The Top 5 Non-Definitive Live Service Games That Were Dead on Arrival
After the roaring success of our first top 5 non-definitive list (i.e. it wasn’t flamed in the comments, which is a colossal win on the internet), we’re back for our second weekly instalment. Live services love nothing more than milking the exhausted teets of players’ wallets dry. So, in that same energy, we’re here to sap even more from the well of terrible industry practice. Would it surprise you to know it was a mission to only pick 5? Thought not.
Alas, instead of the impeccably chosen best five live service games, for this rodeo we’re pointing a finger and laughing Nelson style at those that failed before they even got off the ground. Once again, you should absolutely take this with no pinches of salt and with the utmost seriousness. Given corporate CEOs adore laughing at us on the way to the bank, lets take this moment to mockingly laugh right back.
5. Battleborn
Ah, Battleborn. We hardly knew ye, really. Released in 2016 with the promise of overthrowing and obliterating all other hero shooters, it was brutally murdered in its infancy by, ironically, a hero shooter. Believe it or not, Overwatch was once a gaming phenomenon, though you might struggle to comprehend that in 2024.
Anyway, Battleborn released with a staggering 25 heroes to choose from and play. I’m sure that kind of massive variety wouldn’t come with any inherent problems. Like, I dunno, all of them being terribly boring, homogenous and creatively lacking? No, surely not. Players obviously loved it, given that by 2017, it went free-to-play. No hard feelings if you paid for it at release, huh?
Salt, meet wounds, Battleborn was pulled from sale in 2019 and met its final demise in January 2021. I think the biggest shock for this title was that it survived more than a year at all. First Alien: Colonial Marines and then Battleborn? Gearbox Software really showed us their best there.
4. Predator: Hunting Grounds
The only title on this list to actually still be alive and kicking, Predator: Hunting Grounds did somewhat alright. But, for a game styled on one of science fiction’s greatest honourable species of hunters, it made the Predators the equivalent of a bug in a swatting factory. A fairly solid early launch brought plenty of players in 2020, though the COVID-19 lockdown may have ever so slightly inflated those numbers.
If the best your game can do is be better than sitting and staring at a wall in your free time when you’re prevented from leaving your house, it’s not exactly a high bar. Then again, it did have to compete with Tiger King and Inside, so, swings and roundabouts. Since then, it’s averaged about 200 concurrent players on Steam, hardly numbers to be parading as trophies in your interplanetary, stealth-equipped spaceship.
Predator: Hunting Grounds never truly had a chance, given we already had Alien vs Predator: Extinction. It was doomed from the start, like a Carl Weathers in Predator.
3. Marvel’s Avengers
I know a sensible decision when I see one. A development team renowned for cinematic, story-driven single-player adventure games? LETS MAKE THEM PRODUCE A LIVE SERVICE, BABY! I’m assuming that’s how the corporate meeting went down, it just makes sense in my headcanon. However non-sensical it sounds written down here, that’s exactly what happened, mystifyingly.
Marvel’s Avengers launched in September 2020 (crazily it feels like it came out decades ago? Nothing to do with how it looked and played, I’m sure) and survived about as long as Spiderman after the Thanos snap. In real terms, that was three years. During that time, the game was plagued with controversy, ranging from boring gameplay, recycled content, platform-only characters in a multi-platform game, and the eventual selling of Crystal Dynamics to Embracer Group. We all know how well that’s gone…
Solid choice Square Enix, you can parade Marvel’s Avengers up there at the peak of live service gaming with… Chocobo GP? Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier? Babylon’s Fall? Man, I could do a whole list just from Square IPs.
2. LawBreakers
The game dubbed as failing for being “too woke” by Cliffy B (Cliff Bleszinski), also known as Dude Huge… apparently. Cliffy lad had quite a lot to say during LawBreakers’ run, to be fair. Telling the press to f*** off (spoiler alert, the F is not for fudge), claiming he’d never make another game, to seeing half of his team leave the studio. Nothing but sunshine and rainbows, if you blindfold yourself to all of reality.
What a shame it was too, as LawBreakers was actually a pretty solid live service shooter. I mean sure, you could argue it barely lasted 13 months. You could say it had to go free-to-play for its final four months. You could even state that it lead to the closure of the entire studio. There would be a but here, except there isn’t. All of those things are true. Cliffy B did have one more round in the chamber though, producing Radical Heights in just five months. FIVE!
I’m sure that did much more successfully than LawBreakers, right? Right?
1. Anthem
EA’s Patrick Söderlund once declared Anthem was on a 10-year journey from launch. Well, it’s now five years on from its 2019 release date and its journey consists of the ground and six feet under, it seems. Another example of fantastic management strategy by placing RPG veterans BioWare onto a third-person action shooter which spent more time cosplaying as Iron Man than actually making interesting content to play.
Couple that with a disastrously confusing spreadsheet-esque poster for its dozens upon dozens of versions, accusations of filler content and not at all living up to that wondrous E3 2017 trailer, and you have yourself a cocktail of utter dumpster fire. Delicious. Curiously, Anthem 2.0 was due out any day now, I wonder whatever happened to that? Couldn’t have been cancelled… could it?
Anthem takes the top spot simply because of the hilarity that it barely made one of its supposed 10 years. We should only be halfway through its “journey” – if you can even fathom that.
I would promise to not continually bleed live services dry, but as the companies that love producing them have no qualms about milking a dead cow, neither shall I promise not to. But that does it for this week. Any other favourite live services that died before even making it to conception we’ve missed? I’m sure there’s, you know, at least thirty more lurking in the shadows. Once again, if you disagree, feel free to rage and curse me to all manner of Hells in the comments, or scream at the wall, either works. After all, this post is once again nothing but concrete truths.
See you next week!
For more News click here
Make sure to follow Finger Guns on our social channels –Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Spotify or Apple Podcasts – to keep up to date on our news, reviews and features.
If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.
