Warframe boss thinks publishers should have more faith in burgeoning live-service titles instead of getting "terrified" when numbers drop
Tenno-longer with us
Steve Sinclair, CEO of Warframe studio Digital Extremes, reckons publishers should give live service games more time to find their footing, and not see dodgy release periods as a "make or break" indicator of a game’s success. "It comes out, doesn’t work and they throw it away," Sinclair told VGC.
"Isn’t that a shame when you put so many years of your life into iterating on those systems or building technology or building the start of a community", said Sinclair, "and because the operating costs are high, you get terrified when you see the numbers drop and you leave."
"We’ve seen this with amazing releases that I think have massive potential, and I think they eject too soon," he continued. "[Publishers] think the release is make or break, and it’s not. They have a financial way to be persistent, and they never do it. It comes out, doesn’t work and they throw it away."
We’ve seen several high-profile live services shutter support in recent years, including Knockout City and Babylon’s Fall - the latter of which lasted less than a year.
Warframe, which launched in 2013, has outlasted many of its contemporaries to huge success, including the coveted position of one of our favourite free PC games. During this recent TennoCon (Warframe’s yearly fan convention), Digital Extremes shared some new footage of their upcoming fantasy action-RPG Soulframe. Our Edwin had a hands-off look at Soulframe last year, saying "The open world areas remind me of Shadow of the Colossus in their faerie hush and obscurity, with trunks emerging from bright mist and paths winding through carpets of flowers."
Last year, Digital Extremes laid off their 30-person publishing team, transferring full ownership of free-to-play RPG Wayfinder to developers Airship Syndicate in the process.