Games as a service

Games as a service (also known as live-service games) is a business model that is designed to continuously monetize games after they are initially sold (or given out for free), typically with new updates, DLC, and microtransactions. A common practice with this business model is having the ability to pre-emptively purchase this content with the promise that it will be released at a certain time, and will feature all of the content that was promised in the products listing. Games as a service also typically have a premium currency that you purchase with real-world currency to purchase in-game items.

Issues

While GaaS provides an incentive for a developer to continue to produce content for their game, once the developer or publisher decides to stop supporting the game, it often becomes completely unplayable. There is very little legal recourse for the user to recoup the cost of purchasing the game or any content purchased within. The End-user license agreement typically absolves the publisher of any such duty, as it states that you are purchasing a license rather than actually owning the software.

Examples

Ubisoft

Main article: Ubisoft

XDefiant, developed by Ubisoft, is an example of a game as a service. On December 3rd, 2024, the game announced the shutdown of its servers on June 3rd, 2025. 49 days before the shutdown announcement, executive producer of XDefiant, Mark Rubin posted online that the game had no plans of shutting down after season 4, while the game was still in season 2, and they had recently discussed their plans internally for the second year of content. The shutdown post announced that the last 30 days of purchases would be fully refunded.

The shutdown of The Crew is one of the central issues of the Stop Killing Games campaign. Despite the game containing some code for an offline mode from the start, it was not made accessible to the user due to the game's DRM. Thus, the game was left in a completely unplayable state.