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[dex3108]

It's pretty thin on variety, so gameplay-wise it gets old pretty fast, even if the combat does feel pretty nice. But the story is top notch.

Not if you own all DLCs in my opinion.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

Are there any new IP single player games recently that did well ? I know Horizon Zero Dawn is one.

I feel like unless you have recognizable brand, single player game needs to be exceptional to success.

Nioh did well. The Last Guardian did well. Bloodborne did very well (yeah, I know it has MP elements integrated into its design but it's a SP game first and foremost).

Because Mario and Xenoblade are not linear games, even uncharted is trying to branchout into hub areas and such. Also lost legacy is far from success, according to ******** it sold less than 1mill.
"Single player MMO PVE" games like Shadow of War, or Assassin's Creed are not going anywhere, but narrative linear experiences are pretty much done and Wolf II looks like the "last hope". If it doesn't sell well I'm not sure will see much of such games (if any), but if it is maybe we'll see some more.

There's a reason you're referring to a banned site. Lost Legacy is doing really well.

 

[dreamfall]

I love Machine Games. Before they worked on Wolfenstein, the Riddick titles alongside the first Darkness game were my favorite story based FPS titles. Wolfenstein was phenomenal, Old and New Blood. I can’t wait to see how they’ve crafted the narrative for this sequel. The feel of firing guns is akin to no other title for me - brutal, heavy, satisfying as hell. Especially considering we’re eviscerating Nazis and Klansmen this go around. Day One, without a doubt.

 

[MikeBison]

Some doom and gloom but MOST games released are single player. All this 'death of the AAA sp game' are over the top. I'm as gutted as anyone about visceral and potentially no more dead space, but..

This month we've had evil within, Divinity original sin 2 (oh look, a 'dead' genre that can't make money) fire emblem warriors, shadow of war, have wolfenstein II, AC:O and Mario odyssey. We still have xenoblade chronicles 2. Stardew valley and steamworld dig 2 are ripping up the charts.

The most likely game of the year is going to be breath of the wild.

All the huge hitters next year are single player like God of War, Spider-Man, Days gone, maybe last of us 2.

Single player games will be just fine. They'll have dlc and maybe Michael transactions, but they're not going anywhere. Chill.

 

[polyh3dron]

Some doom and gloom but MOST games released are single player. All this 'death of the AAA sp game' are over the top. I'm as gutted as anyone about visceral and potentially no more dead space, but..

This month we've had evil within, fire emblem warriors, shadow of war, have wolfenstein II, AC:O and Mario odyssey. We still have xenoblade chronicles 2. Stardew valley and steamworld dig 2 are ripping up the charts.

The most likely game of the year is going to be breath of the wild.

All the huge hitters next year are single player like God of War, Spider-Man, Days gone, maybe last of us 2.

Single player games will be just fine. They'll have dlc and maybe Michael transactions, but they're not going anywhere. Chill.

Look at how many of those upcoming AAA single player games are first party. The third party publishers want no part in games that don’t offer the prospect of ongoing revenue after the purchase. They may as well just get out of the video game business and make pachislot games as far as I’m concerned. That’d be more honest.

 

[NoTime]

There's a reason you're referring to a banned site. Lost Legacy is doing really well.

Since this is the only source and there is no data provided by Sony it appears to me that sales are not that great. Sony always publish information about their games if they are selling well. I know that this is not accurate data and it usually doesn't include digital numbers, but it's pretty much all we've got at the moment. But even without all of this, just based on friends I play with and different trophyhunting sites there aren't that much ppl playing it. Worth noting that I'm not saying it bombed, because it probably didn't cost that much to produce, but by no means its doing well.

 

[MikeBison]

Look at how many of those upcoming AAA single player games are first party. The third party publishers want no part in games that don’t offer the prospect of ongoing revenue after the purchase. They may as well just get out of the video game business and make pachislot games as far as I’m concerned. That’d be more honest.

I mean, if you drill it down far enough, then sure '3rd party single player only with no cosmetics and also linear games are dying.'

But what does it matter? I've just rattled off a tonne of fucking great games. Play them. Enjoy them.

Of course companies like EA will focus on the games that get the most money out of you, because they're behemoth sized public companies. Risk is too great on new single player IP but it's been that way for 10 years now. I genuinely believe this has been the best year in video games maybe ever. If not, since the early 2000's, but people are super doom and gloom.

 

[MikeBison]

Oh and just because games have online components or even lootboxes, doesn't mean they can't be fantastic games. Shadow of war is a case in point. It's really fucking fun and yet 90% of the conversation is about its business model. People are absolutely entitled to talk about that if they dislike it, but let's not pretend that it and it's like are just roulette wheels with no game around them. And the market decides, people buy that stuff so of course they will put it in.

Think the bigger issue is games that include that stuff and are making tonnes off it but the games around it are prettt borked. See: 2K's output this year and every year.

 

[NoTime]

I mean, if you drill it down far enough, then sure '3rd party single player only with no cosmetics and also linear games are dying.'

But what does it matter? I've just rattled off a tonne of fucking great games. Play them. Enjoy them.

Of course companies like EA will focus on the games that get the most money out of you, because they're behemoth sized public companies. Risk is too great on new single player IP but it's been that way for 10 years now. I genuinely believe this has been the best year in video games maybe ever. If not, since the early 2000's, but people are super doom and gloom.

It's all reasonable, but not everyone likes open-world games, even though they are good, they have different strengths and appeals. That's why players who like linear experiences are really concerned.

