Videogames
So there has been a lot of debate recently about single player games dying,And honestly I'm a bit worried too.
You see, lots of AAA 3rd party developers are focusing mainly on making online games because they make them more money.
We can't really blame them.
The fact about multiplayer games are that it brings people together,you have to buy your own damm copy of the game,you can't borrow it from your friend,
that obviously means more sales.
An always online subscription means more money for the developers through the dedicated servers they create.
Most importantly they can roll out a small size updates frequently for that game without meaning to focus on a large,new creative projects.
The developers and publishers such as Electronic arts-once an iconic video game company,now just a money minded corporate industry
have been following the same trends this generation.And more publishers like Ubisoft and Microsoft are focusing on that too.
I'm not saying multiplayer games or games as a service are bad,in fact its quite a blast and there's no such fun as cruising around,shooting other people in the head with your friends.
The problem is that the whole creativity and innovation which video games were once popular for has been lost .
The whole perspective has changed.
I started playing video games because for me it was an art.
Art of incredible story telling,soundtrack and innovative game play.
As of this generation,video games are just a form of entertainment and it hurts me.
Of course it's a polarizing thing to talk about.
We can't really blame the developers as the cost of making a single player video game in this generation is a lot and if the sales chart has been any indication,
it has been disappointing for the poor 3rd party developers.
Let's look at Bethesda softworks.
A company still very much dedicated towards developing old school full fledged single player games such as Wolfeinstein,The evil within and Dishonored.
All the three games have been positively received, in fact they are some of the very few video games this generation that are actually worth praising.
But the catch? Their sales have been shockingly low.
And who's responsible for this? Us gamers.
We caused this.
You see all the titles I mentioned above are linear story driven adventures that generally has a 10-12 hours of gameplay.
No one in their right mind would spend 60 bucks or more for this small amount of entertainment,entertainment yes.
Even I didn't.
I waited for a deep deep sale before I bought these games.
We all want quantity over quality and this is why multiplayer games and the open world genre has been thriving which I'll get to later.
So what to do?
Sooner or later,Companies like Bethesda too will start focusing on quantity over quality;making multiplayer games,
in fact they even have started with the likes of Fallout 76 and we caused this.
EA recently closed visceral game studios which was supposed to be working on a linear action adventure Star wars game.
Amy hemings the mind behind the Uncharted series recently went independent and confessed in an interview
about how its difficult to make profit through single player games nowadays for
3rd party developers.
And its a huge disappointment to see such incredible minds forced not to work on the projects they want to because of the market shift right now.
Now all I have talked about is the conditions of the 3rd party developers.
The first party publishers like Sony continues to make good quality single players games such as God of war,Horizon zero dawn,etc and hopeful as I'm will continue to do so.
But what about 3rd party developers? Well they just have to start following the "Rockstar's" formula.
Rockstar games are one of the best and perhaps the smartest of developers in video game industry as of now.
They have continued to produce quality games and will obviously continue to do.
What's interesting is that they too have been focusing on online content and a lot lately.
But only after they have milked out a good hefty amount of single player content for a game.
I'm talking about the Grand theft auto V,the highest selling entertainment product in history.
That game is incredible.
After you finish its lengthy single player campaign which lasts around 30-35 hours,you're given the opportunity to go online.
And its a completely different world out there.
I don't generally play online games,in fact GTA online and The divison are the only ones I have played in recent years but man do I enjoy GTA Online?
There's just so so much things to be done there.I'm not surprised that I enjoy it more than the single player campaign.
It's great.
In an recent interview,Take-Two(Rockstar game's parent company) CEO Strauss Zelnick said that single player games are not dead.
Speaking to "Gamesbeat" he said that appreciates single player games with strong characters and stories.
"Historically, in entertainment, people take positions like that, but there are also people saying that it won’t work if it’s not a free-to-play battle royale," said Zelnick. "People really are saying that, and not even tongue-in-cheek. I don’t buy that. Single-player, in my opinion, is not dead, not even close. Companies that feel like they’ll just avoid the hard work of building a story and characters and go right to where the money is in multiplayer, I don’t think that’s going to work. I’d be surprised."
It just shows how smartly Rockstar games have been planning everything.
They release a good quality single player game and support it with an ever growing multiplayer content.
And let's take a moment to reflect upon the fact all the DLC's released for the game have been completely free.
No paid expansions,not a single one has been released.
I have been playing GTA Online since 2014,first on the ps3 version and now on the PC.
It has been 4 years since Rockstar games have been supporting the game with free updates.
Who else does that?
This is the most efficient way to handel the situation.
There has been two Destiny games,two The Divsion games(one is upcoming),two Star wars battlefront games and countless paid expansions for these games.
And who has earned the most money out of this?
I believe its Rockstar games.
Both the consumers and the developers are in profit here.
CD projekt RED,the studio behind one of the best role playing game of this generation,The Witcher 3 are probably gonna follow the same trend with their upcoming game
Cyberpunk 2077,as they have confirmed that the game will have multiplayer content but the single player campaign is the first priority.
Let's imagine a world where every developer follows this trend.
There won't be any conflict between the single player and the multiplayer genre.
And videogames will cease to exist not only as a medium of art but also as a medium of entertainment.
