The reveal of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Warhammer 40,000: Darktide was a pleasant surprise for fans of the franchise. The success and overall high quality of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Warhammer: Vermintide 2 by developer Fatshark should serve as an excellent indicator for what൲ will lie ahead for the new game, but it also forces a question about how long a developer and consumer may expect support and new content to be released post-launch.
In particular, both Warhammer games serve as a perfect launching point for this question due to recent events. When the Winds of Magic DLC launched for Vermintide 2 in late 2019, players were generally left dissatisfied with what was offered. It was partially because of miscommunication, but at the same time Fatshark has been vocal in the last few weeks stating that they would do better with future DLC, balance updates, and new career. Everything sounded perfect, until Darktide was announced.
Will All Resources Go Towards Darktide?
The timing is almost comical, as Fatshark has committed to making content for Vermintide 2 in the future that will be better than Winds of Magic, and we have already been given a description of the Chaos Wastes where players will next venture. However, the thought on everyone’s mind is how such a promise can be kept while also trying to developer Darktide, which by all rights is a spiritual successor to Vermintide 2 set far into the future, though likely without any ♈Skaven outside of East⛎er eggs.
Fatshark, knowing that their player base must have been thinking this obvious thought, released the fꩵollowing statement to put people at ease.
There is no reason to doubt that these words may be true, but the reality of game development is that if Vermintide 2 is not as profitable as expected, there is a strong chance that resources will be put into developing Darktide as quickly and as well as possible. Ultimately, there is nothing wrong with this, and it brings us back to this ide♎a of how long a consumer or devel🅷oper should expect to continue producing content for a game following a post-launch period.
Developers Who Update Seemingly Forever
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Terraria is a good example to begin with of a title that has received far more content and updates than more every expected, as developer Re-Logic has gone above and beyond since first launching in 2011. Expert Mode, Master Mode, new weather effects, golf, and so much more have brought us to the Journey’s End update. The game is beloved by fans for the constant addition of updates, but would players still love Terraria without them?
That is hard to say, but we can see that Terraria is an outlier in terms of ಞongoing support for a game that is almost a decade old.
Developers Who Want To Update, But Cannot
Some games suffer unfortunate circumstances that prevent the additional of new content. A recent example was Illfonic with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Friday the 13th The Game, an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game that saw a few updates to its content, but ultimately ended up in a state where there was no way to release 𓆉more due to a lawsuit regarding the rights to use the iconic killer.♋ In this case, the lack of updates doomed the game before it could really take off, although the quality of the game play was not as high as others in the genre.
Still, the lack of ongoing content updates helped seal the fate of this g▨ame, and points to a consumer base that expects ongoing support, or they will move onto something else.
Developers Who Release Trash And Update Along The Way
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fallout 76 is the most recent example of a game that was released long before it was ready, and gradually updated to a point that could be considered acceptable a full two years later. Beꩲthesda chose to leverage the popularity of its franchise to buy time with its consumers and release a product that has no business being in the market.
Few games can do this today and get away with it, and those that do are sacrificing part of the trust of൲ longtime fans.
A Changing Market
Video games have certainly evolved as products over the past few decades, but it seems that the shift from premium games sold once without any further modifications is long past. Now, a game like Vermintide 2 can succeed in the long term if its developer continues to update and add content. Time will tell how the announcement of Darktide coincides with their commitment to keeping their older game going, but at the very least it seems like a gamble to have both announ🌌cements made so🍌 close together.
This is an important topic that developers need to consider, and🉐 more importantly🍰, manage as an expectation for their consumer base. With clear communication, players are often more than happy to accept news about a game and how it will be treated for the long term. However, not paying attention to these expectations could cause a major rift between what a consumer expects, and what a developer will do, which is a problem everyone would want to avoid.