Game Companies To Follow the Community

With Age of Empire 2 making its way to the Xbox, it re-ignited my love for the game I used to play as a kid. What Microsoft did here is something we don't see much of in the gaming industry. They realized, a few years ago, that Age of Empire 2 was still being played by the community and hired a few community molders to work on the HD edition of the game and the Definitive Edition soon afterwards.

The reason why we still see updates for the game is because there's an healthy community that still plays it.

Games should live, or die, based on the community but how often do we see games seemingly loose support either too soon (Splitgate) or too late (Battlefield 2042). If there's a healthy community, then keep supporting the games; if there isn't then stop.

It's annoying to see a game loose support too soon or too late. If we look at the mess that was Battlefield 2042, it doesn't really matter that they managed to bring the game to a playable state as the community as rejected it in favor of earlier entries or other series altogether. If the community hasn't moved on from Battlefield 1 or Battlefield 5 then why not spend additional resources into those games rather than attempting to fix the latest/broken entry?

If you're lucky enough to have made a game that resonates with players then keep investing in it rather than dropping support in favor of a new iteration of the series. If Battlefield 1 still average decent numbers then stick to it! There must be something to this game that players appreciate over the competition and working on a new iteration doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be able to move that community forward.