Coffee Talk #263: Are Single Player Only Games Doomed?

In a recent interview with Develop EA Games president Frank Gibeau said, “Fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours-and you’re out. I think that model is finished. Online is where the innovation, and the action, is at.”

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In a recent interview with Develop, EA Games president Frank Gibeau said, “Fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours-and you’re out. I think that model is finished. Online is where the innovation, and the action, is at.” It certainly seems like most games have multiplayer or cooperative features — even games that don’t necessarily need them — but are pure single-player games doomed as Gibeau suggests?

While I don’t see pure single-player games being “finished”, I can see them becoming the minority. That would be kind of weird for me; I grew up playing loads of single-player games and my favorite genre, RPGs, is (mostly) a solitary experience. That said, there are a lot of younger gamers that grew up playing mostly multiplayer games. Perhaps the notion of a pure single-player game is dated.

What are you thoughts on the matter? Are single-player games finished? Will everything have a multiplayer or cooperative facet? Or will there be a robust single-player space in the future? Anyone else remember 2009 as being the year of games with unnecessary cooperative modes?

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

73 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #263: Are Single Player Only Games Doomed?”

      2. we actually did get mark reynolds though, its amazing to see that we may have a guy who hits 40 hrs in black and orange

      3. Mark Reynolds is this era's Rob Deer. Ton of power….if he hits the ball.

        If the Yankees get Cliff Lee I still like their chances of winning the division.

        However, (and I say this as a Yankee fan) the system is completely broken if two teams in the AL East can sign players they don't even need just to keep the other one from getting them.

      4. Cliff Lee is the gem free agency 2010. Pitching is more important than offense in the playoffs. Hopefully Crawford proves to be mentally weak and ill equipped to deal with Boston pressure.

      5. What a hater!!!!! He will do fine most people do, I'm still kind of bitter that we traded Jason Bay, I really liked him as a player.

        Pitching is key in the post season and I hope to god/energy (lol) Lee doesn't go to the damn Yankees.

  2. I see Western games shunning any form of narrative or art and going strictly for the online component in order to sell add-ons.

    I see eastern devs sticking to what they do, as it is culture stigma, and continuing to put out games that are narrative based.

    For what it's worth I really don't like multiplayer on consoles except for an FPS or a sports game. I'm not opposed to multiplayer since I partake in WoW but I do have a lot of fun just doing things by myself on there as well.

    @Year of useless coop

    Yep. If a game didn't have co-op it sure as shit was rushed in or they stopped dev on the main game and focused on co-op because that's what kids want damnit!

    Eventhough the gaming industry has exploded and the audiences getting older, I don't think some of the people in charge see it that way.

    1. I agree that devs neglect the single player portion of games to tack on a multi player portion and games are suffering quality wise. Take Bioshock for instance. It was awesome and in 2 years we get a sequel that disappointed everyone and I believe that the inclusion of a tacked on multi player is the main reason why. I fear the same thing will happen to Dead Space 2.

      1. Totally dead-on about Bioshock 2. The single-player campaign is not bad, mind you, but it's just more of the same. The first one had the benefit of newness. No one knew what to expect. The sequel did not and I think it suffered a bout of mediocrity for it.

        -M

  3. As someone who generally doesn't enjoy online multiplayer modes, I hope that is not the case. There's room for great storytelling in games, and you can't do that in a deathmatch,

  4. A year ago, I would have agreed with this dude. Now, I find myself being more attracted to single player games.

    Batman AA is a good counter-point to his point.

    2. I'm willing to bet that they will tack on some kind of multi player for Batman: Arkham City.

      1. What… like Robin, Nightwing, or Batgirl?

        I could see the possibility.

        You know, last time I bought stuff at Gamestop, the guy at the counter asked me if I wanted to preorder anything (like they always do, it's kind of like the video game industry's version of "do you want to make that a combo meal"). I told him that there really wasn't anything coming out anytime soon that interested me and I'd have to see what E3 is talking about.

        At that point, he said "There's Batman: Arkham City, do you want to preorder that?"

        …

        I said "Dude, that game doesn't come out for almost a year. What the hell?"

      3. He didn't ask you if you wanted to pre-order Duke Nukem Forever as well? For shame. I hate it when Gamestop employees don't do their job.

        -M

    1. i agree smartguy but i just hope he got to take that photo and tried to play some co-op with that girl!

    1. Dang! You beat me to it. I did not read your post until after I posted my link below.

      Whoopsie.

      -M

  7. Sonofa… I hardly play co-op games with the exception of LBP, and that brief moment with RE5. I'll play fighting games and Castle Crashers with my husband Jeff too. I don't think MMO's should count. Blah. All I usually do for the most part is play single player games lol.

  8. I only play single player games, its very rare that I play multiplayer. If I had to break it down I'd say about 10% of my gaming is multiplayer in some form. I really dig going at my own pace and following my own agenda. I play games with people that have similar personality traits as me. N8R and BSU are my Rpad.tv gaming buddies, were as Tokz and I text each other fairly often about random shit on tv, music, sports, and zombie lol.

    Speaking of Zombies, Tokz proposed a question to me the other day. Is it considered necrophilia if you slay a hot zombie chick with your sword of destiny?

    1. wait… i don't remember talking to you about music! don't believe his lies!

      i can't believe you you chose that question over the other one we were talking about.

    2. Yes, it is necrophilia.

      What I want to know is if it is considered necrophilia or bestiality if the bitch is dead.

      2. "If the dead is alive" is a paradox.

        You referred to the walking dead as "the dead" because it is indeed dead, reanimated or not. Therefore necrophilia.

      4. the definition of "alive" is to be in existence and operation. We can fully agree that the zombie is indeed in existence due to the fact that we are discussing said zombie. The zombie is also in operation because it is moving and functioning. Like N8R said "reanimated." Therefore it is not necrophilia.

      5. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alive

        You reverenced the second definition, but above that, it says "not dead".

        By your referenced definition, a robot is alive, those perpetual motion balls that clack together are alive, and the internet is alive…. I disagree that any of those things are alive.

        Not to mention that in reality, zombies don't exist, nor are they in operation.

        Clinically speaking, tokz is more on the money. Lack of brain waves is what the doctors refer to as dead. They can simulate just about every other function of the human body except for brain waves. Your heart is merely to carry oxygen to your brain via the bloodstream and keep the brain active.

        This now raises a new question, are the zombies we're talking about the "Land of The Dead" type zombies who talk and stuff, or are they more the "Dawn of the Dead" type zombies who seem to only act on instincts?

        Basically, do zombies have brainwaves? This debate would be opinionated.

      7. haha you are right, I felt the second definition was more to my liking. lol. I propose that we create zombies for the purpose of studying them and settling this debate. Now we just have to figure out how to create zombies.

      8. are these the only zombies we can reference? the Land of the Dead or Dawn of the Dead ones? can we reference the Walking Dead series ones??

      10. Besides, I'm from Pittsburgh so my inclinations toward zombies automatically reference George Romero.

      11. Another question is exactly what kind of zombies are we talking about?

        Are we talking infected Resident Evil/28 Days Later type zombies? Or, are we talking a chick that was once a human being, died, was buried, and dug her way out of the ground in a reanimated corpse type fashion?

        The reanimated corpse type zombie… hands down necrophilia.

        The infected type is alot like bumpin' and grindin' with someone with M stage rabies. Doin' the deed with an M stage rabies victim (though VERY perverse) wouldn't be necrophilia, so neither would it be with the Resident Evil/28 Days Later type of zombie.

      12. technically they were not zombies in more recent examples such as 28 Days Later- they were infected with the rage virus. To be a zombie I believe you have to be reanimated postmortem. I.e. something like Frankenstein's monster- who did require a brain and an electrical shock to start the brain working again meaning that there were in all likelihood brain waves being emitted from his reanimated body.

      13. I suppose that's why he wanted a wife so bad.

        The question in the case of Frankenstein though is where did the other necessary body part for the act we're talking about come from? What if he has like a dead baby arm down there instead?

        In those new iterations (Zombieland is a good example) they are still referenced as zombies. That's why I asked.

        However, I've heard (but I'm not sure) that the actual word zombie comes from Japan and means "hopping corpse"… but I'm not sure about that etymology.

      15. @N8

        Good point. I was only thinking about the zombie being a girl, but if it was a guy in that scenario that is a whole other issue. Also, am assuming you were speaking literally about the dead baby arm down there…lmao. Unfortunately I haven't seen zombieland, so I am unable to comment on anything related to that movie. I'm unsure of what direction to go with in creating our zombies. Since we don't really know what we are doing we could just agree to use the first dead human that we get to become "alive" again.

        @Ray

        That looks pretty cool.

      19. I'm totally loving this conversation about making love to zombies. Can you guys do a minotaur/bestiality debate next? Pretty please.

        -M

      20. I'd rather have that debate over the Sphinx. My stance would be:

        If she's giving you head, no. If she's giving you tail, yes.

    3. @BB

      For it to be necrophilia the zombie would have to be an unanimated corpse. So I say it is just some guy who is jonesin bad.

  9. I like playing a lot of single player games, and that is what I grew up one. However, I do like playing games with other people sometimes too. Unnecessary co-op is annoying, there still aren't enough games that allow for local co-op, and I think that Portal 2 has the right idea when it comes to multiplayer. From what I have heard of this game (which I cannot wait for to come out sometime next year) is that there will be the regular single player story mode, but that when you play through with someone else there is a new storyline to play through that can only be accessed with someone else. That idea seems brilliant to me.

    Multiplayer still isn't always my favorite, but I do like playing Halo team slayer, and I don't have a ton of other friends who like that game around me- so online multiplayer is the only way to go with that. I suppose it is growing on me, but I am still not a huge fan of it simply because I don't want devs to think that it is more important than single player story mode.

  10. Ok, since no one has asked this by now, I'm just going to go ahead and say it:

    "Who is that girl and why the hell isn't she playing on her back?!"

    -M

  11. My problem with multiplayer is when it isn't a deathmatch. Friends (assholes) are so impatient or want to talk through dialogue. For example the first time I got to Ragnaros in WoW I had to turn off ventrilo to hear what he said. I still had to YouTube it to catch the beginning.

  12. there are some good deals on ps3 greatest hits games on amazon.

    i just picked up uncharted 2 goty edition for 34.99, well really 14.99 cuz i had a 20 credit from order black ops. i should get it sometime next week!

      2. It also looks like the drunk and Asian came out of Ray (I only do this out of love) and I quote "I film a bunch of stuff for you guys." lol.

      3. Either that was really racist or no one has seen this comment. If your offended I don't apologize :)

    1. … also Miami.

      I actually had a hot fudge sundae yesterday. It was a stupid move since it was cold outside (around 65; yes, that's freezing cold for down here), but man do I love me some ice cream.

      -M

      2. that does sound really good to me too, and it was 12 degrees here last night at about 7pm. I'm not sure what the low was. It's warmer than when I lived in Wisconsin though.

  15. Finally settled in my hotel in San Francisco. Man…I miss this town. The weather cooperated too! It was supposed to rain, but it ended up being reasonably warm.

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