This is a real shame for the company and people involved. I wonder if the current market dominated by microtransaction-driven games-as-a-service is in fact just a trend or if it's actually the future of the industry.
It feels incredibly disappointing to imagine a future where blockbuster single-player games that are essentially complete out of the box are no more. While it's nice that independent games and lower-budget fare on digital storefronts can thrive in this future, I feel like the days of high-quality AAA games in this vein are slipping into the past.
I'm glad that Nintendo, Sony and Bethesda are still serving this market, though I wonder for how much longer. Microsoft, EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Rockstar, Valve etc. seem to have left or are leaving it behind.
To your first question that's highlighted:
Yes, and that's why it has come to a a lot of scrutiny lately with MT's, loot crates being in single player mostly games like Shadow of war, even to an extent in NBA2k, Assassin Creed.
Nintendo, Sony, Sega, Bethesda have been having a lot of success with making games that keep the player interested without trying to sell them stuff in-game. DLC is fine especially if it's just more playable content like a story add-on or expansion.
Bethesda recently has had some ups and downs with single player games underperforming. Doom I think Sold well but not to what they expected, and Dishonored 2 didn't live up to sales expectations. And PREY IMHO looked super generic which is why regardless of it's critical praise sold like balls.
But new IP's or games or revamped series like Doom, Wolfenstein seem to be doing fine. Horizon:ZD, Zelda, and most of Nintendo's first party have been doing well. The same can be said about Sega recently with them bringing more Yakuza, and PC ports of their single player games over with success.
Single player games are doing fine, it's just that they don't have a lot of meddling going on with games that do well. EA meddles too much with their developers and is why it's a mixed bag with the Ip's they put out.
Same can be said for other big publishers like Activision, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and even Sony(looking at you GT SPORT).
Campaign based games or single player are still viable even if they are AA/budget tier games like Hellblade.
But they have to be made without meddling from Producers, and higher ups. MS, EA, and Activision need a wake up call and I think it's coming in the form of people not buying their games. But unfortunatley they take that as a sign that people just dont want those type of games.
So they cancel projects. I really do believe Mass effect:A among a couple other titles have given these publishers like EA a bad impression about investing in story based games.
When sales of games like Horizon, Uncharted 4, Lost legacy, Zelda, Mario Rabbids, Nier, would say otherwise.
