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Is single player dead? Article written by Kingdom Come: Deliverance developer.

The answer is no.

Zelda breath of the wild.
Shadow of war.
Horizon.
Mario odyssey.
Resident evil 7.

Games that have sold exceedingly well this year and can make game of the year contenders.

All single player.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
This year was year of single player games. Most of the best games this year were mostly SP games and I hope this continues next year as well. Because if SP games completely disappears then I have no reason to play games anymore.
 

Kelegacy

XBOX - RECORD ME LOVING DOWN MY WOMAN GOOD
History will be on the side of SP games, or SP with some local multiplayer. Games that are only online and/or just multiplayer have an expiration date. There are some you can never go back to already. You need other people to have a MP game or you have nothing, and people move on to the next thing quickly.
 

sublimit

Banned
It's a well written opinion piece but he almost makes it sound as if there's no risk of failure in SP games which isn't true.
Sure it's much harder to compete in the multiplayer arena but at the same time not every SP game can have the success of a Witcher 3 (regardless if it deserves it or not).
 

DonF

Member
The original title of the article is "Single-player games withstood World of Warcraft. They’ll survive PUBG, too."
Which is less click baity.
 

Charlton3k

Neo Member
No, us gamers are fine with single player, well single player without the online requirements. It's the devs pushing it for that extra line of security and to stop piracy.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
The answer is no.

Zelda breath of the wild.
Shadow of war.
Horizon.
Mario odyssey.
Resident evil 7.

Games that have sold exceedingly well this year and can make game of the year contenders.

All single player.
NFW this awful POS and gamblefest can be GOTY, not in this universe.
 

Aztorian

Member
Imo good singeplayer games have higher replay value than most multiplayer games. Games like CoD already ruled out since the mp is just reskin after reskin.
 

SenkiDala

Member
In matter of sales well yeah they are less popular than multiplayer games, but if we talk about quality, no, single player games are awesome those days.

Uncharted 4 (can't say it sells because the multiplayer mode)
Prey
Persona 5
Resident Evil VII
Zelda Breath of the Wild
Mario Odyssey
Horizon Zero Dawn
NieR Automata
Cuphead
Nioh
Wolfenstein II
Torment
Gravity Rush 2

And so many more.

The problem is that those guys are too much focus on their "field of knowledge" that they don't even watch around, and they don't see what gamers like to play. Maybe they try to convince themselves.

Well maybe he's talking about numbers, sales, and $$$, then yeah multiplayer games make more money, of course, with all those lootboxes, season pass 1/2/3, maps for 10$, etc...

But to me it's like saying that because Madonna and Beyonce sells more than great indie bands and other musicans, then those musicians don't exist anymore.
 

SenkiDala

Member
I don't really understand it being a gamblefest, played most of the way through it without even seeing anything like a loot crate.

He saw his favorite youtuber saying it, so it's obviously true! It's how people get opions those days. :D
 

Not Drake

Member
I'll go in a different direction. Single player games are fine. It seems to me that multiplayer games have a problem of maintaining themselves and are in constant search of optimal business models. We keep discussing insane success stories like Rocket League, PUBG or Splatoon, but keep forgetting total flops that no one wants to play after a month, f2p games that launch and die during the same year and games that are solid, but get smacked by publisher's poor business decisions.
 

keraj37

Member
I'll go in a different direction. Single player games are fine. It seems to me that multiplayer games have a problem of maintaining themselves and are in constant search of optimal business models. We keep discussing insane success stories like Rocket League, PUBG or Splatoon, but keep forgetting total flops that no one wants to play after a month, f2p games that launch and die during the same year and games that are solid, but get smacked by publisher's poor business decisions.

Really good point.

I want to add to this that I have a feeling that every (almost) game studio and especially startups, start concepting the game with a unquestionable assumption - that serves as a foundation - that the real money is in MP.
I think it is wrong assumption, based on MP boom in late 90s and early years of that century, when this was really "cool" and desirable and on current super successful games like LoL, WoW etc. But just look around deeper and you will see how hard is to make such game and how many studios fail every year - how many games are burned within few months of its existence.
I really see among people I know and also massive voice from gamers around the World, that they want from games to provide relax time, joy, which they are struggling to find in chaotic online matches being also exposed to be offended by some kid calling you "f**** noob! #$%#$%#", so they stay offline, and play on their own pace. I find myself among them.
I don't know really, but I have a feeling that somethings wrong, specially when game forces me to play mp, like SW:BF. Sorry, it is not for me, bye!
 
But... Wasn't this a great year for SP games?

I'll go in a different direction. Single player games are fine. It seems to me that multiplayer games have a problem of maintaining themselves and are in constant search of optimal business models. We keep discussing insane success stories like Rocket League, PUBG or Splatoon, but keep forgetting total flops that no one wants to play after a month, f2p games that launch and die during the same year and games that are solid, but get smacked by publisher's poor business decisions.

This is a really good point.
 

120v

Member
single player isn't going anywhere but i think the days of throwing down $60 for "the complete experience" is over save for a few exceptions

some games this will be super scummy with lootboxes and "omitted content", other ways it'll be perfectly sensible with endgame DLC and such. but either way i don't think the issue is "nobody buys SP anymore" but rather one and done SP games aren't the bread winners
 
I wouldn’t say it is.

There are only a few MP games that are big really. Like PUBG, Battlefield, LoL, Overwatch and so on.

It’s not like every game that has multiplayer tacked in sells exceptionally well.

Even fewer MP games has people constantly playing it such as LoL.
 
Open world SP gaming is certainly not dead, but it seems that the interest people have in linear SP games is declining fast.
Except for the Naughty Dog games, what linear SP games did sell in the millions, before they were heavily discounted? Even Doom 2016 wasn't a great seller.
 

