Making live service games for the sake of it isn't sustainable, ex-Bungie CEO says

Former Bungie CEO Harold Ryan shares his thoughts on live services and how companies have to chase experiences, not business models.

2

Harold Ryan oversaw Bungie through Destiny's launch, a pivotal MMO-FPS mashup that transformed gaming. Ryan also technically ran Bungie when microtransactions were introduced in Destiny 1, permanently changing the game's funding model (although he did leave shortly after in January of the next year).

We don't often hear from Harold Ryan or Bungie CEOs in general, but this has changed thanks to a recent GamesIndustry.biz interview. The once-CEO of Bungie says that publishers and developers should be careful about the games they choose to make. Games-as-a-service, aka one of the most diabolically competitive models on the market, isn't one size fits all.

"Would I ever make another service-based game? Sure. If I see the right game idea and the right audience, am I happy to build that and bring that to market? I am. But I think for the industry, it's pretty clear that we can't just pick a business model and say that's a reason to make a game.

"You want to pick a player experience and then build the game that delivers that experience to the audience where they're at, [in] the way they want to consume, on the platform they want to play it on. Sometimes that'll be games-as-a-service."

Ryan also briefly commented on Bungie's current position, which fans feel is a more deadlocked state instead of innovation or growth:

"I think in some ways, when I look at it, it feels like they're in the very same place that almost everyone in the industry is, where the things that were working and reliable before aren't quite as reliable."

Bungie is currently owned by Sony, but Destiny developer's autonomy is essentially being dissolved. Thanks to a clause in the $3.7 billion Bungie acquisition contract, Sony can essentially absorb Bungie into PlayStation Studios if Bungie doesn't deliver certain revenue targets. That absorption appears to be happening, per comments made by Sony CFO Lin Tao:

"As you have said, the leaders...at the time of acquisition, we were offering a very independent environment. Though that was one way of thinking. However, thereafter we have gone through structural reform as we have announced last year, so this type of independence is getting lighter.

"Bungie is shifting to a role which is becoming more of a part of PlayStation Studios, and integration is also proceeding. So long-term, you can see this as an ongoing process. The direction is to become part of PlayStation Studios."