Manor Lords Publisher Says Success Should Not Mean “Endless Growth” For Every Game

The Manor Lords publisher Tim Bender has responded to a detailed criticism on LinkedIn that called the game an “interesting case-study in the pitfalls of Early Access.” The post scrutinized the early access title for having only three patches in 2.5 months. So, Tim defended by saying that one of the patches had “3,000 words” and 10 pages. He also spoke out against the idea of turning every title into a live service that needs to grow endlessly.

This is exactly the kind of distorted endless growth/burden of expectations/line must go up perspective that causes so much trouble in the games industry,” says Hooded Horse’s CEO Tim Bender.

Tim is completely fine with players leaving to enjoy other games after having fun with Manor Lords, finding the criticism of losing the peak active player count to be wrong. He thinks the industry should find a more sustainable path instead of always trying to become the next “live-service boom.”

Success should not create an ever raising bar of new growth expectations. Not every game should be aimed at becoming some live-service boom or bust. And a release should not begin an ever-accelerating treadmill on which devs are forced to run until their mental or physical health breaks down.”

Manor Lords Has Done Extremely Well For An Early Access Release

The detailed statement by Tim Bender confirms that the entry has been an astounding success. It rolled over 250,000 copies last month, selling 2 million in the first three weeks alone. The player base has also been very active. In short, Manor Lords’ “very positive” rating on Steam should speak for itself.

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All in all, the mentality that every title needs to keep growing and continue to get more updates, more players, and more sales can eventually become burdensome for devs. Manor Lords has been quite a success so far, considering the team’s small size, and we can expect the title to grow organically in the future.