The New Gaming Trend is Making Older Games Easier To Get Into

We’ve all noticed something of a major trend emerging in the gaming space of late, and it’s centered specifically around accessibility and onboarding players faster and in higher volumes. Many games, typically live-service, long-in-the-tooth titles, have undergone paradigm shifts with a mission of getting more players into their ecosystem than ever before.

It’s the order of the day, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a tough-as-nails extraction shooter, an award-winning MMO, or a years-old battle royale game; every developer seems to want to make their game easier to get to grips with.

Games Are Making Their Entry Requirements Easier

I’ve been mulling over this piece for a while, noticing more and more how many developers are making a concerted effort to open their doors to more players, more effectively.

At Summer Game Fest, I sat down with ZeniMax Online Studios to discuss that very concept in The Elder Scrolls Online, a decade-old MMORPG that has entertained millions of players over the years. The team revealed they’re making major changes to the game’s opening segments, giving players more support for longer to help them understand the title’s complexities.

Today, KRAFTON released update 42.2 for PUBG, one of the spearhead battle royale titles that has been on the market for many years. The beating heart of that update was around a new basic training system that helps players understand all the essential skills needed to dominate their game.

Also in the MMORPG space, CipSoft’s Tibia recently added an extended tutorial or ‘education’ area, an all-new island that fresh players can explore until they’re level 20, all to teach them what’s needed to weather the at-times confusing game. That cultural shift came after decades on the market.

Fallout 76’s developers at Bethesda Game Studios have been critically aware of the need to improve the early-game sequences for the longest time, and have released multiple updates to make the accessibility factor much better for new players. For instance, making it so that new users (and returning ones) can instantly jump to a higher level with some starting equipment to get them into the action faster.

Escape from Tarkov, the challenging extraction shooter that pioneered the genre over the last decade, underwent major changes following the 1.0 release in November 2025. Battlestate Games added quality-of-life features to help people with their tasking and quest completion, and in the coming months, more elements are landing to give new players an easier ride.

Additionally, the team implemented a new tutorial last year, as well as an in-depth guide system.

In a similar vein, MADFINGER Games, the team behind Gray Zone Warfare, the open-world tactical shooter, implemented a new onboarding process earlier this year. It features an obstacle course, training sessions, early-game missions, a massive how-to guide, and beginner elements that help ease players into the vast world of Lamang.

Gray Zone Warfare’s evolution was particularly interesting, with the recent 0.4 update leading to a massive surge for the game:

Even a game like League of Legends, with fifteen years of competitive history, made major changes to meta shifts and introduced WASD controls to flatten a steep learning curve.

World of Warcraft changed, Diablo IV was updated, Warframe had massive streamlining efforts applied, Final Fantasy XIV gained companions to help them in tougher areas, EVE Online got a landmark new ‘starter’ system for beginners, and Apex Legends got new orientation matches.

The Finals’ new season added a PvE mode with bots to help players train, Rainbow Six Siege had improvements to offline sandbox modes that help players learn maps, and Sea of Thieves got the ‘Safer Seas’ mode to help players gain experience while not worrying about other users.

Except for Safer Seas, every change or addition mentioned there arrived in the last few months.

Do you think there’s a blanket trend concerning accessibility and onboarding in games? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.

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