If you’re designing a live service game, the answer to “how long is the shelf life of a video game?” seems to be “for as long as possible”. This strategy makes sense; after all, it’s easier (and cheaper) for a studio to keep adding to a game rather than creating something entirely new. But what happens after a few years have gone by and the game has started to stagnate? Why do so many games turn stale despite the best endeavors of their developers? And how exactly do studios go about avoiding this problem altogether? Let’s look at the answers to some of these questions and how the devs at Jagex have tackled the age-old problem of how to modernize a game while engaging with an older fanbase.
The appeal of MMOs in the industry
One of the best sources of these lessons of how to retain a loyal fan base over the years is the enduring juggernauts of yesteryear, MMOs. These guys in particular are in an interesting position as we move into 2022. Many would argue that the genre that defined PC gaming in the 2000s is no longer relevant, others that the MMO model has simply evolved into what we now consider as live service games.
Despite no longer being at the peak of their popularity, some of the biggest MMOs are not only still going but continuing to innovate and against all probability continue to grow. While plenty of franchises has been going for decades, you’d be hard-pressed to find games in other genres managing this for five, 10, or even 20 years after their initial release.
The power of evergreen design promotes hours of replayability
The evergreen design ensures your game is built to be played indefinitely. While you might encounter your classic end-level boss encounter, the game remains largely open-ended whilst continuing to offer meaningful progress. As a designer how can your new content provide additional depth for those who want it, 10s of hours of fulfilling gameplay.
Providing a clear and ongoing metagame for high-level players is key to this. This can take many forms. Infinite and intricate ways to personalize a player’s character is one, improving skills and honing combat efficiency to ludicrous levels is another. Creating environments for functionally infinite sandbox play is a somewhat labor-intensive approach, while achievements, rewards, and New Game Plus mechanics are a little easier.
To use an intensely personal example from my time with Jagex, RuneScape is built around this evergreen design principle, with content that is carefully curated as the game evolves over many years and is expandable without becoming dull. This helps to create a self-sustaining world that can truly stand the test of time.
An ever-evolving world engages the players with hours of content
New skins and skills are all well and good, but they are much less impactful in a vacuum. In MMOs, we see this in quests that play like mini-adventures, dangerous dungeons filled with challenging bosses, seasonal events, skill-training hubs, quality-of-life improvements, and patches that keep the game fresh and evolving.
Key examples of this being used in conjunction with evergreen design are Minecraft and Fortnite, both games that have added much more in the way of worldbuilding than anyone could have imagined at their inception. They have both continually improved and modernized the player experience, smoothing out the rough edges and building a world that players can engage with as much as they want.
The rising trend of cross-platform games
Another commonality the above examples share is their cross-platform utility. Not just being available on the main consoles, but on PC and mobile as well. In the best cases, these games allow players to seamlessly switch between platforms, and pick up their game wherever they left off. This accessibility has proven key to prolonging the life cycle of popular games. It not only brings a game to new audiences but also allows older fans to engage in new ways.
A studio may have been targeting teenagers at a game’s inception, but do their future plans work for players in their mid-20s, with jobs and potentially even families? For, old-school game creators, this demographic shift often translates as players no longer having all of the PC or console gaming screen time they used to, making the versatility of mobile all the more important. Crucially, this approach doesn’t freeze out new players, whose introduction can be vital to invigorating the game, driving the player economy, and bringing greater breadth to the community.
The success story of RuneScape and Jagex
At Jagex, the success of Old School RuneScape on mobile rekindled many players’ love for the game and demonstrates the potential value of having a franchise touchpoint across multiple devices stating the very fact on how to modernize a game whilst engaging with an older fanbase. Even after 20 years of continuous operation, the RuneScape franchise’s active subscriber levels reached their highest ever level in 2021 thanks to this approach. With the way that the industry is moving, games that maximize their accessibility through releases and features across multiple devices, or that make their main titles accessible through any device will be able to maximize their player engagement for the long term.
Runescape is certainly not the first flagship game to reach this conclusion (Minecraft, Fortnite, Call of Duty, and PUBG have all had their own approaches to mobile), but we are well-positioned to offer advice to studios toying with the same ideas. It’s all well and good to say “make your game more accessible” but this doesn’t take into account the colossal amount of work it takes to make this viable.
In addition to technical limitations inherent to mobile devices themselves, transforming a sophisticated PC or console user interface to be mobile-friendly is not a challenge that should be undertaken lightly. Mobile developers are of course very used to this, but developers for other platforms can expect a rude awakening.
Final thoughts
Lasting success for any game comes down to a balancing act between bringing in new players and holding on to existing ones. Neither group can be treated as monolithic. Each has its own shifting subgroups and cohorts that will respond differently to every change in gameplay, graphics, accessibility, pricing, and more.
How do you find the line between keeping the game fresh and preserving what made it great in the first place? Where is the tipping point between focusing on bringing in new players, or long-term player retention? Whilst there are no guarantees of success, there are commonalities that a majority of long-lived games share.
For developers looking to extend the life cycle of their games for years to come, balancing the needs of your initial audience and attracting new players is a constant battle. Focusing on appealing to one group at the expense of the other will eventually see your player base stagnate and then start to shrink. But there are more examples of successful enduring games than ever before, and with continued advancements, in terms of accessibility in the mobile space (cloud gaming chief among them), the opportunity to extend the viability of any PC, console, or mobile game is there for anyone learning the right lessons from gaming history.
The article is written by Neil McClarty – Vice President Of Product & Player Strategy at Jagex
What are your thoughts on the opinion put forward by Jagex on how to modernize a game while engaging with an older fanbase? Let us know in the comment section below!
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