My Problem with Live Service Games... (Q&A) 

I never thought about it before, but an "Until Dawn" style The Thing game would be absolutely incredible. That's an incredible idea Jake.

That stab at Diablo 4 with the "things will get better by season 3" line cracked me up 😂😂😂

Can we stop for a second and appreciate how well Jake starts his videos? I mean, it's world class stuff, way more engaging than almost any video of this type

re: games as a service, the thing a lot of people don't realize is, there are fewer players that like them, but those players that play them will more than make up for the smaller player base via microtransactions/season passes, etc many times over because the people who do play them will effectively buy the game many times over.

Love that Jake has a Falcon logo on his PC. ❤

When Jake described living life in chunks waiting for the next thing I felt that! It's not weird or bad its good to have things to look forward to and have anticipation for! Sometimes the anticipation of something is better than the actual thing itself when it comes to bad games!

Question for you Jake. Do you have any siblings? If so, do they play any games or are into gaming? I know that you don't talk about your personal life much but I am asking because I want to see how you got into gaming as a kid, and if your parents influenced you.

"But if I want to fuck up grandma's brain" LOOOOOOOOOL

I was waiting for you to drop a video on this, Helldivers 2 is easily the best coop game I’ve played since Left 4 Dead. I haven’t touched any game since it launched. Thank you Jake.

Jake pauses "You good?" The dog: Eh bro I'm just tryna get a good scratch in, you do you and yap into the camera.

I’m so glad (and not surprised) to hear you’ve never dealt with depression - you seem like such a genuine, sweet hearted nerd!

Many scratching their heads as to why Suicide Squad went live service is something I'm glad you acknowledged that most people overlook: around the time Suicide Squad was at some point in development, there was indeed this live service boom (probably due to COVID) and the market seemed to dictate that was what to shoot for. Genshin Impact being something of an impetus of that boom. Thus, companies will company and will shoot for that potential huge revenue stream. Love it or hate it, at least Suicide Squad is more content-driven rather than engagement-driven and one doesn't have to play the game like it's a chore or commitment. The game can be put down and revisited later when new content is released without the fear of FOMO. It isn't too far removed from how DLC works traditionally. While some DLC does cost money, the recent God of War Valhalla, for example, is free. And as for SS, all subsequent content for that game will be free. And while I know I am in the minority on this one, but, personally, I don't think Suicide Squad is the dumpster fire most are making it out to be. The game isn't bereft of problems, but I have been enjoying my time with it because the combat in the game is legit fun and satisfying. Fight me.

Your experience with The Last of Us Part II is funny to me, because I had a very similar one with my Wife. She doesn't like watching games at all, however we watched the first season of the HBO show and she was so enthralled with the story that she just wanted it to continue. I went ahead and bought the game and every time I sat down to play it, she'd be there to watch. She'd resort to browsing on her phone during the massive looting sessions, but for the most part, she was right there with me the whole time. It was a really cool experience and I'm still waiting for another game to pique her interest the same way.

After watching Dungeon Meshi on Netflix In which beast are slain, and then turned into food after being broken down for ingredients, I must say that a game, including all of those elements would go along way in a world where people enjoy grinding and loot. Thanks for the drop.

When you’re describing Helldivers 2, another game that fits your description is Remnant 2. If anyone is reading this and has been looking for a co-op game to play with friends, and you have gamepass give it a go, it’s awesome. It’s filled to the brim with secrets, puzzles, great boss fights with alternate options for completion. It’s got great combat and it’s only going to be a base game and 3 expansions, there’s no battle pass or paid bs to try and drain your wallet.

It seems like there's 48 hours in a day for you, or you just don't sleep or something. You get so much done in a day... playing all of your favorite games, popping out before-you-buy's like no tomorrow, watching your favorite movies, checking out game trailers, researching all of the news for the Friday show, putting up new videos on this channel...everything! You're such a productive guy, I have no idea how you can do it all

GAAS is fine when the game play loop is good and the service is actually delivered. So many titles recently have hoped to shove GAAS elements in without balancing what stores will mean to actually playing the game they want us to sink money into.

Love the videos Jake, always look forward to your videos. Q: What was the last game you played that really had you in awe? Something that felt like you were experiencing something great.

Are souls-likes overtaking traditional hack and slash games?

