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[Draugoth]

No "live service" game lives forever, or in the euphemistic language of the games business, they all get "sunsetted" eventually. At a GDC talk this week, Velan Studios director of marketing Josh Harrison implored other developers to prepare for that inevitability, ideally by doing the thing we also hope they'll do every time: making their games available to play even after the official servers are unplugged.

Harrison was in charge of marketing for competitive dodgeball game Knockout City.

To buoy dev team morale and avoid being scorned by fans, Harrison recommends making a big celebration out of the sunset rather than trying to minimize the news. Knockout City's end was announced with a video message—Velan recorded multiple versions in case the news leaked early, which it did—and included a $25,000 tournament (which in hindsight, they might've scaled back), a two week in-game event, a limited edition art book and vinyl soundtrack, and more.

There's one thing, however, that Harrison recommends studios do above all others when sunsetting a live service game: let players keep playing the game on their own servers. Before shutting down Knockout City, Velan released the game as a standalone Windows executable with private server support. It's still available to download.

via pCGamer

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

I agree. I’d still play Battleborn if there were servers available.

 

[Davevil]

host their own servers to play alone?

 

[Skyfox]

Tell it to tell tale. They shutdown an Xbox game I bought, RGX: Showdown.

Online Racer RGX Showdown Now Available for Download on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One 👾 COSMOCOVER - The best PR agency for video games in Europe!

Press Release SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - September 19th, 2018 Online Racer RGX Showdown Now Available for Download on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One - It's you against the world in lightning-fast, head-to-head races and hourly online tournaments. Climb the ranks, unlock new cars and customization options...

www.cosmocover.com

 

[bumpkin]

No disagreement here. It’s lame that you can buy a game and eventually be unable to play it because they pulled the plug. Especially when a lot of these games do P2P connections anyway under the hood.

 

[BennyBlanco]

If your game is liked enough people will find a way. There are still men of culture playing PSO for example.

 

[Roberts]

I played this one a lot when it came out (I had way more fun with it compared to most competitive online games) to a point where I needed a break. And when I finally had the urge to come back, they shut down the servers. So, yeah, he speaks the truth.

 

[Neon Xenon]

Totally agreed. There should be more consideration and effort put towards allowing players to play games like Knockout City after they are shut down.

 

[DaciaJC]

He's absolutely right. And not just for reasons of preservation, either. Community servers often feature modified rulesets, custom maps, or stronger anti-cheat protection/oversight that can significantly increase replayability and player engagement. Games like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2 are famous for this.

 

[Kings Field]

I used to rent servers out on Battlefield 3 all the time.

Had custom rules and whatnot. Pretty much Metro 24/7.

 

[Plague Doctor]

Yes, It should be standard that all Live Service games to have an End of Life plan for servers and allow fans to revive them for personal use.

 

[LRKD]

Incredibly based. I think most devs/publishers will not want to do this. It does cost them money, even if not much. And if perhaps they decide it is worth relaunching in the future it might eat into their business, then too.