Recent job listings and executive comments suggest that Warner Bros. is planning to make its upcoming Wonder Woman game a live-service title. This means that the game will be constantly updated with new content, and players will be encouraged to keep playing it for months or even years after it is released. This can be great or bad, depending on how it’s handled.
Live-service games have become increasingly popular in recent years for publishers because they can generate a lot of revenue over time. However, they can also be controversial, as some players feel that they are designed to exploit players’ wallets. Marvel’s Avengers is a prime example of this and pretty much the golden standard for how not to handle live service games.
As found by VGC, A recent job listing for a Lead Software Engineer mentions experience helping maintain a live software product or game as a “nice to have.” The listing is for Monolith Productions, the studio developing the Wonder Woman game. In other words, there may be elements of live-service in the game like seasonal content and microtransactions.
Wccftech also highlighted Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav comments that suggest the company is focused on live-service games. In a recent earnings call, Zaslav said that the company is shifting its biggest franchises from consoles and PCs to live-services to include more always-on gameplay.
“Our focus is on transforming our biggest franchises from largely console and PC based with three-four year release schedules to include more always on gameplay through live-services, multiplatform and free-to-play extensions with the goal to have more players spending more time on more platforms. Ultimately we want to drive engagement and monetization of longer cycles and at higher levels. We have specific capabilities. We are currently under scale and see significant opportunity to generate greater post-purchase revenue.”
David Zaslav
Zaslav also said that the company wants to “drive engagement and monetization of longer cycles and at higher levels.” This suggests that Warner Bros. is hoping to make its games profitable by keeping players engaged for longer periods of time. Live-service is normally how that’s done.
If the Wonder Woman game does become a live-service title, it is likely to be similar to other live-service games like Gotham Knights. These games typically have a lot of content to keep players engaged, and they often use microtransactions to generate revenue.
It is not yet clear what specific live-service elements the Wonder Woman game will have. However, the job listing and executive comments suggest that it is likely to include some form of post-launch content, such as seasonal events or DLC.
Suicide Squad: Kil The Justice League may also get live-service elements, but we won’t know for sure until it launches. Considering Gotham Knights’ Metacritic score, you would think the company would focus more on game quality than live-service features.
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