The incredible disappearing multiplayer

The gaming industry can sometimes seem to be in a slump; studios are closing left and right, high-profile games in previously successful series don’t sell as much as expected, and the budgets of games don’t seem to be going down. Something has to give, and it looks like that something is multiplayer.

[kparks]

Well this is not back in the old days when games had replay value or the campaign was over 15 hours.. If I'm going to be paying 60$ I wanna at least get my money's worth! Not just some 5-6 hour game..

[MilkMan]

I don't particularly care if the multiplayer goes away from every single title except competitive titles. The ones that have historically been designed from the ground up to be that way. Gears, Halo, COD, Battlefield.

Coop play in titles that make sense to have it. NOT Mass Effect (or God of War), but Army of Two or Ghost Recon for example, is always welcomed because there are gamers that do not wish to run around shooting each other, but instead want to experience the campaign with a buddy, like being in a movie.

Tacked on multiplayer is an incredible waste of resources, no matter if the money came from capital budget or auxiliary, SOMEONE has to pay for it and money's must be recouped.

TO say nothing of the massive amounts of moneys waste on trying to "out-do" Worlds of Warcraft. Its no wonder dev teams and entire publishing houses are closing.

If you present more fantastic single player games, maybe this will educate today's younger gamers as to its worth.
There are entire legions of gamers that buy anything with multiplayer and never play the single play game.

This industry makes money, but it is pigeon holed to a few major titles, and the message is EVERYONE WANTS MULTIPLAYER.
This is not the case.

Spread the money more evenly, and the message will be clear. "We like different kinds of games, innovative games, games that make us think, puzzlers, shooters, rpg's and so one. Please stop hurting a potential great game by adding what you think we all want. Look at what made these games great in the beginning and take note."

[Baka-akaB]

Still imo you are using truly bad example or tacked on multiplayer . ME3 , GoW-A are rather good in mp , moreso than feared and expected .

While we had to put up with horrible stuff like Deadspace 2 mp very recently .

And at least God of war (or uncharted) didnt suffer one iota in their development from the added mp

[MaverickStar7]

I think part of the problem is people assume those that play games like a variety of games, and that just not true. Gaming hit a surge with with Xbox live, Halo 3, and COD4. And that has turned a large portion of the market into the COD crowd. All they care about is COD or another similar online shooter. They don't care about Skyrim or Mass Effect. They might buy the yearly Madden, and that's about it. I'm in my 30's. Gaming since Atari 2600. I love the variety. All my friends however...COD and Halo. That's it. If I tell them about a game they ask "does it have online?". Just look around at all the youtuber and cod esports stuff going on. There are many great single player games to choose from already, and that crowd doesn't care. That's the crowd many devs chase. So many great games only sell a few million copies while COD sells 25 million a copy. Not because it the best game, but because thats all that extra 20 million care about. Not everyone who plays games is a gamer with well rounded interests.

[MilkMan]

Couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you for this post.

[TheTwelve]

100% agreed, Milkman. I've bought and enjoyed Far Cry 3, Mass Effect 3, God of War Ascension and the new Lara Croft and have literally never even opened up the multiplayer in any of those games.

12

[dangerousjo33]

thats a good thing b/c more ppl are playing more driven rpg type games

[Gimmemorebubblez]

@dangerousjo33
You look dangerous!
**********************
Just joking!

[greenpowerz]

Somebody with a babyface that looks happy looks dangerous?

Gotta report this comment.

[Gimmemorebubblez]

For heavens sake DANGEROUSjo33,(Dangerous hint,hint) in the picture you look like a nice person thats why I said JUST JOKING. If it offended anyone I am sincerely sorry.

[dangerousjo33]

lol thanks i been working on my dangerous face lol jk

[gamerz]

Online Passes.

[Roccetarius]

I'm less likely to buy games with tacked on MP, so this is only good news for me.

[dumahim]

Like others, I don't really care that multiplayer is disappearing. What I would like to see is, more co-op.

I play games to relax, and competitive multiplayer just isn't for me anymore. Been there, done that. But I still love playing through games with friends. Something like Borderlands. I thought FarCry 3 would do it like that, but it wound up being a bit of a joke. I REALLY hope Just Cause 3 includes some campaign co-op like the PC modders managed to do. The game can be so fun even by yourself, adding a friend or three could make it even better.

[medman]

I will always prefer a great single player experience over a great multiplayer experience. A fantastic story that draws the player in cannot be matched by some fragfest online with no character development. Not to mention the annoyance of having to deal with cowardly fake tommy toughguy racists, cheaters, glitchers, whiners, glitchers, etc. etc. No thanks.

[MaverickStar7]

I'm happy if multiplayer leaves on some games. Just like I can do without some co-op modes or horde style modes. I know devs do it to keep their game relevant in the market longer. I at least applaud them for trying new things. I just wish they would put that effort into adding more to the single player. Give us a reason to play it more than once through. Or add more variety, exploring, and side quests to games. I already put a crap ton of hours into COD and Battlefield, I go to Tomb Raider to explore and solve puzzles.

[muffinbutton]

id much rather play a game like final fantasy 7 with well over 50 hours and a great story than to play call of duty

[MysticStrummer]

lol So multiplayer is disappearing now? I've seen many articles that say the same about single player. Dammit what will we do?

[HonestDragon]

Great read. I agree that multiplayer isn't needed for every game. There are times when it is blatant that it's tacked on, but other times when it's there just for the sake of it. Thankfully, many people have realized how costly adding the feature can be. In effect, it makes it that much harder to break even and earn a profit from what you spent to make it. There are quite a few good multiplayer games, but seeing that developers and publishers are finally understanding that it just doesn't work for everything gives the industry more flexibility with their titles and projects.

[-Gespenst-]

Honestly I'd be okay with that. Most games suffer in the single player department because of the online multiplayer component. What needs to be reintroduced is splitscreen offline multiplayer. I mean obviously CoD has it, but there are so many games that just forgo it and it's really annoying. I was going to buy Farcry 3 until I realised it didn't have offline splitscreen multiplayer.

[Hicken]

Pretty certain it's the other way around, since traditionally single player games like God of War are now adopting multiplayer.