{"id":22381,"date":"2026-03-19T13:37:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/in-the-killer-world-of-online-gaming-there-are-no-hits-any-more-just-survivors\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T13:37:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:37:34","slug":"in-the-killer-world-of-online-gaming-there-are-no-hits-any-more-just-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/in-the-killer-world-of-online-gaming-there-are-no-hits-any-more-just-survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"In the killer world of online gaming, there are no hits any more \u2013 just survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fates of two ostensibly similar online games released this year, Marathon and Highguard, prove that success is becoming close to unattainable<\/p>\n

What does success look like for developers of online video games? In 2026, the answer could not be clearer: no one has a clue.<\/p>\n

Consider Highguard, 2026\u2019s first big flop. Signs were promising on its launch on 26 January, with a peak of 100,000 concurrent players on Steam \u2013 plus those enjoying the game on PlayStation and Xbox, which do not make player counts public. As a free-to-play game, the barrier to entry for Highguard was low. And thanks to a prime advertising placement at the end of December\u2019s The Game Awards \u2013 a buzzy spot usually reserved for known hitmakers, not free-to-play upstarts \u2013 curiosity was high.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nThe fates of two ostensibly similar online games released this year, Marathon and Highguard, prove that success is becoming close to unattainable
\nWhat does success look like for developers of online video games? In 2026, the answer could not be clearer: no one has a clue.
\nConsider Highguard, 2026\u2019s first big flop. Signs were promising on its launch on 26 January, with a peak of 100,000 concurrent players on Steam \u2013 plus those enjoying the game on PlayStation and Xbox, which do not make player counts public. As a free-to-play game, the barrier to entry for Highguard was low. And thanks to a prime advertising placement at the end of December\u2019s The Game Awards \u2013 a buzzy spot usually reserved for known hitmakers, not free-to-play upstarts \u2013 curiosity was high. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fates of two ostensibly similar online games released this year, Marathon and Highguard, prove that success is becoming close to unattainable What does success look like for developers of online video games? In 2026, the answer could not be clearer: no one has a clue. Consider Highguard, 2026\u2019s first big flop. Signs were promising …<\/p>\n

In the killer world of online gaming, there are no hits any more \u2013 just survivors<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":22382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22381"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}