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[facetheslayer92]

Decent article by Samit Sarkar on the future of Single Player games w/o multiplayer components and monetization.

EA’s Star Wars ‘pivot’ is a vote of no confidence in single-player games

Yesterday’s sobering Star Wars news is just the latest nail in the coffin for a beloved but increasingly unsustainable style of video game: big-budget cinematic action games designed as linear single-player experiences.

Electronic Arts announced yesterday that it is refocusing the Star Wars project that had been in development at Visceral Games, an unannounced action-adventure title with a linear story campaign. EA Vancouver is taking over with a new direction, assisted by other EA studios, while EA is shuttering Visceral Games entirely and looking to shift the studio’s developers elsewhere inside the company.

The news itself is shocking — Visceral had been working on the game for at least three and a half years, and had shown brief glimpses of it — but it’s not surprising to people who follow the games business. In announcing the decision, EA executive vice president Patrick Söderlund described the industry as “evolving faster and more dramatically than ever before,” and pointed to market trends as part of EA’s reasoning. If you read between the lines, it’s not hard to figure out why this happened.

Read more by clicking the link below.

https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/18/16491188/ea-star-wars-visceral-games-single-player

 

[McDougles]

Oh wow, that's just literally the entire article right there.

OT: It's gonna be a terrible transition.

 

[FiveSide]

I still don't buy the "streaming is killing single-player games" angle.

I know, that's only a small part of the article, and it raises a number of other important and unfortunate points that I agree with.

But have we ever had any kind of studies/numbers/something quantifiable about the effect of streaming on single-player games? I'm just...skeptical, as I always have been.

Re: the article as a whole, I think AAA publishers will continue to put out single-player experiences. But the budgets will shrink, so in that sense yes the Uncharted-style "cinematic" tour-de-force may be on its last legs at the moment (always possible for things to make a comeback later).

The Evil Within 2 released recently, and I think that that was a decent proof-of-concept for the production values necessary for a AAA single-player game moving forward. I'm curious what its budget was.

 

[Elfotografoalocado]

As others said elsewhere, the death of the single player game has been clamored since forever.
Wolfenstein 2 is shaping up to be a great sucess, Lost Legacy was as well, so was Zelda earlier this year, and so will Mario Odyssey and Assasin's Creed Origins.
There are people willing to pay for good single player experiences, someone will satisfy the demand.

 

[rawd]

That's cool. I spend way too much money on video games anyway.

 

[mreddie]

Y'all better get those Bethseda games or we getting loot boxes for Fallout 5.

 

[I-hate-u]

Uncharted 4 is the best (and possibly last) game of its kind

 

[benicillin]

I feel like we've seen the death of single player games a few times now and they're still alive and kicking.

 

[Auctopus]

Uncharted 4 is the best (and possibly last) game of its kind

That is massively overdramatic.

 

[James Scott]

It’s mostly the death of AAA high end linear single player games more than the death of single player games in general.

There have been a ton of single player games just this year with vastly varying budgets and styles

 

[KingBroly]

Reads like a PR statement to me

 

[Heroman]

Nintendo.

 

[Y2Kev]

It’s true. All of it.

Sucks. Oh well. Will play small scale games and find the multiplayer games I enjoy.

Nintendo.

Hey, go figure! Nintendo the last bastion of HARDCORE GAMING. Lol irony

 

[CookTrain]

I'm not secretly hoping for this outcome, before we usher in our co-operative narrative overlords. What a heinous accusation

 

[killroy87]

Going from the Star Wars thing to all these think pieces is a massive leap in logic, considering we've had so many incredible single player games the past year.

 

[Audioboxer]

I feel like we've seen the death of single player games a few times now and they're still alive and kicking.

PC GAMES ARE DEAD!

SP games will just take on the form of being budgeted for and greenlit by indie/smaller studios if the big boys all fly off to GaaS/MP only.

Polygons angle of trying to blame it on streaming is pretty far fetched. It's almost like blaming piracy for games not selling. People who want to pirate or watch 9+ hours of a game on a stream are not the people who were going to buy it anyway.

Hi there! Samit Sarkar here, the author of the article in question.

First off, thanks for reading! It sounds like you thought I made some good points, which is always nice to hear.