Jake Baldino: Blowin’ the dads away

What sucks is that Among Us is basically what a The Thing game should have been

2:20 There's also an appeal for all the employees to have a static ongoing project to work on that provides job security, over having riskier 3-4 year projects that they work on that may hit or miss each cycle. This is why the market keeps trying so hard to create a subscription based product rather than a "one and done" product.

My man Jack Baldino with the positive vibes, love ya dude ♥

Helldivers 2 focused on the right thing: core gameplay. I don't need some half assed story that the devs clearly mailed in. charge 40 bucks and have gameplay that's fun as hell. helps that the microtransactions and live service elements are light. Plus the game looks amazing and is funny as hell in both the tone and the chaos that can unfold. The fact that AAA devs will make a live service game and botch the core gameplay loop and/or the end game is fuckin baffling.

Thanks so much for responding to my comment in the video Jake. It always helps knowing other people go/ have gone through what I'm going through.

Man, if they make a new James Bond in the style of that new Perfect Dark game.... *chefs kiss*

lol my grandpa was amazed when he saw me playing ghost of Tsushima on a 4k tv

Helldivers 2 is a breath of fresh air. Perfect example of a live service game that fucking nailed it.

Hey Jake! Just wanted to swing by and say hi! My kid loves watching people play games on RU-vid so we recently started up our own channel. Wish us luck!

Firstly, gotta say, I’m always looking forward to whatever you got cooking. Your a guy whose gaming sense I vibe with super hard and just a dude whose opinion I really find interesting. So I’m happy to watch a GOWR Valhalla video whenever you wanna release it, as well as all the other stuff you mention ! Really looking forward to seeing your collection of stuff btw, that’s gonna be a stellar video ! Other than that, just gotta say your doing amazing work, love the content and keep on keeping on ! See you in next vid Jake !

“People will be hooked on Destiny and endlessly play Destiny, right? But they're not gonna play four other games like that at the same time.” Straight up facts.

I've found myself watching less and less Gameranx, but I always watch your Friday show and your Q&As. Thanks for doing these!

I absolutely loved the crap out of Goldeneye Rogue Agent on the DS. I had just gotten the DS as a kid and it was an amazing feeling. And when I saw "Goldeneye" on the box I thought it has to do with the N64 game I loved, and even tho the game was a bit scuffed, it was freakin awesome to play and my neighbors got it too so we would play mp a bunch. Even in school it was cool to do that DS Download feature so you could play with friends who didn't have the game. I remember math class a bunch of us would be secretly playing a full lobby of mp with our DS's hidden in our backpacks or sweaters. Good times.

inFamous deserves a revival more than any other franchise man

Could we get a tour of your game room?? I'd like to see the games you felt were worth holding onto physically

haha that conversation about The Last Of Us Part II review with family watching was funny. I had a similar experience with my Mom watching me play. She was hooked by the story but wasn't fond of all the violence.

Thanks!

Who is your favorite video game protagonist? For me it’s Kiryu, I recently finished Infinite Wealth and really love how he’s been written throughout the series.

26:25 can relate to that one, when my father first saw me playing Racing Game, it was one of NFS I don't remember which one exactly and he was surprised to see the graphics And the when he tried to play the game he was like "Physics are not realistic at all"😂 😂😂

What is your skincare routine ?

Hey Jake! Really enjoy this channel, it's fun to hear your more personal/unfiltered takes on things. I had a question/prompt for your next Q&A video if you're interested - If you're allowed/want to share, I'd be really interested to learn about your sort of workflow or approach to your work at Gameranx or for this channel or even for something like the Friends Per Second podcast. Now that I'm an old person, gaming has mostly become something I kind of sneak in for an hour or two after my wife goes to bed, but I feel like if I was getting paid to play them that'd be very different. At the same time though, I have a hard time imagining that all the gaming youtubers are like "Ok, 9am, time to punch the clock and GAME until 5pm then sign off." Or is that how it is? How do you make time for all the stuff you HAVE to play? And where do you fit in the things you wanna play for you? Is there a rhyme or reason to it? Or do you just make it up as you go and frantically play every possible second to meet quotas? Sorry this was sort of long and rambley, maybe you get what I'm trying to say. Thanks! Pizza's on me this time, you've bought us way too many

