Further updates added similar weapons which began to include monetization options, such as buying virtual keys to open in-game loot boxes.
[3] Valve carried this principle over to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and to Dota 2, the latter which was in competition with League of Legends by Riot Games.
League of Legends, which had already had a microtransaction model in place, established a constant push of new content on a more frequent basis (in this case, the release of a new hero each week for several years straight) to compete, creating the concept of lifestyle games such as Destiny and Tom Clancy's The Division.
The principal reason that many developers and publishers have adopted GaaS is financial, giving them the ability to capture more revenue from the market than with a single release title (otherwise known as "games as a product").
In developing games as a service, where consumer expectation is already set to expect continual updates to the game, the rigor on software testing in the early stages of release may be forgone as to get the title out to players faster, accepting that software bugs may be present but will be fixed when the next update is released.
If treated as goods, the purchaser gains several rights, in particular those related to the first-sale doctrine, which allows them to resell or trade these games, and which can subsequently affect sales revenue to publishers.
[10] In 2017, industry analysis firm Digital River estimated that by 2016, 25% of the revenue of games on personal computers resulted from one form or another of GaaS.
The firm argued that this reflected on consumers that wanted more out of games that were otherwise offered at full price (US$60 at the time of the report) or looking for discounts, thus making the market ripe for post-release monetization.
[7] GaaS is also seen as a developing avenue for indie video games, which frequently have a wider potential install base (across computer, consoles, and mobile devices) that they can draw service revenues from.
[16] A notable example was Concord, a multiplayer game released by Sony Interactive in August 2024 but shuttered for an indeterminate period due to low sales in a flooded market.
[19] On January 31, 2025, it was announced that MultiVersus will be delisted and shut down on March 30, 2025, after the end of the fifth (and final) season, but it will still be playable in local multiplayer or against AI-controlled opponents.