Secondly, a humble request: Would it be possible to not copy/paste literally my entire (lengthy!) article into a forum post, thereby giving GAF readers no reason to click through to Polygon? Not sure if there's any official GAF etiquette around this kind of thing, but as a GAF lurker myself, I feel like most people just post brief excerpts (especially for something like a 1600-word analysis piece).

Hope that's not an unreasonable ask. Cheers!

There is so OP should get on that edit.

 

[Kenzodielocke]

That is massively overdramatic.

Right?

 

[Samitster]

Hi there! Samit Sarkar here, the author of the article in question.

First off, thanks for reading! It sounds like you thought I made some good points, which is always nice to hear.

Secondly, a humble request: Would it be possible to not copy/paste literally my entire (lengthy!) article into a forum post, thereby giving GAF readers no reason to click through to Polygon? Not sure if there's any official GAF etiquette around this kind of thing, but as a GAF lurker myself, I feel like most people just post brief excerpts (especially for something like a 1600-word analysis piece).

Hope that's not an unreasonable ask. Cheers!

Update: I see that a mod appears to have edited the original post to remove everything but the intro. I appreciate it! (Although for the record, I'd totally be okay with, like, quoting a few lines of specific points/arguments from the piece.)

 

[Itchy//Tasty]

If this sensationalist nonsense is in any way true, then I’m out of the thing I’ve been passionate about for 20+ years.

 

[CanUKlehead]

Perfect name for this game to rep single player gamers, like me.

 

[mdubs]

Don't copy/paste the entire article OP

The death of the Western big budget single player game anyways. Nintendo will always do what they do

 

[Neo-Ryudo]

Wasn't there a thread showing all of this years best rated games are single player?

or at least was single player at launch or did i dream that?

 

[Crayon]

Oh the overwrought Christmas junk is going to be all multiplayer? Ok.

 

[BritBloke916]

Surely a game like Horizon: Zero Dawn doing very well for itself demonstrates that a market exists for AAA single player? All I can do as a consumer is keep putting my money towards them. If they die out completely then it'll just be indies and retro gaming for me. Which I could live with, to be honest.

 

[LaneDS]

Can't get behind this idea in a year where we've seen games like BotW and Horizon succeed both commercially and critically... think there's always going to be single player success stories out there.

 

[Golgo 13]

I remember this being said 10 years ago with just as much enthusiasm and guess what, it’s not happening.

 

[Skellig Gra]

Hi there! Samit Sarkar here, the author of the article in question.

First off, thanks for reading! It sounds like you thought I made some good points, which is always nice to hear.

Secondly, a humble request: Would it be possible to not copy/paste literally my entire (lengthy!) article into a forum post, thereby giving GAF readers no reason to click through to Polygon? Not sure if there's any official GAF etiquette around this kind of thing, but as a GAF lurker myself, I feel like most people just post brief excerpts (especially for something like a 1600-word analysis piece).

Hope that's not an unreasonable ask. Cheers!

It's not proper etiquette to post the whole article. Perfectly reasonable request.

 

[Blobbers]

The Ron Howard hate is getting ridiculous

 

[Raven117]

We see this pretty much every year....and every year we keep getting solo experiences that are some of the best games out there.

What those developers are missing is that their "open world single player experiences" just weren't awesome.

Yakuza 0
Nioh
Persona 5
Neir
Zelda
Horizon
Assassins Creed Origins
Mario Odyssey

(Admittedly some were not given huge budgets)

All came out THIS YEAR. The author is just selectively creating a narrative and picking out specific examples. Now, if the author used real budgets, real numbers, and real goals being hit or missed, then I would believe it. He didn't. Its just a really long piece with nothing but conjecture.

 

[Bronx-Man]

I’d like my royalty check, Polygon

 

[TraBuch]

Surely a game like Horizon: Zero Dawn doing very well for itself demonstrates that a market exists for AAA single player? All I can do as a consumer is keep putting my money towards them. If they die out completely then it'll just be indies and retro gaming for me. Which I could live with, to be honest.

To be fair, he did specify linear, cinematic games.

 

[Duxxy3]

Nah.

EA is just god awful at budgeting single player games.

Uncharted 4 is the best (and possibly last) game of its kind

It's not even the best new Uncharted game this generation. Lost Legacy was better.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

PC GAMES ARE DEAD!

SP games will just take on the form of being budgeted for and greenlit by indie/smaller studios if the big boys all fly off to GaaS/MP only.

