The recent State of Play event clearly highlighted the direction the industry is heading – less single-player games and more service games.
Although many gamers criticize this approach, the market confirms that this is a logical step. In recent years, gamers have increasingly chosen games with micropayments and add-ons instead of traditional full-fledged single-player games. Examples like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Stellar Blade are selling well, but service games like Helldivers 2 show greater potential in terms of profits at much lower production costs.
State of Play also revealed that PS5 users are spending more on micropayments (+176%) and services (+57%) compared to PS4 players. Single-player games won't disappear completely, but there will be far fewer of them – not just now, but in the future. An example of this are the announcements of remasters or ports, such as God of War Ragnarok on PC and Asobi's Astro Bot, which, despite positive reviews, is a less expensive and high-quality product.
Meanwhile, the presentation was dominated by service-based games such as Concord, which demonstrate where the market is headed in the future and where micropayments will play an increasingly important role. This direction sets new standards and poses new challenges for developers, encouraging them to create games that will generate stable income from the sale of add-ons and services.
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Illustration by: Sony. Illustration source: Sony
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Cover author: PlayStation. Cover source: PlayStation