 

[Klart]

It's one of the few retail AAA games I'll be getting on release

 

[EekumBokum]

I do hope it does well. Bethesda might be my favorite publisher this gen and their games are all classic SP games. Though maybe inevitable, it'd be a shame to lose them to these recent AAA industry trends.

 

[MikeBison]

It's all reasonable, but not everyone likes open-world games, even though they are good, they have different strengths and appeals. That's why players who like linear experiences are really concerned.

I absolutely get that. I don't like playing one open world game after another. I like 10-12 hour experiences to slot in between those 60-80 hour epics.

...But my point is those games are still coming out, like I said, there are a few this month even.

This thread just seems a bit old man yells at cloud.

 

[hotcyder]

Why Wolfenstein II specifically? As you say, Mario is releasing the same day and Xenoblade 2 is releasing a few weeks after. Didn't we just have the Uncharted spin-off be a success or, well, last year's darling: DOOM? I mean, sure, big picture looks dire but is this about multiplatform AAA SP specifically?.

Hello It's me, Devil's Advocate

Nintendo are never lumped into these kind of discussions because they separate themselves as an entity from games at large.

You could argue that Splatoon and ARMS are their break into the GAAS model but those seeds were sewn with Mario Kart 8 on the WiiU and then further back with Fire Emblem on the 3DS.

Even as AAA developers move towards new trends - Nintendo still does their own thing; No one is making titles like Super Mario Odyssey outside of the indie space (and none with the production size of this caliber) - same goes for stuff like 1 2 Switch or their more left-field ideas. You could argue that it's this thinking that makes them successful (though in the past five years I don't know if any of their "new" ideas bring in money the same way that their established franchises do).

So to say that Wolfenstien II is more of a litmus for the industry at large might make more sense - after all, it's a multiplatform, single-player only shooter releasing a few weeks before the giants of november. I imagine that Uncharted LL did very well but that'll be purely down to the strength of the brand on that hardware - and DOOM did alright; though as far as I've found didn't sell more than 3 - and being in development longer probably didn't help its chances of recouping costs.

It's a shame though, I love single player games (as it's the only thing I play due to having no friends and terrible hand eye coordination) so seeing them be diluted by GAAS and Microtransaction stuff is kind of annoying.

I guess they need to shake up the studio system - shrink sizes down without compromising employee payment, roll stuff back to Single A sizes.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

Worth noting that I'm not saying it bombed, because it probably didn't cost that much to produce, but by no means its doing well.

It's been high in the charts all over the world since release and that's without digital. I really don't see how it's not doing well. We know it outsold UC2 in the UK at release, a game that sold millions of copies.

 

[Rathorial]

I'm very excited for The New Colossus, but I can't help but feel incredibly anxious about it with the current industry atmosphere. With the push for GAAS, the explosion of loot boxes, the closing of Visceral Games and Bethesda's own backfiring marketing for many of their recent SP games, I can't help but feel Wolf II inherited very high expectations as a loot box free, linear single player game. If Wolf II doesn't sell enough, it accelerates the narrative that SP games are not feasible avenues for games any longer. Releasing on the same day as Mario and Assassin's Creed boggles my mind in an already crowded year, but I really want Wolfenstein II: NC to do well.

I mean it's very likely to do well, since their marketing has been great from day one, and current events in the real world only make the game more relevant than it should be. I'd be shocked if it does poorly, but hopefully their expectations aren't Square Enix Tomb Raider levels of 6 million is crap ridiculous.

Not really sure it doing poorly would accelerate any narrative SP games aren't feasible, and even if it did we'd only be talking about the AAA industry. An already shrinking part of the market due to increasing budgets not likely matched by increased audience. Still, AC: Origins and Mario coming out on the same day in a crowded holiday-centric month show devs think there is life for SP games, and I'm not sure there is that much overlap of audience between the 3 games.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole came out just yesterday. Shadow of War released, which appears to be doing well at least on Steam. Mario+Rabbids and XCOM: War of the Chosen hit not long ago, both appearing to be successful as well. Persona 5 sold more than previous entries, Nioh and Nier: Automata were surprise successes, Horizon and Zelda: BotW were system sellers, etc.

Plenty of big-budget SP games in 2017 have done great, just sucks that Bethesda can't sell good immersive sims.

 

[peakish]

Look at how many of those upcoming AAA single player games are first party. The third party publishers want no part in games that don't offer the prospect of ongoing revenue after the purchase. They may as well just get out of the video game business and make pachislot games as far as I'm concerned. That'd be more honest.

It's just that this doesn't seem new to me. At all. Last generation the big complaint was that developers were cutting content out of the game to sell as DLC and that SP games without this were dying. This year it's GaaS that's on everyone's lips (although not everyone seems to understand what it even means) but the argument is the same.

And there's one truth to this argument: games have been changing since forever to accommodate new financial models and trends. And I've been sad to see genres I love get fewer big releases that have been interesting to me because the market has been switching away from them. Yet I am still playing good games every year, because as these big studios have been moving in a direction I don't like, others have risen to fill the gap. To some extent indie studios but also some larger studios who keep making money on their respective niches, eg. Firaxis, Paradox, Nintendo.

In this context I think it's weird to put Wolfenstein up as a "last hope". The big market moved on more than a decade ago and whether or not it succeeds won't have any large impact on that development. It succeeding will however show that there remains a market for a more niche blockbuster experience which will hopefully lead to Bethesda funding more of them. Just as this year's success of Nier Automata will hopefully lead to more games like that.

I don't expect the consumer interest in these sorts of SP games to die out but I do think we have to accept that we are a comparatively niche group. Having followed this development over the last decade I've come to terms with that.