Single player and multiplayer video games could work together if they follows Rockstar games ideology..
So there has been a lot of debate recently about single player games dying,And honestly I'm a bit worried too.
You see, lots of AAA 3rd party developers are focusing mainly on making online games because they make them more money.
We can't really blame them.
The fact about multiplayer games are that it brings people together,you have to buy your own damm copy of the game,you can't borrow it from your friend,
that obviously means more sales.
An always online subscription means more money for the developers through the dedicated servers they create.
Most importantly they can roll out a small size updates frequently for that game without meaning to focus on a large,new creative projects.
The developers and publishers such as Electronic arts-once an iconic video game company,now just a money minded corporate industry
have been following the same trends this generation.And more publishers like Ubisoft and Microsoft are focusing on that too.
I'm not saying multiplayer games or games as a service are bad,in fact its quite a blast and there's no such fun as cruising around,shooting other people in the head with your friends.
The problem is that the whole creativity and innovation which video games were once popular for has been lost .
The whole perspective has changed.
I started playing video games because for me it was an art.
Art of incredible story telling,soundtrack and innovative game play.
As of this generation,video games are just a form of entertainment and it hurts me.
Of course it's a polarizing thing to talk about.
We can't really blame the developers as the cost of making a single player video game in this generation is a lot and if the sales chart has been any indication,
it has been disappointing for the poor 3rd party developers.
Let's look at Bethesda softworks.
A company still very much dedicated towards developing old school full fledged single player games such as Wolfeinstein,The evil within and Dishonored.
All the three games have been positively received, in fact they are some of the very few video games this generation that are actually worth praising.
But the catch? Their sales have been shockingly low.
And who's responsible for this? Us gamers.
We caused this.
You see all the titles I mentioned above are linear story driven adventures that generally has a 10-12 hours of gameplay.
No one in their right mind would spend 60 bucks or more for this small amount of entertainment,entertainment yes.
Even I didn't.
I waited for a deep deep sale before I bought these games.
We all want quantity over quality and this is why multiplayer games and the open world genre has been thriving which I'll get to later.
So what to do?
Sooner or later,Companies like Bethesda too will start focusing on quantity over quality;making multiplayer games,
in fact they even have started with the likes of Fallout 76 and we caused this.
EA recently closed visceral game studios which was supposed to be working on a linear action adventure Star wars game.
Amy hemings the mind behind the Uncharted series recently went independent and confessed in an interview
about how its difficult to make profit through single player games nowadays for
3rd party developers.
And its a huge disappointment to see such incredible minds forced not to work on the projects they want to because of the market shift right now.
Now all I have talked about is the conditions of the 3rd party developers.
The first party publishers like Sony continues to make good quality single players games such as God of war,Horizon zero dawn,etc and hopeful as I'm will continue to do so.
But what about 3rd party developers? Well they just have to start following the "Rockstar's" formula.
Rockstar games are one of the best and perhaps the smartest of developers in video game industry as of now.
They have continued to produce quality games and will obviously continue to do.
What's interesting is that they too have been focusing on online content and a lot lately.
But only after they have milked out a good hefty amount of single player content for a game.
I'm talking about the Grand theft auto V,the highest selling entertainment product in history.
That game is incredible.
After you finish its lengthy single player campaign which lasts around 30-35 hours,you're given the opportunity to go online.
And its a completely different world out there.
I don't generally play online games,in fact GTA online and The divison are the only ones I have played in recent years but man do I enjoy GTA Online?
There's just so so much things to be done there.I'm not surprised that I enjoy it more than the single player campaign.
It's great.
In an recent interview,Take-Two(Rockstar game's parent company) CEO Strauss Zelnick said that single player games are not dead.
Speaking to "Gamesbeat" he said that appreciates single player games with strong characters and stories.
"Historically, in entertainment, people take positions like that, but there are also people saying that it won’t work if it’s not a free-to-play battle royale," said Zelnick. "People really are saying that, and not even tongue-in-cheek. I don’t buy that. Single-player, in my opinion, is not dead, not even close. Companies that feel like they’ll just avoid the hard work of building a story and characters and go right to where the money is in multiplayer, I don’t think that’s going to work. I’d be surprised."
It just shows how smartly Rockstar games have been planning everything.
They release a good quality single player game and support it with an ever growing multiplayer content.
And let's take a moment to reflect upon the fact all the DLC's released for the game have been completely free.
No paid expansions,not a single one has been released.
I have been playing GTA Online since 2014,first on the ps3 version and now on the PC.
It has been 4 years since Rockstar games have been supporting the game with free updates.
Who else does that?
This is the most efficient way to handel the situation.
There has been two Destiny games,two The Divsion games(one is upcoming),two Star wars battlefront games and countless paid expansions for these games.
And who has earned the most money out of this?
I believe its Rockstar games.
Both the consumers and the developers are in profit here.
CD projekt RED,the studio behind one of the best role playing game of this generation,The Witcher 3 are probably gonna follow the same trend with their upcoming game
Cyberpunk 2077,as they have confirmed that the game will have multiplayer content but the single player campaign is the first priority.
Let's imagine a world where every developer follows this trend.
There won't be any conflict between the single player and the multiplayer genre.
And videogames will cease to exist not only as a medium of art but also as a medium of entertainment.
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