How Games Create Value: Lessons from Running a Successful Live Service Game by Sergei Vasiuk

This post is the first in a three-part series, compiled from chapters of the book Running a Successful Live Service Game: Live Outside of Game Updates (Sergei Vasiuk, 2025). To read the full content, purchase the book.

In this opening piece, we explore the foundations of value creation in live service games. What it means, how to approach it, and how to align your creative and business goals for long-term success.

The second part will focus on building the player’s journey and designing paths that keep engagement high, experiences meaningful, and players coming back. The final chapter will dive into analytics as the lifeblood of LiveOps, showing how to use data to guide decisions, optimize features, and maintain momentum well beyond launch.

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As Rob Strasser from Nike once said, “If we do the right things, we’ll make money damn near automatic.” That philosophy holds true in live service games. When you focus on building sustainably, listening to your players, and making smart decisions, the results will follow.

The 7 guiding principles

Live service games aren’t a one-and-done project like traditional boxed titles. Instead, they evolve constantly. That means the approach must shift towards flexibility, ongoing engagement, and innovative business practices. Here’s a quick rundown of the seven principles every live game team should live by:

1. Live games evolve: These games are never “done.” Adapt to what players do, not what you intended.
2. Flexible systems design: Empower LiveOps to operate independently without heavy developer reliance.
3. Commit beyond launch: Content production doesn’t stop at release. It’s the beginning of long-term collaboration.
4. Be data-guided: Use qualitative and quantitative insights early and often. Start small, stay consistent.
5. Quality is subjective: Not every player will be satisfied. Accept it and focus on your core audience.
6. Revenue follows engagement: Don’t chase dollars. Focus on player love, and the rest will come.
7. Forecast smart & manage costs: You can’t control revenue, but you can control costs. Optimize what you can.

Understanding value in your game

To build a sustainable live service, you must define how you create, deliver, and capture value. What benefits are you offering players, and at what cost (time, effort, or money)?

Value creation must resonate throughout your operations. Your events, offers, and features must all align with that core value proposition. Deliver it efficiently and reliably. Only then should you focus on value capture (monetization). The best live games are built around this cycle: create, deliver, capture.

Trust is also part of value. If players don’t feel safe or respected, they’ll stop playing. Security, fairness, and transparency are foundational to long-term player relationships.

The value creation chain

Every game follows a pipeline, though the details differ. Here are the five core stages most live games go through:

• Ideation: Define your unique concept and pitch. Nail the USP early.
• Pre-production: Prove the core loop. Create your GDD, prototype features, and scope the work.
• Production: Build your MVP and expand iteratively through sprints.
• Post-production: Finalize, polish, and prep for launch phases (tech launch, soft launch, global).
• Live Operations: Sustain and scale. This is where the real value kicks in.

Now, let’s break down the value of live service games into three parts: the base game, game updates, and live services. A typical revenue breakdown might look like this: 40% from the base game, 35% from updates, 25% from live services.

1. Base game: Core gameplay, progression systems, and currency loops define your early value. Like Disneyland at launch, you can only draw people in with what’s already built. But eventually, people will want more.
2. Game updates: Once retention systems are working, drop in new content. Keep things fresh. Add DLC, new modes, or systems to extend playtime.
3. Live services: Weekly events, personalized offers, and cultural moments keep players coming back. These aren’t just monetization plays; they create emotional hooks and meaningful engagement.

Just like Disney transforms its parks with seasons and events, live games keep things alive through themed content. Halloween events, seasonal skins, or influencer tie-ins build connections that feel bigger than just gameplay.

Build the business: Financial models that work

Making a great game isn’t enough. You need to run a great business, too. That starts with understanding your product’s financial foundation.

Step 1: Align on what “Good” looks like

Before launch, your game isn’t making money—it needs funding. Whether that comes from publishers or venture funds, understanding what they expect is key. Publishers want game success; VCs want enterprise value. Learn the difference.

Market sentiment matters. Look at Roblox vs. EA: Roblox’s higher Price-to-Sales ratio reflects investor confidence in its innovation. Financially successful games don’t just hit KPIs; they align with the story the market wants to believe.

Step 2: Understand revenue potential

Reverse-engineer your financial model by breaking it down into acquisition, retention, and monetization.

• Acquisition: Consider the platform ceiling, marketing budget, and organic potential (driven by quality and NPS).
• Retention: Use market benchmarks, playtesting, and early metrics to model D1, D7, and D30 retention.
• Monetization: Build revenue across three layers: base game systems, regular updates, and LiveOps content.

Retention and monetization aren’t just stats. They are behaviors. Track playtime, active days, and how player segments respond to different experiences.

Step 3: Match costs to potential

Many studios start backward by building the game first and hoping the revenue model fits. That’s risky. Instead, understand your gross bookings and subtract platform and engine fees to calculate your gross profit.

Then, layer your operating expenses: R&D, content production, marketing, admin, and more. Make sure your ARPU supports these costs. If not, either tighten expenses or revise your monetization strategy.

Avoid burning through budgets to “buy” success. Sustainable live service games scale revenue with engagement and not just spending.

Validating your forecasts and fixing bias

All financial models are just guesses until tested. That’s where validation comes in. Here’s how to validate core metrics:

• ‍Acquisition: Wishlist counts, Discord growth, newsletter subs, CPI tests.‍
• Virality: Track NPS, mock reviews, referrals.‍
• Retention: Internal playtests, alpha weekends, soft launches.‍
• Monetization: Economy design tools, soft launch sales.

And remember: validation suffers from two enemies. Noise and bias. Use consistent testing, standardized protocols, and diverse player personas to reduce them.

Don’t obsess over perfect numbers. Focus on incremental improvements and trends. What works for one player group might flop for another. Test small, iterate fast, and always measure impact on lifetime value (LTV).

TL;DR: Value first, revenue follows

At the end of the day, live service success is about building long-term value for players and your business. That means:

• Designing systems that adapt over time
• Listening to players early and often
• Delivering updates and live content that feel meaningful
• Building a financial model that matches your ambition
• Validating and refining your approach through data

The teams that win in this space know that revenue is just the result of doing everything else right.

Focus on creating value, and the rest tends to follow.