Single Player Games Are An Endangered Species

With the release of Wolfenstein 2 right around the corner, many of us have come to a sobering realisation. Where have all the story based, single player games gone? Indeed, as Wolfenstein 2 looms, it almost feels like a special treat from a bygone age. The gamers among us with an ear to the ground will have likely seen lots of news outlets reporting on this sudden and concerning phenomenon. However, in this piece, let’s take a look at the web in as broad a spectrum as possible and take it all in at once.

[andrewsquall]

Nope, moving on.

[Deep-throat]

I don't think they're dying too. But let's be honest here, hardcore gaming is on the edge. Most games are cinematic schlocks.

[UCForce]

And you are still predictable. Like really ?

[Deep-throat]

@UCForce
Bro what I said is truthful.

[UCForce]

No, I'm not convinced by your "truthful" statements. Developers want to create whatever they like. Gameplay always come first, but it give devs an endless ways to use it for their own benefit.

[Tetsujin]

Says who? My first gaming project is single player first, with couch co op. Must be the "new thing" to question something that isn't going anywhere any time soon.

[Lightning Mr Bubbles]

No time soon or ever. I mean one day eventually the world will end and people will stop making video games. I mean if you want to look at it that way.

[Lightning Mr Bubbles]

Can't be serious. Didn't Nintendo Switch just score big with Zelda and Mario Odyssey also looks like a big hit. Metal Gear Solid, 5 Final Fantasy 15, Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, The Last of us 2, Days Gone, Final Fantasy 7 remake, Resident Evil 7, The Walking Dead New frontier, Horizon Zero Dawn, Falloiut 4, Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, Dying Light, Kingdom Hearts 3, Death Stranding, Resident Evil 2 remake, Life is Strange, Outlast 2, Nioh, GTA 5. The list can go on and on for 1000 more games. Pretty much the entire gaming industry of the most popular best selling hits. So how the f*ck is it dying? I mean think about what you're saying.

I think this story all started with Xbox getting their asses kicked and not having too many good single player exclusives. That's about it.

[PiCOSMOiP]

The quote from the xbox boss about single player games wasn't about being against it. They were talking about the budget standpoint for a lot of studios. Plenty of single player games to choose from. Mountain blown from a molehill and N4G community is eating it up

[Goldby]

No they were talking about how it won't make as much money for MS, and MS is all about the money coming in over the money going out

[PiCOSMOiP]

@Goldby

No, they were speaking on behalf of the game industry. They were all logical points. Your reply is nonsense and personal agenda pushing.

[BrianOBlivion]

A little late to the party, no?

[Lightning Mr Bubbles]

Just in time for me to respond actually. I heard this before but never thought it was even worth talking about. I'm just finally sick of hearing it.

[BrianOBlivion]

Agreed.
I actually think that the short lifespan of so many of the current glut of multiplayer games will cause a bit of a backlash. Developers and publishers might start to regard them as the riskier endeavor.

[rainslacker]

I heard this all last generation, yet still seeing plenty of SP games out and coming out.

[Universal 08]

No, good single player games are.

[DialgaMarine]

Horizon
Zelda
Persona 5
NiOH
Nier
Mario Odyssey
Wolfenstein 2
ACO
Shadow of War
Evil Within 2
South Park
Etc..

All quality single player games that released just this year.

[ecchiless]

i would add to your etc... gravity rush, tales of berseria, ys viii, yakuza, and more etc...

[Ashby_JC]

Divinity Original Sin 2

[Goldby]

Hellblade as well

[Cobra951]

Look, that's crap. To me, and my disposable income, it's the games-as-a-service trend that is endangered. I will not buy any (1) multiplayer-only games, (2) online-only games, (3) microtransaction-infested games, or (4) games with loot boxes of any kind (even if they don't need real money). I'm far from alone in despising this blight on our favorite pastime.

[rainslacker]

I think GaaS has a higher potential to crash in upon itself as the market becomes glutted with more publishers chasing after those MT dollars. It almost happened with the iphone/google market, where the vast majority of software doesn't make money, and it's the more marketed games with some backing to be discovered through subversive social marketing that tends to become a runaway success. But for every angry birds or candy crush, there are hundreds of games which don't make a return on their investment.

