- A survey shows that around 70% of online-only games will eventually be pulled offline.
- Less than 5% of such games are patched to run offline by the developers.
- This survey has raised concerns about preservation efforts in the industry.
Game preservation has become a big concern in the industry recently, and things have only changed for the worse with each passing year. Although many still prefer physical copies to be safe, publishers continue to push toward the digital age.
This means that they hold the power to delist games or shut down servers at any given moment. The latter, in particular, is a problematic scenario since it leads to gamers losing access to a service they paid for. In fact, a survey reveals that 70% of games with an internet connection requirement are destined to meet this fate.
Why it matters: The Crew stands out as a recent example of the trend. Following Ubisoft’s closure of the game, the company faced a lawsuit and clarified that games are distributed as mere licenses.
The aforementioned survey was conducted by the consumer movement Stop Killing Games. This group aims to rally support for more serious preservation efforts in the industry, and its latest findings reveal why this is so important.
Stop Killing Games looked at around 700 games, categorizing them into unplayable games, titles at risk, online games preserved by publishers, and fan projects for preservation.
The ‘titles at risk’ category includes most games still running with such a requirement, so Stop Killing Games presented a graph without this category for an even better look at the state of game preservation.
In a shocking revelation, a whopping 70% of the games fell in the unplayable category. This means that out of 425 titles used for the research, 299 are no longer playable.
It should be noted that this list includes games like Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Crysis 3, which have lost online multiplayer but still have an offline component that remains playable.
However, even when excluding such examples, the percentage of unplayable games stays at 68.77%. A game like Concord would fall into this category, while a title like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League would be part of the few games saved by the developers themselves.
What are your thoughts on the current controversies regarding publishers pulling their biggest titles offline? Let’s discuss in the comments and on the Tech4Gamers Forums.
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[Senior News Reporter]
Avinash is currently pursuing a Business degree in Australia. For more than 5 years, he has been working as a gaming journalist, utilizing his writing skills and love for gaming to report on the latest updates in the industry. Avinash loves to play action games like Devil May Cry and has also been mentioned on highly regarded websites, such as IGN, GamesRadar, GameRant, Dualshockers, CBR, and Gamespot.
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