Let's talk about "games as service" and what it could mean for KH3

[Komali 594]

Square Enix announced that they will focus on the "games as a service" model for future games.

 

 

 

 

 

What does it mean? Games as service are basically games that will be supported in the long-term with DLCs, microtransactions and so on. Think of FF15, they are already delivering DLC and plan to make more if we think about the survey they gave us. This is a model that other companies like Microsoft, Ubisoft and EA will support in the future too. This means they are supporting their games for more than one year.

 

Good thing is that we are getting more content for games we love. But what about the bad things? There is the risk that games will be released in an incomplete state (like FF15) or they will be episodic (like FF7 Remake). Episodic games aren't necessarily bad, but many people prefer to have a complete game in their hands and they want to avoid huge waiting times for the next episode. The other thing is that additional content will cause additional costs for the consumer, which means that games will become more expensive. The last thing is that it could delay future installments of the game.

 

It seems that Square wants every game to be a "service game". FF15 was a huge success for SE and they will continue to deliver content for the game. But if we look at games like Hitman which was episodic, the sales didn't match the expectations and they sold the studio. Another example would be Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, which was criticized for the unsatisfying ending and it felt like content has been cut from the game. Now the Deus Ex series is paused and the developer is working on Marvel games.

 

Of course there is always the possibility that the games are released totally complete AND that it will be supported with more content later on, but it doesn't seem so.

 

Now we have our highly anticipated, beloved KH3. After the recent rumor that it will be released in 2018 with cut content, many had doubts about it and said that it should be taken with a grain of salt. But now it makes sense. Considering the "games as service" model, content will be cut and easily released some months later after the release of KH3. This content can be many things: Worlds, secret bosses, items or even storyrelevant stuff. KH3 is indeed the best game for this model, if you like it or not. But the question is how it will influence the quality of the final product and if fans will accept it. You probably think that KH always had cut content, but it was never the case that this content will be added later as payable DLC (Final Mix versions don't count because they never added content in there which was cut before, for example Jungle Book world in BBS) and that we may get DLCs for over a year or two.

 

 

What is your opinion? Do you agree that KH3 could benefit from this or do you dislike it? Do you think that KH3 will be a service game? Share your thoughts below.

[Isaix 924]

As long as the game feels complete at launch I don't mind having to pay for DLC for more content,if I like a game I want to play more of it,I wouldn't mind having DLC worlds for KH3 as long as the game lauches with more worlds than KH2.

 

I don't like the idea of games being episodic though,especially for FFVII remake,but I don't buy that many Square Enix games beside Kingdom Hearts and some Final Fantasy games,so it won't affect me that much

[Kaweebo 3,617]

As long as the game feels complete at launch I don't mind having to pay for DLC for more content,if I like a game I want to play more of it,I wouldn't mind having DLC worlds for KH3 as long as the game lauches with more worlds than KH2.

I don't like the idea of games being episodic though,especially for FFVII remake,but I don't buy that many Square Enix games beside Kingdom Hearts and some Final Fantasy games,so it won't affect me that much

I don't think KHIII needs to launch with MORE worlds than KHII, especially since the worlds we're getting will be much larger in size anyway (in theory). Around the same number or even a little less doesn't bother me. As long as the intent is not specifically to lower world count just so they can throw more in later.

[MythrilMagician 6,963]

As long as we get to play the full game at launch, I have no issues.

[Headphone Jack 1,147]

i'm fine with it so long as it's not an excuse to release an unfinished game that gets slowly finished over time.

 

give me a complete base game and then if you want, go ahead and make DLC for it and i'll buy it if it looks interesting. 

 

personally i'm not too big on the "games as a service" idea. i buy and play a game with the intent to experience it in it's entirety and then move on to something else. i don't finish a game and then keep coming back to it periodically. there's too many other games coming out that i want to play. only time i revisit an old game is if it was really good and i just feel like playing through it again.

 

i get that this whole thing is just a way to keep players coming back to the game and also make some extra money though. seems like a more single player focused game shouldn't really be turned into a service. that model seems like it would better suit a multiplayer game. 

 

like i said though, as long as we get a complete game with KH3, i don't care what DLC they throw into it after release. 

[Guest]

Nobody is really getting what "games as a service means" do they? Square Enix are going to take the Sega Forever route and try and create a subscription based service for their games. Problem is, Sega used to be hardware developer so they have the quantity of content to justify such a service, Square Enix on the other hand don't.

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

Honestly, this is something that I find frightening! So far, we've had all games in the Kingdom Hearts series complete, and we haven't had to wait for DLC packs to get extra content, and I personally don't want Kingdom Hearts III falling into this mold! I want Kingdom Hearts III to be a complete experience from beginning to end! If Square feels that they have to add in DLC, I don't mind, as long as it isn't vital story threads that should be in the base game to start with, ya know?

 

I just really hope Nomura doesn't let Square ruin Kingdom Hearts III by dividing the story up into episodic or DLC centric formats! D:

[SomeKHFan 63]

I feel the service game elements likely follows the DLC concept, which we can see with some of their other games like FFXV or Nier Automata.

 

I really doubt they add more worlds as DLC but they might do what the final mixes did. This includes new bosses, areas (e.g. Cavern of Remembrance), sidequests, items, etc.

 

If they did any story based DLC, I feel it would be something the originally planned DLC for FFXV. By this I mean playing another character in a different part of the story. In FFXV this was seen recently with episode Gladio. For KH3 it might be, say, Kairi's story while she is training or something like that. I can't make much speculation here obviously as we know little of the game -_-'

 

Just to mention, one DLC I would be definitely interested in is something recently in Nier: Automata (really need to get the game). By this I mean fighting an important figure from either Square Enix (which N:A did with both the Square Enix and Platinum Games CEO)or Disney. Maybe a DLC at Olympus Colosseum where one can fight Tetsuya Nomura, Walt Disney or someone else in a massive boss battle.