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?
