Batman Arkham And Rumored Superman Game Publisher Bets On Games as a Service
Paolo Sirio
David Haddad, president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, has revealed that the publisher is about to shift to a business model revolving around games as a service.
In particular, he talked about the introduction of a new developer in the team, one which is going to be set in Brighton, pretty close to the new 2K office with the label of Hangar 13 (Mafia III).
“But more than ever, the tech stack, whether it’s for publishing or BI or marketing, that you build and serve these games on—as we increasingly move everything to games as a service, the kind of enabling technology you need to keep them hyper-social, to keep them serving well, to keep them engaged, to take the innovations of game makers and deliver them, like the Nemesis system—you’ll see a lot of our investment not just in classic development, designers and engineers, and artists, but increasingly in the teams that end up serving live games,” Haddad mentioned during an interview with GamesBeat.
“These great games, mobile, and console, are built for long-term engagement. The greatest games continue to be played. Trying to be a new entrant, a new release in that environment, where gamers are so invested already, either with their friends or with a virtual currency or just with their time and expertise—finding a way to grab a share of their time is one of the biggest publishing challenges all companies have today.”
While this might sound a bit disappointing for people who love single-player games, it’s worth taking note of the process as Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is the publisher of lots of single-player titles such as Shadow of War and Batman Arkham.
There’s a new Rocksteady title in the making, reportedly about Superman (reveal was expected to take place, but Rocksteady explained why they missed this year’s E3), so it’ll be interesting to see whether this new philosophy at WBIE has a true impact on the gameplay mechanics.
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