If “live service” as a term is being used incorrectly by the general public, then what is the PROPER term? Or is there none, and so people will continue to use “live service” as the colloquial for whatever it is specifically that publishers have been pushing to produce, like what Destiny 1 & 2, Helldivers 2, Concord, Overwatch 2, Marvel Rivals, PoE 1 &2, Warframe, even Fortnight and Rocket League, etc etc are? the games where things are constantly changing rather than having more spaced out incremental updates of a mostly static game, and often have a lot of microtransactions and/or some sort of multiplayer component? Because there always seems to be some sort of extra commitment to these games that other games do not have. As in, a company makes a great non-“live service” game and can support it no problem for at least a year after release with patches and DLCs, but then the studio falls apart when they try to work on what the general public calls a “live service” game.

Those are «lifestyle games». The main thing you consider is that it’s a game you play day in and day out for years — it’s part of your lifestyle. Monster Hunter Wilds, Street Fighter 6, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends, League of Legends, Roblox, any MM…

Why did SWTOR get shuffled to a different developer if it was apparently Bioware’s most steady source of income for the better part of the last decade?

SWTOR wasn’t really treated as a true «Bioware» project for the longest time. First, a little history. The original Bioware studio in Edmonton was the one responsible for the «modern» Bioware titles — Neverwinter, Jade Empire, Dragon Age, and Mass Effe…