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Are single-player AAA games on the way out?

B

Bronx-Man

Banned
I feel like this is something we need to discuss with the news of Visceral’s closing yesterday. It’s pretty obvious that EA is trying to transition all their major franchises to GaaS, because that’s where the money is these days. But is this really the future of AAA games these days? Sony seems to be picking up the slack on the single-player front with God of War & Last of Us Part 2, but the rest of the genre looks kinda dire. Lootboxes, micro-transactions, grinding and open-worlds and MMO elements everywhere. Hell, you could compare this to how every studio alive was trying to make their own WoW-killer in the mid 2000s. These days, everyone wants Destiny.

Your thoughts? Is this just a quick trend or are single-player games becoming endangered?
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Well we have 3 of them releasing on October 27.

Let's let publishers know there's still demand for them.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Define AAA.

If we're talking about $100 million games, yeah, I think that's going to be pretty hard with a few exceptions here and there.

If you consider $20 million AAA, I'd expect those to stick around for niche audiences. Certainly games like Nier and Persona can subsist on 1-2 million copies and their niche audiences.

Also it depends if you classify games like Ghost Recon Wildlands and Dying Light as singleplayer or not.
 
H

Hektor

Member
NieR Automata, Persona 5, Crash Bandicoot, Yakuza 0 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 all just blew the shit out of their publishers/developers expectations.

They're fine
 
F

FelipeMGM

Member
they will never be fully gone, some publishers that have success with them will keep making it (Nintendo, Sony, Bethesda even with the flops, they still have with Fallout and TES) but others will either phase them out, or decrease their budget for such kinds of projects (EA the clear example now)

The biggest games in terms of budgets and marketing being single player only will be rare (though few will exist still) what will happen is that they will mostly habituate what today is considered mid tier
 
R

RichiRamjag

Member
I don’t think so. I’m playing Shadow of War now and loving it, AC Origins looks great, and we’ve got all kinds of stuff from Bethesda dropping.

That isn’t even touching the Sony and Nintendo stuff. I think GaaS (for MP)is the new thing for now, but personally, I think most people will only play so many of those at once anyhow.
 
J

JazzmanZ

Member
This is just the natural conclusion of the AAA market, development costs rise, games that need to appeal to more, and gain more money past the original sixty dollar price tag
 
O

Orb

Member
Why is this a question being brought up now? These games will always be made. Just because EA showed its nasty ass true form doesn't mean the entire industry is just gonna toss everything in the trash.

Celine said:
There will always be Nintendo.
Click to expand...

The majority of Nintendos focus for Switches first year has been multiplayer games.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Hektor said:
NieR Automata, Persona 5, Crash Bandicoot, Yakuza 0 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 all just blew the shit out of their publishers/developers expectations.

They're fine
Click to expand...

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an interesting answer since it actually fits a rising industry trend of making a co-op game that basically functions the same as a singleplayer game when played solo.

Dying Light and Ghost Recon: Wildlands also had a lot of success with that model, to the tune of high single digit millions.
 
O

Orayn

Member
GaaS and SP aren't mutually exclusive, but the extreme cost of making any modern AAA game is driving the inclusion of those elements in pretty much everything.
 
Alexander DeLarge

Alexander DeLarge

Member
I hope so. I'm tired of these games that seem like they're made for everyone. They're so boring and take no risks because it NEEDS to sell 6 million copies or they're screwed. I want smaller niche titles to get moderately funded instead of the current system where it's either a hundred million dollar blockbuster title made by 800 people or a team of 25 on a budget of less than five million.

This shit is bad for the industry too. A single bad investment can tank the studio and sometimes even the publishers. Why take that kind of risk?
 
U

UpDownLeftRight

Banned
Well they're facing an increasing battle but this is EA were talking about. They're notorious for doing this so it's not exactly unprecedented and their output discounting sports games has been pretty sub par for a long time IMO.

Just look at their portfolio now vs early last gen days. Meanwhile Ubisoft have managed to keep their output looking better in comparison despite a looming hostile takeover. In short I'd imagine EA management is largely the cause of their own struggles.
 
M

Marcel

Member
If GaaS continues to make a mint then they will be more niche than ever but not completely gone. Your alarmism over a studio closing doesn't mean the end of single player games.
 
T

Trago

Member
Nirolak said:
Define AAA.

If we're talking about $100 million games, yeah, I think that's going to be pretty hard with a few exceptions here and there.

If you consider $20 million AAA, I'd expect those to stick around for niche audiences. Certainly games like Nier and Persona can subsist on 1-2 million copies and their niche audiences.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing games in the $60 bracket?

I suspect platform holders like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo will still bring big single player stuff out.
 
P

Patryn

Member
Hektor said:
NieR Automata, Persona 5, Crash Bandicoot, Yakuza 0 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 all just blew the shit out of their publishers/developers expectations.

They're fine
Click to expand...

Divinty: OS2 was a Kickstarter game.

While an absolutely magnificent game, it's most definitely not AAA.
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Peltz said:
Nintendo and Sony appear to cater to single player gamers.
Click to expand...

And Bethesda, even Ubisoft (Mario & Rabbids, AC Origins).

Plus the many Japanese publishers still providing traditional gaming experiences.
 
D

Delusibeta

Banned
On the one hand, proclamations of "single player AAA games are dying" have been regular over the last decade or so. On the other hand, the Visceral closure is the first time I can publicly recall that a AAA publisher publicly announces that they're canning a single player game in order to chase the lootbox dragon. So, in conclusion: there might actually be a wolf this time.
 
S

Steel

Banned
I don't think it's a quick trend, for western games you're only going to see a couple of big money AAA games stay single player a year.
 
