Single Player Games : Why It’s Going Strong And Won’t Die Out In The Near Future

Are single player games heading to oblivion? In an interview with Eurogamer, Infogrames & Atari boss Phil Harrison said, “I don’t think the industry is going to make many more of those [single player games]. It’s just to recognize [that] the industry is changing, and the role we play as creators and publishers has to reflect those changes. I don’t think I’m alone in having those views either.” So, this begs the question, is it the end of an era of single player games?

But how exactly would you define single player games? If it has some online multiplayer elements, does it not warrant to be a single player game? In the truest sense of the term, yes, I think that massively single player games are in for a hard time. Sure, there are huge blockbuster hits such as The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion, Half Life 2, Bioshock and Mass Effect, but even these games have online features because they offer downloadable content. Huge single player games are a risky investment to undertake and study shows that games with online multiplayer elements sell twice as much as those which do not.

As technology progresses, our view of a single player game changes. In the early days of the ’90s, nobody would have thought of online co-op campaign, but won’t you consider games like Gears of War (which has an excellent co-op mode) and GTA IV single player?  Just so that a computer AI is replaced by your friend doesn’t necessarily mean the game is not single player.

So, no, single player games aren’t dying out. It’s just going through a development phase with more games being released as episodic content and have a degree of online interactivity to theme. Single player games are by their very nature, finite pieces of entertainment, and having extra content later on and the ability to share the fun with your buddy is a welcome addition. Phil Harrison was right in saying, “I just don’t think consumers want to be playing games that don’t have some kind of network interactivity to them, or some kind of community embedded in them, or some kind of extension available through downloadable content.” He just summarized what I have said. 🙂