Joe Tung, CEO and co-founder of developer Theorycraft Video games, began out his profession in video games because the lead producer on Halo 3 earlier than transferring on to be government producer on Halo: Attain and Future at Bungie. In an interview with PC Gamer selling his new MOBA-like battle royale sport Supervive, Tung mentioned that in his time at Bungie he needed to make choices that “weren’t in the most effective curiosity of gamers” and that loads of E3 demos on the time (although not essentially Bungie’s) confirmed off “bullshit vaporware.” The issue, he thinks, is the entire “boxed product mannequin.”
After leaving Bungie in late 2012, Tung joined Riot Video games to work on League of Legends, which gave him his first expertise of working on the planet of free-to-play dwell service video games. When he left Riot in 2020 to discovered Theorycraft Video games, he knew he needed to create a free-to-play dwell service sport as a result of he believes “the video games as a service mannequin is so significantly better for builders and gamers.”
“I all the time felt like within the $60 boxed product mannequin that I used to be having to make choices that weren’t in the most effective curiosity of gamers,” mentioned Tung. “It was in the most effective curiosity of, how can we promote as many copies within the first 48 hours as we will? One of many enormous strengths of the video games as a service mannequin is you could be long run, you possibly can suppose long run when it comes to what’s finest for the participant, and the way does that overlap with what’s finest for the corporate? I feel it lets you make a lot, a lot, significantly better choices total.”
When requested for a selected instance of one in all these non-player pleasant choices, Tung recalled the times of E3 press conferences and the demos that got here with them. Whereas in a roundabout way saying that the E3 showcases for any of the video games he labored on could possibly be categorized this manner, he mentioned that loads of E3 builds for video games featured issues that might by no means be within the remaining launched product.
“I might wager that any developer who has ever labored within the $60 field product mannequin, up till the purpose the place E3 was cancelled, has a narrative in regards to the E3 construct,” mentioned Tung. “It is like, let’s jam as a lot bullshit vaporware into the construct as we will within the subsequent three months as a result of we’ve to have an enormous displaying at E3 as a result of it is our one alternative to speak to our viewers earlier than we launch the sport.
“I must wager that some vastly important share of these E3 efforts ended up on the chopping room flooring as a result of they have been half-baked and brought on individuals to crunch and actually must make enormous sacrifices to get it in. However I guess a bunch have by no means even made it into the sport due to the way in which that you just develop these issues. In order that’s my favorite instance of vastly impactful choices that weren’t about what’s finest for the participant.”
There’s additionally a 3rd path which has been getting consideration recently. Helldivers 2 has been held up this yr as a profitable instance of the center floor between the free-to-play mannequin and the $60 or $70 sport—the hit co-op shooter prices $40. Sony is taking the identical strategy with upcoming PvP hero shooter Harmony.
With Supervive, Tung says the aim is to construct a dwell service sport you can play for 10,000 hours over the course of years. I am 9996 hours away from having the ability to let you know if that is lifelike, however given its stable basis I would not be shocked if some gamers rack up that complete ultimately.