Polygons angle of trying to blame it on streaming is pretty far fetched.

When you have no money for games every week sometimes you gotta watch someone else play it to get some sort of experience with a game. I don't have time for The Evil Within 2 so I watched someone play through the whole thing on Twitch. With that being said, I don't think it prevents people from buying it but it does incentives people to maybe wait for a price drop.

 

[Crocodile]

It’s mostly the death of AAA high end linear single player games more than the death of single player games in general.

There have been a ton of single player games just this year with vastly varying budgets and styles

Case in Point:

but I can't speak to the Western AAA market or what AAA Western publisher want to do

 

[DriftingSpirit]

Perfect name for this game to rep single player gamers, like me.

Literally the last of us and a type of game.

Trying times.

 

[Beartruck]

Title should include "...in the AAA 3rd party space."

 

[DeathoftheEndless]

Secondly, a humble request: Would it be possible to not copy/paste literally my entire (lengthy!) article into a forum post, thereby giving GAF readers no reason to click through to Polygon? Not sure if there's any official GAF etiquette around this kind of thing, but as a GAF lurker myself, I feel like most people just post brief excerpts (especially for something like a 1600-word analysis piece).

There's a GAF rule about it. Just PM one of the mods.

 

[Skeff]

It's true and it makes me sad.

 

[Roshin]

We're doomed.

 

[Uno Venova]

IDK, I'm doing pretty well so far with playing abolsutely no multiplayer this year. Persona and Horizon were amazing, and Wolfenstien & Odyssey is two weeks away.

And next year has GoW & Spiderman.

 

[Audioboxer]

When you have no money for games every week sometimes you gotta watch someone else play it to get some sort of experience with a game.

Fair enough, but you weren't buying the game then if you had no money? That's my point. Just like someone who will wait 2 months for Denuvo to be cracked (

Spoiler

not anymore

) was never going to buy your game.

Streaming videos/videos, in general, affect all games too. Not just SP games. Many will repeatedly point to exposure sometimes boosting sales. Especially if fan favourite streamers get ahold of a game.

 

[The ๖ۜBronx]

Five years from now we'll still have blockbuster AAA experiences. I honestly can't see them going away anytime soon.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Hi there! Samit Sarkar here, the author of the article in question.

First off, thanks for reading! It sounds like you thought I made some good points, which is always nice to hear.

Secondly, a humble request: Would it be possible to not copy/paste literally my entire (lengthy!) article into a forum post, thereby giving GAF readers no reason to click through to Polygon? Not sure if there's any official GAF etiquette around this kind of thing, but as a GAF lurker myself, I feel like most people just post brief excerpts (especially for something like a 1600-word analysis piece).

Hope that's not an unreasonable ask. Cheers!

What you're suggesting is the norm. It's super inappropriate and wrong to copy/paste a full article and often leads to locked threads when it happens.

 

[Succinct Verbosity]

I don’t agree... EA, Activion and Ubisoft are transitioning away from single player experiences, but they barely had any worth playing in the first place.

 

[Emperor_Uriel]

Let's see how many of these GAAS titles can truly succeed. How many Destiny-style experiences can gamers fit into their lives? I'd wager it isn't enough for there to be more than one or two truly successful series in a very expensive genre.

This seems more like the post-World of Warcraft MMO "gold rush" of the mid 2000s than a true new standard. Microtransactions may be here to stay, but SP games won't die off.

 

[Zap Rowsdower]

As previously stated the big budget AAA singleplayer games may die, but the indie and the re-emerging AA scenes will definitely pick up the slack.

 

[I-hate-u]

IDK, I'm doing pretty well so far with playing abolsutely no multiplayer this year. Persona and Horizon were amazing, and Wolfenstien & Odyssey is two weeks away.

And next year has GoW & Spiderman.

Yep, literally the 2 biggest games 2 E3s in a row.

 

[sflufan]

Counterpoint: "Big-budget, single-player gaming isn’t dead (yet)" (ArsTechnica)

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/10/big-budget-single-player-gaming-isnt-dead-yet/

 

[Always-honest]

God fucking dammit. I want a good StarWars SP...
Who gives a shit for the next re-skinned cunt-ass multiplayer filled with 13 year olds who don't know how to shut up.

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

I feel like I've heard this before...multiple times.