games-as-a-service
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Lionhead Studios embracing games-as-service model with Fable Legends
Fable Legends, the upcoming multiplayer-centric spin on the Fable universe, may end up being quite a different beast than its predecessors. Although new Lionhead CEO John Needham hasn't announced any business model for the game, he describes his job as one based around the "games-as-a-service" model: "I think the real magic in the industry now is taking great traditional gameplay and IP, and this new connected world, and mashing them together," Needham recently told Edge Magazine. "I am the person pivoting Lionhead into a games-as-service studio." Needham also said that Legends can act as a platform for additional Fable-related projects. "It's a long-range plan, of five to ten years, where we're going to build and keep building onto Fable Legends. That's the nature of games as a service – you keep adding systems and features and content." [Image: Microsoft Studios]
Valve, Blizzard wary of Windows 8
Earlier this week Valve head honcho Gabe Newell made headlines by labeling Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 8 operating system "a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space." Newell, whose company is responsible for the Steam digital download service, is concerned that Microsoft's move toward a closed platform will adversely affect game developers and publishers. Blizzard executive vice president Rob Pardo chimed in to support Newell's comments via Twitter. Microsoft's bid to control applications and Windows Store purchases is "not awesome for Blizzard either," Pardo tweeted.
Blizzard acknowledges Diablo III always-on is DRM
Despite weeks of insisting that Diablo III's internet connection requirements were all about improving the experience for gamers, Blizzard has finally copped to the fact that the feature was actually designed to prevent piracy. "While we've never said that this requirement guarantees that there will be no cheating or game cracks, it does help us battle those problems," Blizz co-founder Mike Morhaime said in a D3 state-of-the-game post. As Rock, Paper Shotgun points out, Morhaime claims to "fully understand the desire to play Diablo III offline" despite the fact that the game was "designed from the beginning to be an online game that can be enjoyed with friends." The online requirement "is the best way for us to support that design," Morhaime writes.
The Soapbox: Games-as-a-service sucks for the consumer
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. If you pay close attention to game industry marketing-speak, you've probably heard of something called games-as-a-service. It's an initiative that's been gaining momentum in recent years, as publishers and development houses look to increase revenue, strangle used game sales, and clamp down on both PC and console piracy. It's also championed by a few of our more clueless game "journalists," more often than not due to their (desire for a) cozy relationship with the aforementioned industry players. Put simply, games-as-a-service seeks to change both the definition and the public perception of the phrase "video game" from a product that you buy to a service that you rent, thereby granting developers and publishers complete control over the end-user's experience. If that sounds somewhat nefarious, that's because it is. It's also something that MMORPGs have been doing for two decades.
