Live service games have made their mark in video games, but there lies a significant issue. Repeatedly, we have seen games that aren’t bad get shut down early, layoffs happen, and entire studios get closed down.
Unless you are at the top of the list with Fortnite and Call of Duty, there isn’t room for live service games to coexist. Here is a list of the top seven live service games that had some positives, but not enough to keep them running.
7
Knockout City
746 Days
Knockout City was an arena game where players hurled dodgeballs at each other with the goal of knocking out opponents to score points for their team. It also had some unique ball types, including a moon ball for higher jumping, a bomb ball that explodes, and even your teammates can curl into a ball so you can throw them.
Originally published by EA, Knockout City had the same problem as every other game on this list: it couldn’t maintain a steady player base. While the gameplay was a lot of fun, it didn’t have the content to keep people returning continuously. After a year, the game transitioned to a free-to-play and self-published model in hopes of bringing more players in, but that never happened. Seven months following that change, the ending date was announced.
6
Hyper Scape
625 Days
Hyper Scape was Ubisoft doing its best to jump into the battle royale market way too late. While the game had a lot of players and viewers in beta, that all quickly evaporated upon its launch, leading to its servers being shut down less than two years later.
In Hyper Scape, you would fight in lobbies of 100 players to be the last one standing or hold onto the ending crown to win. Instead of a storm, sections of the map would disappear over time, and there were various random effects like low gravity and infinite ammo periods. People watching on Twitch could vote to choose what effects would be in play.
Hyper Scape had some interesting ideas, but overall, it couldn’t keep any momentum when it came to keeping players. At the end of the day, it’s incredibly difficult for new live service games to keep their initial audience.
5
LawBreakers
402 Days
LawBreakers was a cops and robbers-like hero shooter where both teams competed over various objectives depending on the game mode. While its gameplay was good overall, it’s really hard to survive as a hero shooter unless your name is Overwatch or Marvel. Add to that that the game was a PlayStation exclusive for consoles, and the game was limiting its playerbase to begin with.
LawBreakers was well received by most people who played it, but the number of players never got to a point that could keep things going. Its servers were shut down a year after launch, but it actually lasted longer than the development studio, Boss Key, who were pushed into doing a desperate battle royale attempt in Radical Heights that also failed.
4
XDefiant
378 Days
Ubisoft appears once again on this list. XDefiant was a team shooter that had big aspirations, but never took off the way Ubisoft wanted. The game set out to be a crossover for many of the publisher’s biggest franchises, with various abilities and gadgets attributed to the faction you decide to play as.
Initially announced in 2021, there was a long road before XDefiant finally launched in May 2024. When there was a beta session to test the game before launch, it was one of the most viewed games on Twitch, but by the time it hit 1.0, it seemed to have lost its steam. A few months after launch, rumors were circulating of Ubisoft considering ending the game. The director of the game, Mark Rubin, assured everyone that wasn’t the case, only for it to be announced seven weeks later that XDefiant was to be cancelled and shut down just a little over a year after its full launch.
XDefiant had its strengths as a shooter, but for as much as people wanted to say its choice to forego skill-based matchmaking and shooting mechanics could stand up against Call of Duty, it didn’t have the staying power.
3
Rumbleverse
201 Days
Did you know that Epic Games had another free-to-play battle royale that lasted a mere six months? Rumbleverse was a 40-player melee brawler that was published by the Fortnite creators and developed by Iron Galaxy. The game was heavily inspired by spectacular pro wrestling moves you would see in things like WWE.
With no access to guns, Rumbleverse was fully in on the flashy styles of its melee combat. It was definitely different, but it had its own unique charm, even if it copied a lot of the same elements of Fortnite with its shrinking circle and battle pass. Battles in this game were very exciting. From piledriving someone off a skyscraper or using a car to bounce up for an elbow drop, Rumbleverse had a unique approach to combat that you won’t ever see again in a battle royale.
Unfortunately, though, it was proven that even when you have the backing of Epic Games, there is not enough room for people to leave Fortnite and come to your battle royale. The playerbase never came, so Epic pulled the funding.
2
Highguard
45 Days
Geoff Keighley thought that Highguard would leave a big impact on the industry, leading him to reportedly convince Wildlight Entertainment to announce the game at his Game Awards show. That’s where everything went downhill. The game was set as the final announcement, leading exasperated gamers to already start calling the game Concord 2, and instantly bring up how the game’s name is completely derivative of Overwatch.
Initially, the plan was for Highguard to be shadow-dropped, similar to how Apex Legends was in 2019, seven years prior. With many ex-Respawn developers on staff, the idea was to try to repeat that success. However, after the announcement, there was no change in strategy. Wildlight went completely silent, letting the internet spiral out of control with its impressions of Highguard, even without playing it. By the time communication started again, many people had already made up their minds.
Highguard was described as a “raid shooter.” Two teams of three would go out into the world and loot before fighting each other to attack the opposing team’s base. While there were moments of fun, there was also a lot of downtime. The looting phase was long, and everyone got the same level of gear, making the rarity system feel irrelevant. Add to that the same criticism of generic characters that Concord got, and you could feel things weren’t looking great. After a little more than a month of play, the game was announced to be shut down after seemingly having its funding pulled for future development.
1
Concord
14 Days
Concord is easily the most high-profile live service failure of all time, and it’s going to be difficult to beat. PlayStation hyped up the game to be the next big thing, only for it to be playable for two weeks until the game’s servers were shut down, refunds issued, and the development team, Firewalk Studios, was closed down.
Almost immediately after its announcement, the internet was ready to discuss the game’s faults. For starters, the game was $40 to get into, which started talk about whether a paid multiplayer-only game can exist in a world with so many free-to-play games for others to go to. Additionally, people criticized the game’s hero roster for being generic, comparing many of them to Guardians of the Galaxy rip-offs.
While there are a lot of reasons that Concord failed, it wasn’t one of the worst games ever made. When PlayStation saw the abysmal player numbers upon release, it decided to cut its losses with a tainted brand rather than take the time to address player feedback and make a game that more people wanted.