Q: What would you like to see added to more single-player games? A: I really loved the Rockstar Editor(?) video capture system in GTA5. The fact that you could have it always recording the last 30(?) seconds in case something unexpected happened was awesome. And regardless of whether you were doing that or intentionally recording something, the video editing software was super easy to use. It was also great that it didn't actually record video, it just recorded the state of the game. Meaning that when I recorded a clip on a mediocre computer, I could still render a video at a much higher quality than I could actually play the game on. If there are any other games that have a comparable system, please let me know. That is the only one I have noticed. If it was in every game, I would spend way too much time making videos (and be totally okay with that). (I would have really loved the Rockstar Editor the first times I played Fallout 4.)

The conduits is Infamous are basically sucker punchs unofficial take on Mutants in the X-Men comics, movies and shows

Helldivers 2 is the first Live service game i actually engaged with. So much fun the loop is intoxicating and the stupid tone and intense gameplay is epic.

This is why Palworld and Enshrouded is winning and AAAA will fail with "Always Online"

I think more companies should go the GTA V/Online route. Fully packed single player story, then an online mode that they continue to build on.

Not enough people talk about Deep Rock Galactic. Beautiful game.

Question: Future state I suspect that gaming will mirror movie/series streaming where the ‘console’ is the app (purely software) on your TV or device that supports apps with no hardware. Imagine turning on your TV and seeing a Capcom, PS, Xbox, Fromsoft, Kojima, etc app where each app allows a library of legacy and current games. With this model the ‘console war’ would be more of an ‘IP War’. This model would be more like Netflix so you’re just leasing games. Company’s would no longer need supply chains. I’m an old school gamer so I like owning physical games, but this seems like the direction we’re headed towards, what do you think?

What plot point would you want to see a new Red Dead Redemption follow? I think a prequel to the prequel could be nice and make Dutch the playable character. Being able to see the gang form and how he raised Arthur could make an even bigger impact on RDR2's story.

Hi Jake! I believe GameRanx is on the Game Awards voting jury. Could you tell us a bit about the voting process? Also, any chance of getting Falcon as a guest on the podcast? Love what you do man

The Insomniac Spider Man live service game might be pretty fun. Movement is already fun, and having a game loop of unlocking suits and other Spider people seems like it could work

Question: How do you and Falcon decide which videos you will work on? Do you two have a preference of the type of videos you are in?

Jake are you excited to hear Dino Crisis might come back? Have you played original Dino Crisis games?

Hey Jake! Coming here from Before You Buy and FPS. Love this Q&A format. I'm a bit of a weeb who plays Genshin Impact and I'd like to get some perspective on why I don't see many people like you (renowned reviewers) talking about it. I realize it's a huge cash grab, but I think the gameplay is really good and the story can be enjoyable at times. Keep up the good work!

The "endless paralysis" description is pretty accurate. Stay strong, Jake.

The thing is that people on the gamming community online think that they represent the whole of people that plays games, but they don't. Most people don't even get evolved in anything about the gamming discourse, they just want to play a play they like.

Jake as a gamer with similar taste to yours, what do you want in Mafia 4? Especially if it is true that it is a prequel set in early 20th century Siciliy. Also, did you play the godfather games? Always loved how it felt like you were actually involved in organized crime with the family trees, threatening shop owners, bribing, etc vs the more actiony and 1 man army stuff of Mafia 3

MGS4 is my favorite MGS game. The controls are perfect, the gun realism is perfect, the over the top action is perfect, the cutscenes are perfect.

I bought Outriders at a discount because it was always-online, which is still stupid. But at LEAST it had a single player campaign. Helldivers 2 could be the best co-op game ever, but I’m never going to touch it because (A) always online and (B) no single-player campaign.

Dude. I love that your Q and As are getting longer. Nice.

Ive been sayin this for years… among us, but The thing. Big budget, deeper mechanics, but essentially among us style The Thing game. Just makes alot of sense to me.

I know some people didn’t enjoy Starfield, but I’ve been loving it - and Starfield’s New Game Plus is incredible. In fact, there are multiple New Game Plus iterations. I put 240 hours into my first playthrough, and was ready to put it down for a bit and play something else, but now I’m into my first (of what I imagine will be many) NG+ playthroughs and really digging what Bethesda did. OH - and an RPG based on The Thing? HELL yeah.