But SP games will still be around, and will consistently have an audience. They're just as prone to failure as any MP games, but that's just the nature of the gaming market, and doesn't have anything to do with the genre or way the content is delivered.

[NotanotherReboot]

MS are future proofed for when single player games become extinct... but what about Sony? They don't have any strong MP focused games, unlike MS who have Halo and Gear + PUBG on the way

[TheColbertinator]

Yeah Sony is dying.

[NotanotherReboot]

Not right now, but in the near future, yes

[AnubisG]

Oh, you are actually serious...
How old are you? 10-14?

Single player games are going nowhere and dominate the market. That is why sony is at #1 and Nintendo is at #2 and MS is at dead last.

If you want MP games you can also find those on the PS4 as well. Fortnite is catching up with PUBG very fast and expected to become more popular very soon. All the big MP shooters are also on PS4 like CoD, Destiny, Battlefield and Battlefront.

So what are you talking about?

[PiCOSMOiP]

Not to burst your bubble, if you want go by single player game ratings and commercial successes, Nintendo beats everyone by a long shot. Sony is definitely second place and has a great backlog too, but many of them aren't commercial successes. PlayStation do know how to take risk and push their boundaries on a variety of games. I'll give them number one in that category.

[SpaceRanger]

The focus on MP games has one downfall. The industry will canabalize itself with so many people flocking from game to game. Not to mention the ridiculous loot box stuff.

If Halo and PUBG came out one after the other, it would only prove my point. There’s a reason the PS2, PS3 and PS4 software was and is so successful, and it wasn’t MP.

[TheColbertinator]

I think it already happened back in the PS3 launch but its been a slow death like how a spider catches a fly.

[DialgaMarine]

Because Sony learned a strong lesson last gen that MS is too arrogant and money hungry to learn now: the third party industry rules the multiplayer community. None of the 3 major companies can compete on the multiplayer front. That’s why even Halo is dead. Sony is smart; they let their developers make the games they want, while striking marketing deals with third parties, and release their own games earlier on in the year so as to not step on toes. Even if these multiplayer titles aren’t exclusive, it’s still millions of people that buy PS4’s and PS+, ie more money in Sony’s pocket either way. That also means millions more of potentional customers to buy their exclusives. Sony has played the right cards; MS thinks GaaS is the future, and XBL is suffering big time from it. That’s why they’re so desperate to push cross play; they’re trying to convince millions of people to not buy PS4’s lol

Also, PUBG is coming to PS4. Your statement is even more pointless lol

[davand114]

I guess Sony and Nintendo are dying since they make some of the best single player games in the business. It's not like they've put out high scoring single player games that sold well this year...oh wait...they did. These fools saying single player games are dying because EA's greedy asses only want to make games with multiplayer and loot boxes doesn't mean shit.

[DialgaMarine]

It’s likely they’re bots for MS, since company is pushing the same goals as EA. It’s a really sad day when fans of a particular console are so devoted that they actually wish for microtransactions and loot boxes.

[rainslacker]

The ironic part is is that EA is still making SP games. It's not like they don't have other stuff in production. Just because they cancelled one, doesn't mean they're never going to make them again. They have way too many huge IP's to simply not capitalize on them.

[rainslacker]

There will always be a market for SP games, and as long as there is a market, there will be games made for it. Even if the SP market becomes glutted, there will be games in it that will make money, and the more successes there are, the longer it will continue to exist.

MP games, being a service, are more likely to crash than the SP game. The traditional isn't going anywhere over some relatively new game. Service, by it's very nature is more likely to falter than the basic structure on what that service is based on, and if the service(MP) crashes due to too many options where people stop caring, then the whole idea of GaaS crashes to be just a few successful games.

On top of that, there are more MP gamers who still also like SP experiences, than there are SP gamers who want to play MP games in the GaaS paradigm.

Neither is likely going anywhere. One doesn't have to die, and those that act like one will die anytime soon....or ever, are really deluding themselves for what purpose I can't understand. It's not like SP games remove MP games from the market, but the MP market certainly has had an effect on the SP market, mostly to annoyance because the market for SP is strong and tired of having all this crap thrown into what they actually want.

