Feature: Long-life Gaming

Sunday, August 23 2009, 06:00 BST

By Matthew Reynolds, Gaming Reporter

Unless a game is true classic (or published by Nintendo), there's a strong chance it will be largely forgotten months after release. The trade-in culture that fuels the pre-owned market sees new releases swapped for store credit as soon as it's completed, which has become a continuous ritual for some gamers. Publishers have tried to counter this by offering exclusive bonuses for brand new boxed copies, such as map codes or roster updates for an entire sporting season, but pre-owned sales stubbornly hold on. We have a look at three case studies that have managed to buck the trend, maintaining a strong and dedicated fanbase years after release, and the lessons they've learned along the way.

Halo 3 (September 2007)

The flagship Xbox 360 game is still the most-played game on the system, regularly fighting off competition from Modern Warfare, World At War and Gears Of War 2, two years after release. Why? Not only does it offer fair and balanced online play, but Bungie is dedicated to adding and tweaking content over time.

Unlike many developers, who are keen to rush out downloadable content within months of release, Bungie still isn't finished with downloadable content for the game. While the first two packs (Heroic and Legendary) came out the first six months, the Mythic update added new achievements and three maps some 18 months later. Despite the gap, players weren't starved of content. Each map can be used on a number of different game types and are easily adjusted through weekly playlists, so although the content remains unchanged, the gameplay can be radically different. Essentially, online matches always offer something new.

The constant updates have been made possible through a flexible infrastructure that ties everything together. As well as the playlists, Bungie's website records every single stat and medal earned, and provides heat maps for highlighting choke points. Viral videos and screenshots can be easily shared to other players and its community day on July 7 (titled Bungie Day) provides one-off playlists, giveaways, and the occasional free map to celebrate.

It's a strategy that has kept the game on top of the pile: Bungie's Lars Bakken told DS that while DLC usually drops off in terms of sales, for Halo 3"it's actually stayed the same or increased". And as another three maps come with Halo 3: ODST, you can be sure Halo will continue dominating online charts for some time yet.

Burnout Paradise (January 2008)

Not content with creating the huge open world of Paradise City, Criteron Games has been pushing out plenty of content for Burnout Paradise since its release, championing them as one of the most generous developers in the business. The free additions have ranged from trivial new vehicles and challenges, to features that have evolved the entire city. Night-day cycles, motorbikes and completely recoding the vehicle handling have all been updated for free, features which many developers would use as sequel material.

With the arrival of the Ultimate Box edition, the team listened to the community and added the option to restart events, a feature which they said would ruin the free-roaming feel of the game. Although the updates have primarily been for the single-player mode, they have since redesigned the start screen of the game to integrate its own social networking service and change aspects of the multiplayer to make it more accessible.

Although players enjoyed a slew of free content for over 18 months, things have recently started to unravel. An eagerly-awaited aeroplane update was scrapped, and this year Criterion started charging for new content, such as themed cars, a party mode and a new island. Some argued that the content was overpriced and was relying on the good will of customers to continue supporting the game, while others noted that it was optional and fell in line with the DLC plans of other games.

Despite recent criticism, Burnout Paradise remains one of the longest-supported and most-celebrated releases on consoles, seeing it nominated for several awards last year despite being released so early in the year. Publisher EA has supplemented the updates by re-releasing the game through downloadable services like PSN and recently Xbox Live, keeping new game sales high.

Team Fortress 2 (October 2007)

After being in development limbo for nine years, Valve has kept crowds pleased with constant free updates to its multiplayer-only shooter. New weapons and dozens of achievements are currently being added to its classes, with the Medic, Pyro, Sniper and others receiving big updates so far. There have also been 'classless' updates, with the addition of a King of the Hill mode this month, and handpicked user-created maps becoming officially sanctioned maps.

They've also been keen to change the way updates are administered. The new weapons were initially available to those who unlocked all the achievements, causing specific classes to become overrepresented in matches in a bid to unlock them. Unsightly 'achievement rooms' on dedicated servers also provided a back door to getting the upgrades as fast as possible, effectively spoiling the purpose of trying to unlock them.

Such complaints led to Valve completely restructuring the unlockables, issuing a recent update that hands out weapons as random item drops. This again has proved unpopular, and a dedicated beta for testing new unlock methods and other new features is currently available. While the updates have been a mixed success, they prove Valve's dedication to trying to keep the game balanced, fair and fresh, and all at no cost to the consumer.

While the copious updates have ensured that Team Fortress 2 keeps a dedicated fanbase on the PC, on consoles it's a different story. Value has said it doesn't have the development support to provide updates to the PS3 version, while the 360 has yet to receive any updates. When they do surface they will also have to be charged under Microsoft guidelines, as seen with the latest Left 4 Dead chapter. It is speculated that once all classes have been updated on the PC version, then Valve will update the 360 version in one go and at the lowest cost possible.