Jake. former Heroin addict here. these types of games that charge cash like that and seek rent are aimed at those with Addictive Personalities.

I'm Glad things in the industry have settled a bit, even today seems mundane! Better uplifting stories out there, somewhere!?!

Mannn, Judge Dreadd has been such a neglected IP, I just recently got done playing through the Dreadd VS Death game for the first time this past month, wish there were more movies/shows/games with the IP.

15:39 I've never been able to put it into words but I relate so much to this

Are you into 80’s cartoons at all? I was a big Transformers, Voltron, Thundercats, and GI Joe fan growing up, and I really wish Transformers games would make a comeback. Modern power and shooter elements with classic 80s designs would be epic!

The main problem is every game publisher/studio sees the success of Fortnite as a money printing machine and think "We could totally do that with this IP we have." Not every single game or IP fits the live service model and the main issue is studios forcing live services into games where it doesn't belong (i.e. Kill the Justice League.) It CAN work given the right game and situation.

I’d love to see the Robocop guys make a Die Hard game, using Bruce Willis’ likeness, especially since he’s really sick and will never make a movie again. Let him go out on top, with a bang!

I live my life the same way. The next big movie, game or tv series. You are the first person I know of that does it the same way.

What I'd love to see from IO Interactive's 007 game is taking that Hitman DNA, adding some of those important Bond elements like vehicles and gadgets, and then layering on a deeper social component, almost like a Deus Ex game. The most recent Hitman games have essentially felt like immersive sims to a degree, so why not lean into some of the best examples in that genre to bring more of the cinematic aspects of the James Bond franchise into that? I love the idea of really filling that role of James Bond as you have the choice to carefully infiltrate, go in guns blazing, and make high stakes escapes, but I also really want you to talk your way into and out of dangerous situations. Hell, I guess what this almost sounds like is Alpha Protocol, but with actual good stealth and combat.

Shout out to the girl that dated Jake and let him use her... PS3. I'M DYING 😅

My question: whats your top 5 batman animated movies?

How do you feel about binging tv shows? Are you into watching as much as possible in one sitting, or do you prefer to break it up and watch one episode at a time? Whats your best/worst binge watching experience?

Question: Your hair is awesome! What is your hair/beard routine?

@natrualborniller7426 your question hit home for me. As someone that has always struggled with Anxiety / depression and has an interest in computers and currently works from home lol. This may have only exasperated my anxiety and depression. For a brief moment things are good. But never comfortable. Comfort is very fleeting as new wants / desires / and problems that come with new environment's arise. As long as you are never forgetting you are alone, engaging with your community in some way. (for me its the local fingerboard community in my home town that I never knew existed until this year) and hanging with friends, feeding yourself, making sure your body is healthy so that your mind can follow suite, also feeding your mind healthy habits, thoughts that will be the most impactful thing on your pursuit for a healthy happy mind. We often forget to do the things that make us feel better once we start feeling better!

Hey jake, in a gameranx video recently you said you worked at a grocery store for a while. And here said it was hard to figure out what you wanted to do in life. Now with gaming, hopefully youre closer. As someone whos yet to reach 30, how do you feel when people say " life really starts in your 30s" or "What happens before 30 doesnt matter"

Hey Jake, have you guys ever thought of doing a "Let's play" series? Would definitely watch the whole Gameranx crew play a bunch of different games. Like your God of War:Valhalla video but maybe for all the new upcoming big games and also some of your favorite throwbacks? Just a thought. Think it would do really well.

I actually think that live service games make way more sense from a business point of view. The capital needed to create a one and done game is excessive now - $200m for Horizon Forbidden West - and to bet that much money on a game that may end up being a Forspoken just doesn't work. And this becomes even more so given that gamers aren't prepared to pay the right price for games. Games were first sold at $60 in 2006. 18 years later and the price has gone up just 16%. In the same period, inflation has gone up 53% so games have actually reduced in relative price by $20. The only reason this has been able to happen is because the market for games has increased in size offsetting the reduced revenue developers are getting for the efforts. Now the market has matured that will no longer work. It makes much more sense to invest less up front to create a base game and then deliver smaller paid updates to the game. It is less risk to the developers and to their investors as one bad update would not jeopardize their capital position. So, it should be no surprise that developers will continue to try and crack this business model. From a gamers point of view, live service doesn't have to be bad. Look at the Division 2. The base game and expansion was paid for, but since then you could have played the game for free and enjoyed every piece of content delivered. And given that new content has been released every 3-4 months, that is tremendous value. This includes new game modes that expand the appeal of the game to a wider audience. This content has been paid for through season passes and cosmetics, none of which you need to buy to play the game at its highest level. That to me, is a business model that works for everyone.

