majority of players' time.

Consider how January 2025 went for the video game industry, in terms of where players spent their time. In the US, for people playing on consoles (Xbox and PlayStation), Circana analyst Mat Piscatella reported that more than 40% of player time was spent on one of 10 live service games. 70% of all players that month played at least one of those top 10 games.

Yes, those are just numbers for the US, and just over one month, but it's a huge sign as to what game makers are up against nowadays. Live service games keep audiences engaged with daily challenges, battle passes, limited-time events, and constant updates to keep players coming back. And they can keep coming back without having to spend a cent, if they don't want to.

Though, as we've known since Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, people will pay for small, inconsequential additions to their games if they think it looks cool. Cosmetic microtransactions are so normalized that they're part of gaming's social culture, where everyone wants to try and have the latest skins and designs, to make their player avatar feel more personalized.

That's all fine and well, but it's an economic structure that has made it infinitely more difficult for standard, and what are now called, 'premium games,' to stand out against games like Fortnite, Roblox, Apex Legends, Valorant, etc. That leads to the big reason why live service games are making the industry worse.

2 Double-A games are gone, it's either triple-A or indie with no in-between

When every game is 'go big or go home,' none of them can 'go big.'

When I played video games as a kid, and growing up with them, I remember being able to go to my local GameStop or EB Games, and being able to look at a giant wall of games, many of which I had never heard about. Because there was a healthy chunk of the market that wasn't looking for the biggest sales numbers in the world. Games that had a smaller scope, that kept developers employed, and filled publishers' lineups so that they could have a variety of games available.

Some of those smaller-scoped double-A or even single-A level games were absolute gems that spawned bigger franchises. Most of them were duds, and another chunk of them were good, but ultimately forgettable games. But almost all of them tried something new, took a risk in one way or another, and that kept players taking chances on these games that, in the grand scheme of things, were unlikely to set the world on fire. But that didn't matter, because they weren't looking for that kind of big return.

If you've been paying attention to the video game industry in the last decade, then you've seen, time and again, how the suits at big game publishers will push for a big live service game to be made. All of these suits want to have a Fortnite-sized game in the company's portfolio, and they won't hear pitches for anything else. So, game publishers and developers give the green light to massive projects that cost hundreds of millions to make.

Those projects then fall flat, and everyone who worked on the game is out of a job, while the executives that green-lit the failed project to begin with either still have a job after laying off the people who weren't at fault, or they've already jumped ship to another studio and got a pay raise in the process.

The video game industry now feels like it's become this never-ending slaughterhouse of bean-counters trying to make the next Fortnite, or an small indie studio is doing its best to just make a game and stay alive. There's nothing in between, and we need more of the weird, smaller-scoped games that, above all else, are trying something new.

1 Indie games can't save the video game industry alone

The big developers and publishers need to help too.

Of course, indie games are still the place where you'll find game developers taking risks and being innovative, but the idea that indie games can save the industry is fraught and unrealistic. They'll continue to do their part, by being the place where game makers can take their biggest risks, and being the place where cutting-edge game design is actually happening.

But big developers and publishers need to pitch in. More of them need to be taking risks that don't cost hundreds of millions, and that won't create an inevitable scenario where hundreds, or thousands of developers, lose their jobs in an instant. More new IP's, fewer attempts at kicking every ounce of cash out of a legacy franchise. More games that aren't just trying to chase trends, that can give developers stable jobs, and give them the space to create more interesting art.

It's just not sustainable to think that the cultural and financial changes the video game industry so desperately needs can happen with a bunch of people going it alone as indie developers. The big companies all need to play their part, otherwise they'll continue to run the industry into the ground and scare aware our best talent. It shouldn't be such a commonplace part of working in games, that you should expect to be laid off at every job you have.

Live service games changed how the game is played, and the meta is in a bad place

It's an undeniable fact that live service games, or 'forever games,' have changed how the video game industry operates. We can't go back to the way things were, it's never going to be the way it was before.

What we can do instead, is hopefully find ourselves in a place where everyone across the industry, big or small, is just trying to make a good game that people want to play. Instead of trying to make the next Fortnite.