Grinding Gear Games co-founder Chris Wilson once believed in the live-service video game model wholeheartedly, and this conviction undoubtedly helped him be online RPG Path of Exile's fearless leader until he officially left Grinding Gear in 2025. Now, Wilson is a free bird, and he's free to scrutinize the monetization pathway he once thought might redefine video games.
Wilson explains this in a new video on his YouTube channel, in response to a fan's question wondering what strongly held belief he's changed his mind about in the last decade. He says, "10 years ago, I felt that live service was entirely upside in all cases." Because of this, Wilson thinks there was a time when "I would have scoffed at something like Baldur's Gate 3, which isn't getting a sequence of updates."