RichiRamjag
Member
I can only assume he is speaking in regards to a potential implosion due to oversaturation, perhaps? Not sure though.
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Polygon: "Solo is going the way of the Dodo" (in ref to huge budget Western games)
- Thread starter facetheslayer92
- Start date
I can only assume he is speaking in regards to a potential implosion due to oversaturation, perhaps? Not sure though.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
But here's the thing, they haven't stopped writing SP games. We're quite literally getting three of them on the same day in 9 days. Thing is, the big trend is no longer incredibly linear cinematic games because of the expenses required to make those AND the fact that they don't recoup a profit. Meanwhile, pubs are still funding episode games like Life is Strange. SP games aren't dead. They haven't been dead. There's just a larger trend of finding ways to entice longer player engagement. And part of that is through titles that focus on co-op and MP. Which, along with the fact that due to less games being released on average due to the death of traditional mid tier studios, would make it seem like at a glance through the doom and gloom glasses, that SP games are dying.
Even then he'd still be wrong.
Means what? Tiny niche games can survive? Should EA care? RE7 did not meet expectations.
Crash is not full price. Is that the realm where single player games will live?
People responding with horizon sales numbers are missing the point. Is 4 million sales enough for a game in full scale production in a western country for 5 years?
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Good point. MP games aren't guaranteed successes either.
If you think those are bad examples of big budget games, there's always Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3, Uncharted, Zelda BotW, Mario Odyssey, Wolfenstein, etc.
FIREKNIGHT2029
Member
Japan will save us.
EA and Activision can fuck off for all I care.
EA and Activision can fuck off for all I care.
dead monkey uk
Member
I am looking forward to God of War, Spiderman, Death Stranding, Last of Us Part 2, Days Gone and the announcement of Horizon Zero Dawn 2.
Single Player experiences are here to stay.
Single Player experiences are here to stay.
and you know, every other single player game
rakkadakka
Member
Article doesn't mention PUBG?
As far as I'm concerned, it's the new golden egg on the block and every publisher is going to be chasing it.
Will be awhile before we hear the true holistic picture of what happened between Visceral and EA. My only outside bet is the project was going off the rails and EA saw an opportunity to chase the latest trend.
As far as I'm concerned, it's the new golden egg on the block and every publisher is going to be chasing it.
Will be awhile before we hear the true holistic picture of what happened between Visceral and EA. My only outside bet is the project was going off the rails and EA saw an opportunity to chase the latest trend.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
It's high risk, high reward. If your GAAS game is a hit you will make so much more money than a standard SP game. Not having to worry about another game bombing cuz that GAAS money will cover it must be a relaxing feeling for a company. 2K and Activision are possibly living that dream.
ElephantShell
Banned
Weren't console games in general dead a few years ago? People are always saying things are dead or dying but they never really go away.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Agree. There's always a lot of gloomy but completely premature predictions being made that never end up happening the way people think...
CrichtonKicks
Member
Mass Effect: Andromeda shows that publishers aren't afraid to pull the plug on DLCs and expansions if the base game didn't perform up to snuff. I don't think Sony would let Guerilla spend 10 months on an expansion if they thought Horizon was a failure. Especially given it wasn't even announced until E3 IIRC so they had several months where they could have quietly canceled it.
Clockwork5
Member
Rockstar has shown a way for others to follow. GTA 5 was an entertaining single player experience that was well worth the retail price tag. It was finished, it was polished and it was a good game. This was an experience completely void of multiplayer (always online) intrusion and all of the hooks, grinds and constant updates and patches that come along with it. They also released a multiplayer mode that was pretty bare bones but compelling enough for people to buy in to the service and give Rockstar time to flesh it out.
While I may not particularly enjoy GTA Online, I don't need to. I had my fun with GTA5.
Though I realize not all games are GTA5 and consumers may not be patient enough to wait it out in the beginning for less profound franchises, I think some of the success lies in the approach itself. If the single player game is great, people will want to stay for a while longer.
Think of a Horizon: ZD Online, that might be fun.
While I may not particularly enjoy GTA Online, I don't need to. I had my fun with GTA5.
Though I realize not all games are GTA5 and consumers may not be patient enough to wait it out in the beginning for less profound franchises, I think some of the success lies in the approach itself. If the single player game is great, people will want to stay for a while longer.
Think of a Horizon: ZD Online, that might be fun.
The Witcher was also made by a studio located in Poland where cost of living is much lower than the usual places most video games are made.
It's definitely slowing down, but there are still substantial developers working on these games, and there are good examples of these games succeeding. Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead, Horizon, Uncharted/Last of Us, 90% of Bethesda's games, Days Gone, Metro Exodus, etc. The market for these games is contracting, but certainly not dying. While these big budget blockbusters are more rare, we're seeing more mid-tier games that generally tend to appeal to me more, so there may be some good that comes out of this.
As usual, GAF is missing the point. Did Nioh, Persona 5, Nier, or even Horizon for that matter even produce a worthwhile return on investment?
And as the article points out, Sony / Microsoft / Nintendo are becoming the only publishers that can afford to put out single player AAA games, since they are willing to take any losses to produce console sales.
FIREKNIGHT2029
Member
This is very true.
Dreamwriter
Member
All I know is, I do not buy multiplayer-only games. I really wanted Star Wars Battlefront, didnt get it. I really wanted Titanfall, I didnt get it. I really wanted Street Fighter V, I can finally get it next year with the Arcade Edition. If EA doesnt want to make big-budget single player games, then they arent making them for me. And judging by the SFV threads, Im not alone 
Nobody's saying SP is going away entirely, just that it's going to split into hybridized GaaS in the AAA space and smaller scale and budget outside of that.
The Witcher is developed in Poland, though. Wages are not as high as in US.
"Single Player Gamers Are Dead" naw not really.
On a more serious note its just that singleplayer games offer less ways to continually milk players after purchase. Theres limits to what sp players will put up with but mp gamers have loot crates and will spend money on essentially lotteries.
Of coarse ea would be turning away from sp games because theyre as greedy as it gets and wants more money than they ACTUALLY need. (Sacrificing user experience and developers wants for profits)
Singleplayer games still do well, theyre just not a cash cow so theyre not a business strategy onto their own like mp games are. Nier Automata, Sonic Mania, Persona 5, Resident Evil 7, Zelda Breath of te Wild, and Yakuza 0 all did super well (Mario Odyssey is just around the corner)
Single Player isnt going anywhere, its just that sp gamers arent as reliably whales as mp gamers are. If all they want is money, rather than making a product that will stand the test of time, then mp is the way to go. It doesnt mean one thing is going away when another thing inflates up like a puffer fish. (Gamers arent a monolith.)
On a more serious note its just that singleplayer games offer less ways to continually milk players after purchase. Theres limits to what sp players will put up with but mp gamers have loot crates and will spend money on essentially lotteries.
Of coarse ea would be turning away from sp games because theyre as greedy as it gets and wants more money than they ACTUALLY need. (Sacrificing user experience and developers wants for profits)
Singleplayer games still do well, theyre just not a cash cow so theyre not a business strategy onto their own like mp games are. Nier Automata, Sonic Mania, Persona 5, Resident Evil 7, Zelda Breath of te Wild, and Yakuza 0 all did super well (Mario Odyssey is just around the corner)
Single Player isnt going anywhere, its just that sp gamers arent as reliably whales as mp gamers are. If all they want is money, rather than making a product that will stand the test of time, then mp is the way to go. It doesnt mean one thing is going away when another thing inflates up like a puffer fish. (Gamers arent a monolith.)
Tawney Bomb
Member
I hope single player AAA games dont go away. Thats the majority of what I play. I can understand companies wanting to make more money because game prices are static, but Im probably part of the problem. I always find a way to buy a game cheaper, even at release.
Edit: I should clarify, single player games are what I mainly play, not necessarily AAA games.
Edit: I should clarify, single player games are what I mainly play, not necessarily AAA games.
LiquidSolid
Member
One of these three isn't like the others.
Anyway, I'm in a rush but I think a big part of the problem is you've got devs like Naughty Dog, CD Projekt RED, Platinum (w/ Yoko Taro), Nintendo EPD, Guerrilla Games, etc. raising the bar and most western third parties have been unable to compete with them in one way or another. Whether that's story telling ability, visuals, game design or just creativity.
Okami Haundo
Member
CD Projekt Red is a bit of anomaly if I recall. I think they get a large amount of support from their country's government.
CrichtonKicks
Member
SE has been upfront about the unexpected success of Nier and is now moving full speed to build the brand as much as possible. I believe Koei/Tecmo has also stated they were very happy with Nioh's performance. Considering Persona 5 put Atlus into the upper tier of JRPG sales I can't imagine they are unhappy with the returns either.
Can't speak to Horizon but I would think the answer to the other is unequivocally "yes".
Big open world single player games will live just fine, I agree. Uncharted does have multiplayer. Mario is Mario, I doubt EA will try to make their own Mario. Wolfenstein though, I doubt it will sell as good as GAF hope it will. If my experience in multiplayer games with strangers is anything to go by, the marketing will not do this game any favor.
Golden Abyss is Uncharted 4.
Gamegeneral
Member
It's almost like if you build your company around massively budgeted games, you lock yourself off from making money in certain ways.
RelentlessRolento
Member
a opposite reflection of this is happening in board gaming:
Solo board/card games are becoming more and more a thing, which is great IMHO
Solo board/card games are becoming more and more a thing, which is great IMHO
Probably look at the budgets and return and go "yeah, that's why they do that and we don't." Part of the issue is that those games are profitable but not to the extent EA wants, if not needs. SE is a bigger company admittedly but not as big as EA and lacking in sure successes, so it needs to be smarter with that base then it was last gen. And both Atlus (even with Sega) and Tecmo Koei are definitely smaller fish.
Solo board games? That sounds super cool. Gonna investigate a bit. I also like that some board games are cooperative.
Crayon
Member
Sure sp games can be niche or at least never reach that high budget again. I don't see what the problem is with that.
In horizons case, Sony seems to be all right throwing money at that sort of thing for the time being. It producing a big game like that is somewhat like a marketing excercise as long as it's exclusive to their system.
Clauss
Member
Declaring something "dead" while tailoring an analysis to an artificial narrative is just a boring way to spark an unproductive discussion. Enough people have already highlighted how daft most of the "analytical" claims in this article are. Sure, we might see a (imo temporary) rise in GaaS and F2P strategies in the AAA space over the next few years, but that doesn't mean that it will stick. It also doesn't mean that every publisher (AAA or otherwise) will necessarily follow suit, nor that we'll see a shortage of awesome linear SP games getting released during this dark age.
I wish I knew more about board games as a whole. I feel like there's a whole hobby there that I could really get into.
The thing is people see current trends as inviolate until something upsets them. That thing then gets adapted into the narrative and into common sense, but until it happens it tends to be unfathomable.
Now it doesn't mean something will happen. Sometimes decay does meet their "end." What it does mean is I wouldn't really trust conventional wisdom to predict a change if it were to happen.
brokenbeans
Banned
Thatll be me done then, new hobby on the horizon I feel.
I often think the videogame industry just needs to learn to differentiate itself. As an industry we just seem to constantly chase whatever the hot new thing is, but even that can lead to failures. Even in the (likely) upcoming chase for Battlegrounds rip offs there won't be room for everybody. There will be big budget casualties over the next 2-3 years chasing that same pot too.
Single player games aren't going away but some refocusing may be necessary.
Single player games aren't going away but some refocusing may be necessary.
Hari Seldon
Member
The fundamental problem is that these ultra cinematic single player games like Uncharted are outrageously expensive to make, and in the end you get an 8-12 hour movie that people will trade in when they are done. It is hard to convince more than 4-5 million people to pay $60 for an experience like this.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I mean.. that's fine. Enjoy your new audiences. You'll lose me though. I'll keep gravitating to the Naughty Dog-style single player experiences that exist.
semiconscious
Member
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