[Vlaitor]

No, not a chance. Look at all the games coming out focused on single player experience. I don't know what the f**k pseudo-journalists have these days but it is actually going very good for SP video games out there.

[FloydianAndroid]

everything this cyclical. Eventually consumers will stop throwing money at multiplayer games that are pay to win and publishers won’t have an excuse to keep building content around loot crates. Single games are gonna just fine.

[PlayableGamez-]

No it's not.
See Sony, Nintendo, Capcom, Square Enix, Sony, Bethesda, CD Projekt RED and many other AAA devs.
Also, Indie devs strongly support single player games.

[MeteorPanda]

oh my god, shutup no they're not. Why is the internet bandwagon highlighting single player? What happened?

[davand114]

EA doesn't want to make single player games anymore because it's harder to sucker gamers into buying micro-transactions and loot boxes in them.

[MeteorPanda]

And this matters? They've always been sport and multiplayer oriented. When you're a massive corperation with many saleries to pay, pray tell, what do you want them to do? The 60 box proce isnt enough to keep them afloat so yeah. Microtransactions ate here to stay. Mobile gaming proved how well it works.

[PiCOSMOiP]

@MeteorPanda

Kinda funny how people are flocking over this. They don't realize the big picture and this is a 100+ billion dollar business.

[Xerneas]

This has been talked about for 10 years now. There will always be demand from gamers who would rather play a game by themselves.

[RavioliBoy]

Wolfenstein II, Mario and Assasin's Creed released just today. All good single player experiences.

[dauntingpixel]

Wrong. wrong wrong wrong.
I'm not even clicking the link but let's take a quick moment to reflect on 2017 single player games.
Just off the top of my head here so I may miss a few.
Nioh, Nier, Horizon Zero Dawn, Zelda Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, WOlfenstein 2, Assassins Creed Origins, The Evil Within 2, Final Fantasy 15, Super Lucky's, Resident Evil 7, Crash Bandicoot, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, Life is Strange: before the Storm, Shadow of War, South Park.. I know I'm missing some somewhere but you get the point.

[medman]

Hmmmm.... God of War, TLOU Part II, Detroit Become Human, Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption II, Days Gone, Death Stranding, Spider-Man, Wild, Ni No Kuni II...and that's just what I'm anticipating from Sony (plus 2 from CD Projekt and Rockstar). And not mentioning all the phenomenal single player games coming from Nintendo. Single player is the best. Always has been. When gaming gives up on single player, I give up on gaming. Nuff said.

[davand114]

It's like they haven't been paying attention to anything that has been released this year. Almost all of the goty contenders are great single player games that all sold well and are popular. EA says some dumb shit and everyone jumps on the dumbass bandwagon.

[DialgaMarine]

This month alone has literally seen several major titles that were all single player, and were highly acclaimed. I honestly can’t think of a strong multiplayer focused game that released this year and received good acclaim besides maybe Destiny 2. Granted, Star Wars and CoD are right around the corner, but amazing single player experiences still far outnumber the multiplayer ones.

The only place where single player is dying is on Xbone, but they have no good games to begin with, so... yeah.

[PiCOSMOiP]

Last sentence of that comment was totally unnecessary and plenty of single player games on Xbox...don't be that person

[Skankinruby]

I still see plenty of great single player games coming so I'm not sure where you all come up with these theories. But I'll chuck my console in the trash and never pick up a game controller again if this happens. Multiplayer is boring redundant garbage.

[cabbitwithscissors]

No it's not. Only if EA/Activision is in the picture.

[Ashby_JC]

Not even reading the article. Over exageration. There are plenty of SP experiences out there. Im 140 hours in on Divinity Original Sin 2 on PC.

[TheGamez100]

Its just big third party devs that are slowly making single player games worse and worse with too much focus on action, graphics, and open world and putting in online features like microtrans, multiplayer, and trash dlc.
When singleplayers should all be about just having fun and relaxing to the comfort of taking your time to play as you will. As for the more core players, singleplayers should have great depth to them with the story, characters, world, and great gameplay. Sony, nintendo, and many of their first parties for example, and tons of indies and japanese companies are the ones that are keeping single player games alive and well.
Very sad many ppl pass up on the good quality titles because of the mainstream games these days.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

It's the equivalent of saying water isn't wet, despite everyone knowing the exact opposite is the truth.

This is getting out of hand. If any gaming company seriously thinks that they can abandon single player games 100% and still remain competitive/financially stable, they're nuts. So to the ones that choose that route, good luck when loot boxes/microtransactions/run of the mill multiplayer crash and burn in the long run.

[rainslacker]

Exactly. And the problem with just having MP is that if you fail at a big project, you don't have much to fall back on, particularly if any successes you do have have people moving on to whatever the next big thing is. It's a constant attempt to stay ahead.

The games which have long legs like WOW, LoL, or Minecraft aren't as ubiquitous as the games which last for 3-6 months, then have a user base, and revenue stream which drops like a rock when people grow bored and want something fresh and new.

That's why publishers need to diversify, and not put all their eggs in one basket. There is a huge diverse market out there to sell games to. Catering to all of them is the best way to remain stable in an ever changing market. It's good to try in all aspects of the market, and I'm not going to fault a company that tries to make a new GaaS experience, but I would fault a company that decides to try to make this the only way they want to make money. The only time I'd be OK with that is from an individual dev who doesn't rely on a publisher, because that's a different scenario, but from any prolific publisher, I'd expect them to actually not be so foolish to disregard the sizable segments of the market that exist.

[3-4-5]

No they aren't.

Horizon,Breath of the wild, Super Mario Odyssey are the three best games in 2017 and all are single player.

Who writes this stuff? What is keen gamer ?

[FreddyFazbear]

Saying SP is dying is just like saying Sony and Nintendo are dying. Those 2 companies are known for single players and not MP games and they are selling like hotcakes. So I dont know about all this Crap talk about SP. Gaming was built on SP. Guess what games started the industry?? during the 80s?? Mario? Zelda? Final Fantasy? Even Atari on the 70s has single players and surprise no MP games aside from of course 2 player games. Oh and check your calendars on what releases this month. So wolfenstein 2, mario odyssey and evil within 2 dont count right? and previous releases like Lost legacy. Stupid journalism. If MP is the future then Gaming might as well die.

[Aenea]

Oh please, only certain companies are trying to make you think like it is, nothing more. And they only do it to push their own GaaS games.

I like MP games, but also like SP games, I don't want either to go away. If SP games go I will buy less hardware and software and eventually play less and less...

[rainslacker]

I don't even think the companies saying stuff are trying to say that SP is dying. They're all pretty much saying there is more of a return for a successful MP game with all the GaaS stuff attached than there is in a high budget AAA SP game, which can be hard to sell without massive marketing budgets.

None of them have actually said that SP is dead or dying, and none of them have actually indicated that they're going to give up on SP games. They've made some stupid comments sure, but none of them are actually saying what these reports seem to act like they're saying.

[ZeekQuattro]

As a whole no but when it comes to IP's under EA for instance than yeah single player games are in trouble. For most devs single player games aren't going anywhere.

[Ninver]

The day they stop making single player games is the day I'll quit gaming. Until then there's plenty out in the wind.

[Lennoxb63]

They aren't dying. Are they the most popular games? No. But they are most definitely not dying.

[rainslacker]

Overall, SP games outsell MP games. There are also more SP games made than MP games. There are some MP games out there which skew the numbers in terms of revenue, which is why publishers want to have that next big thing.

It's no different than that huge flux of FPS games we saw after COD and Halo's success last gen. Remember when we all lamented how FPS was taking over, despite there being plenty of other options? It's really no different here, and anyone saying that Sp is dead is either an idiot, or completely oblivious to what's out or releasing.

[xtheblackparade]

I don't think they're endangered, but added player interaction, even minimal can really boost a game's lifespan (for me). Be it leaderboards, trading, pvp or a game specific function. Look at games like Path of Exile, Dark Souls, Dragons Dogma. They would all have been just fine as offline experiences but the simple addition of their (sometimes minimal) online functionalities makes a lot of people come back.
The thing about full online experiences is that you often cannot really influence the world around you the way you can in fully offline single player RPG experiences. Because you share a world with others.

[rainslacker]

I never once asked myself where all the story based SP games are, because I have more than I can play for a good long time now.

Nothing to sober up over here, so back to my drink.

Think this article is going way too much into the hyperbole here.