What does the phrase "late game" mean here?

Question

Please help me figure out the meaning of the following sentence from the description of the game "Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes":

Recent updates to the late game allow your Empire team to go to the next level courtesy of a revamped Mod system that gives players even more agency over how their characters turn out.

I am confused by the phrases "late game" and "next level".

One of the answers received on another forum suggests that the phrase "late game" means "final part of the game". My confusion is that if the phrase "late game" means "final part", the phrase "next level" must mean "new height" because there can be no next level (in a literal sense) if the player is in the final part. However, I am not sure about this.

Is it possible that the phrase "new level" concerns rich customization options available to players?

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

"Late game" is part of a suite of concepts that are primarily used in two different kinds of games; multiplayer games with in-match progression (genres like MOBA, RTS, TBS, Grand Strategy), and games where the player progresses in power rather than through a linear story (genres such as MMORPG, ARPG, Lootershooters and many flavors of Roguelike). Games like these tend to have three phases; early, mid and late game. These phases are organic and defined by player consent, change on a per title basis, and are not formalized by the game itself. Games like Mario, DOOM and CS:GO don't have these phases. SWGoH seems to fall into the second category, so we'll focus there.

In this context, late game is when the player has stopped getting anything new, and is instead trying to get better versions of the things they already have. This phase never ends. The player continues to play and accrue power until they decide to stop.

"The next level," as a noun phrase, is a pretty common idiom in US English and is by no means exclusive to games. It is often used in advertising. It usually means a significant, easily noticeable improvement. A new fertilizer may bring a farmer's yield to "the next level." This is the context at work here. "Next level" can also be an adjective phrase. "Next level performance" is especially popular in the automotive advertising industry. "Next level thinking" is meaningless jargon in leadership consulting, but may refer to revolutionary strategies or concepts in other contexts.