The fact remains that if a company can find the golden goose, it will last for years, if not decades. However, the result is that otherwise promising games are being declared dead in droves: “Take down the Justice League” is a prime example. If it doesn't do well soon, it will be shut down in a few months if it is lucky.

Steve Sinclair, CEO of Digital Extremes (Warframe), claimed in an interview with VGC that if a game is not a huge success upon release, the company will quickly exit: “They think the release will be a success or a failure. But it's not. They think the release is success or failure, but it isn't.”

Sinclair seems to argue that most live-service games, i.e., those backed by huge publishers, can probably get the ship steered away from the iceberg, and that it is “these system iterations, technology building, or community It's a shame that when you spend so many years of your life building a start, the operating costs are so high that when you look at the numbers you get scared. ...... We saw this in a great release that I think has huge potential, but I think they will be discharged too soon.

As for the tragedy of the live service bomb, you won't hear any arguments from me. I don't think Suicide Squad is inferior, and I don't feel bad if a publisher with deep pockets steps on a rake. I do, however, feel sorry for the people who created it. It takes a lot of hard work to make any game, even if the result isn't great.

But let me quibble a bit here: Warframe is definitely a success story, and it has solidified its place in a live-services market that had long been volatile. As then-studio manager and now chief operating officer Sheldon Carter told Polygon in 2018, “There were a few of us who looked at the numbers every morning to see if we could afford to keep everyone on staff on this project.

At the risk of putting words in his mouth, you can make the claim that I do not assume with Sinclair here, that bigger publishers have bigger parachutes. Warner Bros. lost $200 million on “Suicide Squad”: Warner Bros. lost $200 million on “Suicide Squad: Take Down the Justice League,” but they had the money to begin with. It's not ideal, but I don't see WB going under because of this.

On the other hand, these companies are bound by shareholder expectations. Any sane manager would attend a shareholder meeting and say, “Hey, guys! But maybe we should put more money into the red. Because I think the next spin is going to be a hit."

There is also the fact that two live services actually tried this and it didn't work: for two years for Marvel's Avengers and four seasons for Exoprimal, Square Enix and Capcom were responsible for content updates, respectively. The size of these publishers and the tremendous effort expended to maintain them could not save either title.

Live-service games are, after all, nothing more than a gamble with high stakes, and “Embracer”-grade irresponsibility has led publishers everywhere to embrace the “Destiny” can be made, it can't be that hard,” optimism like a drunk about to fail a backflip. While it is gratifying that Warframe has done well, its success story is as extraordinary as something like “No Man's Sky” was.