Is the RTS genre dying?

Julio Liu

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/06/face-off-is-the-rts-genre-dying/

Is the RTS genre dying?

The real time strategy (RTS) scene is dying. There are many reasons why the genre is declining. Many video games have a decline of players especially many popular games that are being played today.  The RTS genre has spawned another genre called "Massive Online Battle Arena" (MOBA) which started to take over the RTS scene. In the competitive scene, the most popular RTS game "Starcraft" has decline in 2012 due to League of Legends, a MOBA game that is the most played game in the world to date.

                The RTS genre grew massively when the game "Starcraft" was released by Blizzard entertainment. The game had an active 2 million user base active at one time. Blizzard later releases Starcraft 2 which broke records and sold more than Starcraft 2. After a few months, Starcraft 2 decided to decline, more quickly than Starcraft. It wasn't because Starcraft 2 was a bad game; it was because another scene was taking over.

                MOBA has taken over the RTS genre in a huge way. "Warcraft 3" invented the popular mod "Defense of the Ancient". Many popular MOBA games such as League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth have taken over the RTS scene. Many players have transfer over from RTS to MOBA due its competition and fresh new gameplay.  In MOBA, you could play as much characters you want, making the game different every time you play. In a RTS, it's basically the same thing of building and making a army which becomes boring from time to time.

                The Competitive scene in RTS has died last year. In South Korea, many players have transition from Starcraft 2 to League of Legends. This is huge news sparked South Korea because Starcraft and Starcraft 2 are very popular since both games are basically a sport in South Korea. It tells us that the RTS scene is dying and MOBA is rising. Professional players explain many reasons why RTS is failing such as Blizzard put too much competitive in Starcraft 2 and not enough casual. This made a lot of people getting bored of the game and even the genre.

                RTS is fading away. Many games that are released this time have failed to top or have failed to maintain a player base of the game. MOBA has taken over the genre with its fresh new gameplay mechanic and longer lasting gameplay. These are my reasons why I think the RTS scene is dying.

-Julio Liu