“Maybe after the Marathon catastrophe they will learn-”, no, they won’t. They didn’t after Concord, this isn’t different.
Because with just one success they pull out, the profits, in their eyes, will be infinite, everlasting even…
Let’s not forget that these guys are mad ludopaths at a fundamental level.
Kinda obvious, I know, but is good to remember.
These big companies don’t learn that fast.
The decisions to “invest” in these live service projects were made years ago, and execs are terminally allergic to pulling the plug on something once it’s a couple million deep.
They’re like cruise ships crashing into icebergs, except that once they set a course they aren’t set up to change it even if all the other ships start crashing and sinking.
I think you’re completely right, and I also think they’re work-shopping ways to make their live service concept work. In other words, mature gamers wholly rejected live service money grab games as a concept, and the corporations have decided that instead of accepting that and moving on, they’re going to try to jam as many slightly tweaked iterations down our throats as they can until something sticks. IMO, this is the product of companies being run by golden parachute hopping capitalist predators.