LogFAQs > #979097263

MeatiestMeatus posted...

That's why I call it live service lite. They're adding more to the game in the future. That's not early access. Early access is just that: early access to a game that's largely complete but needs quality of life fixes.

Again, was Hades a live service before they finished adding all the areas and weapons?

Early access very often involves adding new content, not just QoL/bugfixes. Factorio didn't even have a win condition when it first launched as an Early Access game, and even after it came to Steam (which happened about 6 months after the win condition was added), it went through several pretty substantial content updates (enough to justify raising the price) before 1.0 launched 4.5 years later. Early access just means "it's not done yet, we just want feedback and an income source while we finish it." Exactly what "finishing it" means varies from game to game and dev to dev.

MeatiestMeatus posted...

Suicide Squad is offering a lot of free updates. No Man's Sky offers a lot of free updates once you've paid for the main game.

I can't speak to how Suicide Squad is structure because I haven't really paid any attention beyond knowing that it's at least trying to mimic the live service looter shooter model, but NMS is not a live service, they just keep having ideas to add to the game. Again, the important distinction is that they'll stop when they stop having ideas, not when it stops being profitable to keep players engaged with the game. Live services are characterized by that push to keep players engaged long-term, not simply by receiving additional content updates.