Big publishers ‘eject too soon’ from live service titles, says Warframe boss

Digital Extremes CEO Steve Sinclair has said that games companies must have more faith in live service projects, even if they struggle at launch.

In an interview with VGC, Sinclair lamented the trend of large companies in the live service space abandoning titles quickly following launch stumbles.

“They think the release is make or break, and it’s not. They have a financial way to be persistent, and they never do it,” Sinclair said. “It comes out, doesn’t work and they throw it away.”

He added: “Isn’t that a shame when you put so many years of your life into iterating on those systems or building technology or building the start of a community, and because the operating costs are high, you get terrified when you see the numbers drop and you leave.

“We’ve seen this with amazing releases that I  think have massive potential, and I think they eject too soon.”

High-profile live service titles that have shut down in recent years include EA‘s Knockout City which lasted just over two years, Smilegate’s Crossfire X which lasted just over one year, PlatinumGames‘ Babylon’s Fall which lasted just 11 months, and EA’s Anthem, which was closed after two years, despite being a full-priced game.

Digital Extreme’s Warframe was an early entrant into the modern live service space when it was first released in 2013.

Now, a decade later, the game has spawned a yearly convention and regularly receives new content updates. The game’s next big update, Warframe 1999, is coming this year.