It feels like there's a big subset of gamers that are mostly interested in obliterating their spare time with games akin to second jobs. An addictive loop is the most important bit. Many GaaS developers are happy to oblige and it results in incredibly high player review scores from this subset.
On the other hand, I'd say that most professional critics aren't interested in spending the rest of their life with a single game and they're kinda confused or repulsed by those log-in-once-a-day schemes + battle passes + premium currencies. They'd rather move on to the next game in their review pile.
So yeah, it feels like professional critics are incompatible with games as a service. I appreciate when a site like RPS puts out an article on whether or not a game has been improved with post-release patches. ..but they don't happen often enough for people hooked on these games. Sounds like an opportunity for a new kind of review site to me.
Maybe on some of these traditional websites, perhaps have people designated to GaaS when traditional reviewers need to move on and review new games. They could exclusively review GaaS games, or be tasked to re-review games originally reviewed by traditional reviewers.
Last edited: