Sunset with respect — plan the end of life
GDC-L1-SHIP-000501
Statement
Every live game ends. Plan the end of life with respect: give honest, early communication, honor what players spent (money and time), and where feasible preserve access — an offline mode, extended notice, or archival — rather than switching the servers off and erasing what people paid for and cared about.
02
Rationale
Live games depend on servers and services that won't run forever, and how a studio handles the end is a real test of the respect it claims for its players (MON-0002) — a game that vanishes overnight, taking players' purchases and progress with it and with little warning, breaks the trust the whole relationship was built on [S-scope-production]. Players invest money and years of time and attachment; treating that investment as disposable at sunset is the opposite of the value exchange and player respect the constitution argues for. A respectful sunset — ample notice, honoring spends, and preserving what can be preserved (offline continuation, private servers, archival) — protects the studio's reputation, respects the community, and contributes to the medium's preservation. It's also increasingly a consumer-rights and regulatory concern.
03
Applies when
The end of life of any live/server-dependent game or service — and the planning for it should begin when the live model is chosen (SHIP-0002), not scrambled at shutdown.
04
Does not apply / Exceptions
Finite/offline games don't sunset in this sense — they simply remain playable (their preservation concern is compatibility over time, not server shutdown). Genuine constraints exist: some games are technically or legally hard to preserve (licensed content, deep server dependencies), and a studio may lack resources to maintain an offline mode. The principle is "sunset with as much respect and preservation as feasible," not "keep every game alive forever."
05
Implementation
Plan for end-of-life when adopting a live model (SHIP-0002): consider an eventual offline/private- server path, and design to make graceful shutdown possible. At sunset, give early, honest notice; honor recent purchases (refunds/consideration); preserve access where feasible. Communicate with the community as you would at launch (SHIP-0003/0004) — the end deserves the same care as the beginning.
06
Disagreement
Preservation/respect-first sunsetting (honor players' investment, protect reputation and the medium — but real cost and technical/legal barriers) vs. clean-shutdown pragmatism (lower cost, simpler — but breaks trust and erases what players paid for). A values-and-feasibility split (hence stylistic); this constitution leans toward respect and preservation within what's feasible, echoing MON-0002.
07
Notes
The end-of-life principle of SHIP; the sunset application of player respect (MON-0002) and the bookend to launch (SHIP-0001) — begin and end the game's life with equal care. Confidence 3 — clearly the respectful ideal, but genuinely constrained by cost and technical/legal reality.
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Connected principles
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