K

Kinsei

Banned
Probably. We'll still get the occasional big SP game from an established IP like Mario, Assassin's Creed, or The Last of Us, but we probably won't be seeing any new single player AAA IP for a while.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Trago said:
I'm guessing games in the $60 bracket?

I suspect platform holders like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo will still bring big single player stuff out.
Click to expand...

Yeah, once we move below the $60 bracket, game variety increases astronomically.

And the console vendors have incentives to appeal to audiences that are otherwise not served to help sell consoles, even if they make less money doing it, so they're one of the main exception vectors, yes.
 
S

Steel

Banned
Kinsei said:
Probably. We'll still get the occasional big SP game from an established IP like Mario, Assassin's Creed, or The Last of Us, but we probably won't be seeing any new single player AAA IP for a while.
Click to expand...

Last of us had multiplayer with microtransactions, though.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
Bronx-Man said:
I feel like this is something we need to discuss with the news of Visceral’s closing yesterday. It’s pretty obvious that EA is trying to transition all their major franchises to GaaS, because that’s where the money is these days. But is this really the future of AAA games these days? Sony seems to be picking up the slack on the single-player front with God of War & Last of Us Part 2, but the rest of the genre looks kinda dire. Lootboxes, micro-transactions, grinding and open-worlds and MMO elements everywhere. Hell, you could compare this to how every studio alive was trying to make their own WoW-killer in the mid 2000s. These days, everyone wants Destiny.

Your thoughts? Is this just a quick trend or are single-player games becoming endangered?
Click to expand...

Spider-Man, Days Gone, Detroit and so on as well. Both Sony and Nintendo are still very much committed to making games with huge single player components.
 
chemicals

chemicals

Member
I think you are overreacting here. There will always be single player offline games. Every game can't be "Games As A Service". Get a grip.
 
wapplew

wapplew

Member
Not really.
When everyone making service games, competitions will force publishers to add value. Single player campaign will have to be part of the service.
Like how FIFA and madden add single player campaign or Battlefront 2 added Single player campaign.
Pure linear single player game might be rare, but we will have our single player portion remain unchange.
 
X

XandBosch

Member
Honestly I've found a lot of the AAA single-player games to be one-note over the past few years anyway. Every game looks similar to me (hyper-realistic, grey), play pretty similar, etc. Zelda was a breath of fresh air for me because while it took queues, it was such a different approach. Seems like Nintendo are the only ones still pushing these types of games, and they do put a big single player game out, they're still striving to bring the player a different experience. Indies are as well (obviously), but they aren't AAA. Maybe that's the answer, but even these get a little one-note after a while because they can only do so much with pixel art.

It's still a massive bummer though. I'll never get into a "service" game just because I don't really have the time, nor are video games the only thing I like doing when I DO have the time, so a game like Destiny wouldn't work for me since I'd never be able to keep up. These games pretty much demand all of your attention, while games like Zelda and Mario are very much" do it at your own pace, explore a bit, have fun".

Call me a fanboy.
 
P

Patryn

Member
SolidSnakex said:
Spider-Man, Days Gone, Detroit and so on as well. Both Sony and Nintendo are still very much committed to making games with huge single player components.
Click to expand...

The commonality between the two is obviously that they want to sell consoles. The question is if third parties are done with major SP games.
 
G

Griss

Member
Open world games are still single player games. Breath of the Wild is a classic blockbuster single player game.

The danger is for linear single player games. It may be the case that those are doomed to be considered the bonus content attached to a multiplayer game, as they have been with Battlefield and Call of Duty for so long.

Hektor said:
NieR Automata, Persona 5, Crash Bandicoot, Yakuza 0 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 all just blew the shit out of their publishers/developers expectations.

They're fine
Click to expand...

Nier is the only one of these that I'd even consider defining as AAA.
 
R

randomscribbles

Neo Member
I think the conventional wisdom is changing into single player not being the best moneymaker in the industry (unless it's a GAAS). Traditional single player will still exist plenty, but for better and for worse, the greediest companies are likely to migrate away from them.
 
J

James Scott

Banned
You’ll see few of those cutting edge AAA release be single player games, but I imagine you’ll still see a lot of single player games in general. Lower budget/A releases and indies.
 
K

KORNdoggy

Member
Mihael Mello Keehl said:
Depends who developing it.
Click to expand...

this. i don't think anyone can look at the success of uncharted, last of us and horizon (as well as the upcoming titles like spiderman, days gone, god of war and last of us 2)...and think to themselves "these types of games are dying" or "single player games can't be successful"

i think it's just a case of some publishers seeing more $$$ in destiny-like titles and GaaS and so some of the greedier pubs out there will chase that as hard and fast as they can, no matter the casualties.

so for EA and ubisoft? maybe.
 
K

Kinsei

Banned
Steel said:
Last of us had multiplayer with microtransactions, though.
Click to expand...

True, but the main focus of the game was the single player. Assassin's Creed has multiplayer (Or had, I haven;t kept up with the series) but they are primarily single player games.
 
AdmiralMikey

AdmiralMikey

Member
When it comes to third parties, it's clear that "Games as a service" is their goal and the way they make the most money. Selling someone a $60 product is nice, continuing to sell that person add-ons and content for years on top of that $60 product is the real goal and unfortunately single-player, narrative-based games don't serve that goal very well.

I think (hope) the future of single player, narrative-based games is more in line with Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. It's a high budget looking, well playing, interesting story for a retail price of $30. It's not a game that's defined by the current standards of what a $60 game needs to include and it sells at the right price for the amount of content it contains.

It looks like Sega is smartly following that trend by pricing Sonic Forces at $40, and I hope it's a good game and all the more successful because of it.
 
F

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
I'm pretty sure we had this same discussion a couple of years ago.
I wouldn't worry about it.
The market can only support so many AAA Multiplayer games and there will always be lots of people who want their single player games
 
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