The other topic about upcoming games got me thinking of this topic again. It seems like almost every major developer is trying their hand at an always online game nowadays, otherwise known as a here today gone tomorrow game, with no single player option available. Effectively, this makes them long-term rentals, and forces the consumer to move on when the company no longer sees them as profitable. Do you support the no single player, always online formula? Do you buy these games?
I've bought one begrudgingly, but I don't plan to continue supporting this model. There's no legitimate excuse in many cases to exclude an offline mode from the games. It seems to be just another brick in the wall for the forced removal of physical media that publishers have been frothing at the mouth to phase out since the early 2010s. What better way to maximize overall profit for a game company, than to charge gamers to play a game that they don't really own, and aren't entitled to keep playing? That's a publishers dream.
I was in GS earlier and heard yet another preview for an upcoming multiplayer game. It's getting tiresome at this point... I'm actually thankful some of these attempts have gone horribly awry, like Fallout 76... they deserved it's failure. Steep doesn't need to be a game that's always online.... it's a snowboarding game. It's getting ridiculous. I hope how soon this stuff proves disasterous for as many companies as it takes for them to cut this crap out. I think most of us want to own our games. We want to be able to play them single player as well as online. I'm not really all that interested in an a game that I only have a window of opportunity to ever play. I've not opened my copy of Sea of Thieves yet, and I've contemplated selling it so as not to support this model. It looks like a fun game, but it doesn't need to be online, and in 5 years probably won't be available to play anymore. I know some have voiced a boycott of all always online games, and I'm essentially one title away from considering the same.