A popular statement about multiplayer games is often: “The game is dying.” Player numbers are frequently cited to support this, but even more often, it’s the opinions of well-known figures from the game, i.e., influencers.
You can look at the player numbers, and they do indeed give an indication of the revenue a game is likely generating. But whether the game will be shut down due to low player counts is another matter. The servers are usually scalable, and their costs should always be below the potential revenue per player. Sure, at some point, marketing and development are no longer worthwhile, but you can still play the game. Counter-Strike went unchanged for many years and is still successful (or perhaps because of it?).
Now to my actual observation: Many developers now listen closely to the feedback from their supposed community. This is usually Reddit, as dedicated forums are becoming increasingly rare. The problem, however, is that only a small fraction of the player base is represented here. These are usually the hardcore fans who invest a great deal of time and energy into a game. Okay, and especially with free-to-play games, probably a lot of money too. But they are not a cross-section of the player base, but rather a very specific part of it with very specific needs.
When someone in Destiny 2 finishes all the seasonal quests and the season pass in three days, that’s not the average player. But they are often an influencer, whether on YouTube, Twitch, or Reddit. After two weeks at the latest, all the expansion’s content has been played through multiple times, and boredom sets in. This is then voiced with frustration. And what do the gaming sites do? They pick up this story and report on almost every game that the developer delivered too little or the wrong kind of content. The players (all of them!) are supposedly bored with the new content after just two weeks, and therefore the content can’t be good.
However, it’s often forgotten that a large portion of players don’t play 50-80 hours a week, but more like 10-20 hours. So if an influencer gets 150 hours out of the new content in two weeks, that’s great. For everyone else, it means they’ll have fun, or at least content, for a good 7 to 15 weeks. These players are satisfied and often don’t hang out on Reddit and the like. Their time is already limited and is better invested in the game itself. Nevertheless, sites like Mein-MMO or Gamestar are quick to report that “the players” are dissatisfied, usually with a reference to a Reddit or X post with 200 replies. Some even have over 1,000 likes. For a game that has 50,000-100,000 concurrent players online, meaning a player base of at least 500,000, this is hardly representative.
But this is precisely where the problem arises. Developers are afraid of such news because it makes their game look bad. Of course, who would play a game that, according to major influencers and gaming websites, has hardly any content, and the existing content is bad? No one will play that game, and new players won’t start it either. The 500+ hours that the content creator has already put into the game are overlooked. It’s funny, like Steam reviews: “John Doe (3,600h, 120h in the last 14 days): The game has no content, is boring, and isn’t fun. Even on sale for 20 euros, the game is still too expensive for what it offers.” Can we go back to putting statements into perspective, especially in games journalism, and contextualizing them properly? Are the 1% of hardcore gamers really the target audience by which a game must be measured? The ones who finish a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 in a single weekend? And are their playstyle and opinions really the benchmark for game development? I sometimes wish for less content or more time for it. A season tailored to extreme players is simply frustrating for the majority of normal players. I don’t want everything handed to me, but getting past level 30 out of 100 would be cool.