Live-service games and subscription services are a ‘force’ devs didn’t contemplate, Nightingale CEO says

It’s no secret the gaming industry is in flux right now. Layoffs have been ravaging studios big and small, with some of the most recent affecting developers under the Activision Blizzard and Microsoft umbrellas.

During a recent preview for Nightingale, I spoke with Inflexion Games CEO Aaryn Flynn and was curious to get his take on the subject. Flynn is an industry veteran, having worked for 17 years at BioWare, where he rose through the ranks to become general manager before becoming GM at Improbable Games, and then CEO at Inflexion Games in 2021.

Nightingale is Inflexion’s first major release, and based on what I’ve played so far, it’s primed to be a hit. But Flynn told Dot Esports there’s a “force” the studio didn’t consider when the team first started developing the fantasy survival title—something that all developers now need to take into account.

“The one thing I think about a lot, and I know my colleagues think about a lot too, is this is a big difference between the games industry now and let’s say five years ago,” Flynn told Dot Esports. “Players have frictionless access to what you’d call the ‘evergreen titles.'” Flynn is referring to live-service titles such as GTA Online and Fortnite, both of which have ever-evolving online universes.

“But there’s this gravity with those evergreen titles, or even something like Game Pass,” Flynn said. “That’s a force that I don’t think a lot of people really contemplated when they thought to themselves, ‘we’ll build a new game and do this.’ Certainly, we didn’t think about that when we started Nightingale. But it’s just it’s so present now in players minds and I think you have to consider it when you think of the kind of game you want to go build today.”

Inflexion Games plans to expand upon Nightingale through its early access period and beyond, with the early access version of the game costing $29.99 on Steam. While that price tag may sting a little for some, Flynn has emphasized the team’s focus on offering value for that price tag. Based on my playtime, it offers just that, and Inflexion is sticking to its guns in a landscape saturated with free-to-play games.

For now, Nightingale is only going to be available on PC, but whether we’ll see it land on subscription services at a later date remains to be seen. Nightingale is set to release in early access on Feb. 20.