GDC's 2025 State of the Game Industry report reveals that despite consumers' resistance to live service titles saturating the market, plenty are still in development. While Marvel Rivals is enjoying immense success, it's the exception, not the norm. More often than not, these games go the way of Concord.
33% of AAA developers responded to the survey, saying they are actively working on a live service game. Despite that response rate, only 13% of developers were interested in developing such a game, and 41% said they were not interested in working on a live service title.
If you expand the results to include non-AAA developers, only 16% are actively working on a live service game. This indicates that the big push for live service titles comes from the AAA industry; smaller studios show no interest in chasing the trend.
Given the large size of AAA budgets, this makes sense; live service games allow for easy monetization, making it easier to break even or even make a profit.
Sony Has Been Leading The Charge in Developing Live Service Games But Has Recently Canceled Two In Development Titles
The GDC survey came just a week after Sony canceled two live service...