Fuck up Grandma's brain 😂😂😂 Also, thank you for the Killzone love comments, Jake. One series that Sony is massively overlooking the potential of. I'd buy any Collectors Editon they'd release of a new one. Awesome Q&A, keep up the amazing work, Jake!! ❤

@JakeBaldino 2 questions: 01. When are you going to make food on your word of "Pizza's on me."? It's about time you partnered with a major international pizza chain like Pizza Hut. 02. The Delorean Motor Company (DMC) was recently revived. They have a prototype vehicle. What are your thoughts? I hope they can make it but I'm pretty doubtful. The auto industry is very hard and the economy in the US and possibly abroad is pretty rough right now. Hopefully they have enough capital to last them through these tough times for them.

Super excited for the PC content, hopefully coming soon.

What are your favorite youtubers and youtube channels? If you could only watch 5 channels for the rest of your life, which channels would you choose

All live service games like this that change constantly needs a pay system. The have GMs working around the clock in Helldivers 2

Question! Have you read Marvel's new Ultimate Universe comics? It's not the previous Ultimate Universe of Earth-1610, but a new Earth-6160 altered by secret supervillain shenanigans. So far we got: a husband & father Peter Parker becoming Spider-Man in his 30s; a Dune inspired Black Panther battling Khonshu and Ra, who are the Moon Knight; and a folklore/magic take on the X-Men set in Japan, starring Armor! This new imprint started in September 2023 with a bunch of prequels, but the main titles I just listed started this year, and more like the Fantastic Four and the Avengers (the "Ultimates" here) are soon to come. What do you think? Hope to talk more comics!

A dedicated MGS4 video would be great

22:40 gave jon bernthal "what is that" vibes

What console / game makes you feel the most nostalgic

I'm ready for a new Gauntlet game. You ever wonder how badass they could make that multiplayer now?

For next Q & A: Time travel back to the PS3/360 era. Any guilty pleasures game wise? For me it was Mini Ninjas (vastly under-rated) and Neverdead which was basically Katamari with body parts!

Q&A was fun. For non-gamers getting sucked in, Final Fantasy 14 caught my mom's attention because she thought the outfits/fashion were interesting. I think the first time she looked over Aymeric was on the screen, so that makes sense. Significant other had fun judging my character creation choices in BG3 then got sucked into watching/telling me what choices to make.

Hell Divers 2 is the perfect game to be a live service. Why? 1. It's not story driven 2. Its cheap 3. Its just an action game that I WANT MORE CONTENT FOR 4. Farts

8:04 Sorry for the late reply. Thank you so much for answering my question. I agree that photo modes need to be a staple. They’re so much fun. Wishful thinking: it would be cool to see tutorials in game for photo modes. Cause for the uninitiated, you boot up the photo mode and you’re inundated with options. I know there’s lots of stuff on RU-vid that can help. But it would be cool to see that in game. (Though I do understand that would take time and money to make that happen)

Jake are you gonna give Shogun a go? Seems right up your alley

(Hypothetical) you are a creative director, what game would you really like to see get movie/show adaptation. Lead actor? Main villain actor? Director / style of what movie/show? Or the other way around, what's a movie or show IP you'd love to play as a game, who would you get to make it? (hopefully this is fun to think about, I don't really know) after adaptations both ways seem to be going well recently.

Hey Jake longtime listener here - what’s your loadout in Helldivers? What can you absolutely not drop without ?

Roguelite modes like No Return and Valhalla give you a challenge in combat the single player can't and I love that

Sly Cooper was absolutely amazing. Never played 4 though

You just showed me why I bloody love you! The Thing is my favourite movie and the game was amazing! Was literally saying a remake of that to myself then you dropped it!! 👌👌 You da man

I agree! Can’t wait for the Alan wake 2 video!