Ide88

Neo Member
From traded companies they will move towards multiplayer for increased profits because of fiduciary duty. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and some indies will most likely be the only ones focusing on single player games.
 
Multiplayer certainly took the brunt of things this year. I would be more predisposed to see a story about the downfall of multiplayer. We've been there, done that in multiplayer fashion; and now we just have to pay more for the same. Even the big titles aren't safe with the different ways of exploiting purchasers.
 

cireza

Banned
DING DING DING DING

Same here same boring ass pewpew shit
This. Doing repetitive stuff (and paying a subscription for it) looks just stupid to me.

I want to spend the few hours of gaming I have playing interesting and varied games.
 

Mooreberg

Member
Seems like the dumbest recent year to make such an article really.
Well, he's saying they're going to be fine.

A lot of "bombs" come down to bad product positioning. It can happen with single player games, it can happen to multiplayer games (look at Lawbreakers). Obviously, a lot of the single player stuff from major publishers is higher budget and will be under more of a microscope, but it doesn't change the fact that there are simply some very bad times to release games that aren't brandishing franchise names that make it an automatic seller.

I'm getting games today on Amazon that were $35 more expensive when they came out a month ago. Why did a company like Bethesda decide to release games into such a crowded window, right before the discount sales bonanza of the year? Couldn't tell you. But in past years, games like Deus Ex or MGS V got purchased much closer to full price on release day ($47.99 as Prime subscriber at the time) and I didn't mind price drops eight to twelve weeks later because they didn't offset being able to play the games at my own pace and enjoying them more. But there is literally no point for any thinking customer to buy stuff at twice the price that they in all likelihood will not be playing before a very rapid price drop occurs anyway. Lots of great single player games came out this year that weren't crammed into October, and did pretty well. How many years in a row does this need to occur before publishers start exhibiting some common sense?
 
We still have a lot of single player games coming up. That I can think of off the top of my head:
Spider-Man
God of War
The Last of Us Part II
RDR2
Detroit
Ni No Kuni 2
Days Gone
Vampyr(I think)
KH3

And I'm sure a ton more coming to other consoles and PC
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
No, im having a blast with fallout new vegas
And
Mario Odyssey, zelda, Uncharted ps4, quantum break, gears 4 etc
 

Rayderism

Member
Single player is the only way I game. I never play online multi-player. The only form of MP I play is a friend with controller 2 in their hands.

So if SP gaming is dead, then gaming is dead to me.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
The thing is, you hear things like this, but you see more and more SP games in the actual stores and when talking to other gamers.

I don't think I've talked to a single person who thinks that SP is on its way out. It's always the opposite feeling.

I'm a huge SP person and I enjoy playing CoD MP.

I think a lot of this is gonna be a different story in a few years. Nothing really stays the same. Especially when the next gen comes along.

I see more SP campaigns that I want in 2018 than MP focused. I mean, how much spotlight do they think MP gets?

Sure there's the margin who do MLG and so forth, but that isn't the mom and pop game store or your local GameStop. I am rarely going to talk about MP with any of the employees that I talk to at game stores and what not. Maybe 25% of them do strictly MP, but jeewiz... I wouldn't say it's dead. That's stupid. Not everyone wants MP only
 

Ubername

Banned
This year was year of single player games.

The answer is no.

Zelda breath of the wild.
Shadow of war.
Horizon.
Mario odyssey.
Resident evil 7.

Games that have sold exceedingly well this year and can make game of the year contenders.

All single player.

So what? You have to be blind not to see the games industry is going towards a more multiplayer, repeat business focus. Of course there's gonna be compelling SP experiences because they sell, but they aren't "where the industry's going." We are destined for a marketplace where most developers looking forward will focus more on multiplayer and less on singleplayer. We are destined for a future where more focus is placed on how to wring out money from repeat players, not a future where developers delay games so they can make the single player better.
 
The day single player dies is the day I stop buying video games.

Im with you. Ive really really tried to get in to online and i do like it for my sports games, but i much rather play linear campaigns against ai than other people online.

Unfortunately we are the minority, i just hope there is enough of us to keep it alive.
 

Gamezone

Gold Member
Single player games aren't dead, just getting boring as hell. Naughty Dog must be the only developer left out there who develops awsome AAA single player games without having the need to mix it with an open world map and boring side quests.
 

cuate

Banned
Single player games aren't dead, just getting boring as hell. Naughty Dog must be the only developer left out there who develops awsome AAA single player games without having the need to mix it with an open world map and boring side quests.

On the other hand, they're filled with long pointless cinematics, automatic platforming, boring walking segments and the dumbest puzzles known to man. Because that is surely a good use of my time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6aYZqikesY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cud014pBbrs
 

JaxBriggs

Member
I've played a stack of awesome single player games this year and there's more lined up for next year too. There's still a heap of games I've not got around to from this year as well, RE7, Deus Ex, etc.

Sure GaaS might be on the rise, but single player doesn't look like it's going anywhere.
 

yurinka

Member
Lol! Single player isn't dead. Many best rated or best selling games of this year are single player focused.

And some games that have both single player and multiplayer like SF for some are supposed to be more focused on MP but if we look at the trophies most players play way more the SP content than the MP one.

Some series like Splatoon, Destiny or Battlefront had to add or seriously improve their single player campaign due to criticism on previous entries.

There is a market for people who wants MP only, and successful MP focused games. But there is also an even bigger market for SP only or SP focused games. Not all games need to be AAA open world multiplayer GaaS full of lootboxes (in these games MP is to keep players for longer in order to have them paying microtransactions for a longer period of time so to make a higher revenue).
 
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