Are single-player only games on the verge of becoming extinct?

CVG:On this week's mailbox we've got a letter from Robert King from Tipperary, Ireland, who is worried that single-player games might soon go the way of the dinosaur.

[NYC_Gamer]

It's painful but the days of single player only games are dead..Publishers feel they have to add some type of social/online mode to every franchise in this age.

[iamnsuperman]

I agree with you. Publishers are always out there to try to tick all the boxes and multiplayer is now one of those important boxes. I think single player will be in games merely to tick the box which is a shame because I prefer single player

[hennessey86]

Multi player is great, but I still love single player games and I won't buy a game if its multi player only.

[Bigpappy]

No!

[jc48573]

No!

[psp2roundup]

Games developers are dead if they slavishly follow trends or publisher demands. Create the game, if it needs MP then add it, if not leave well alone.

[banjadude]

Future EA Games may be so; they want all their new games to have some form of multiplayer :/

[TheFirstClassic]

We need more games like Demon's Souls, where the single player and multiplayer kind of merge together, might be hard to pull of tho.

[camel_toad]

Amen - and I'm not religious.

[prototypeknuckles]

LETS HOPE NOT, i dont play multiplayer now not because its bad but because theres no story or end to it, i play games for not only gameplay but story and characters, thats why i love games like prince of persia, ratchet and clank, sly cooper or beyond good and evil

[ChunkyLover53]

Indeed, I suspect just about every game next generation will offer some sort of online aspect. The thing is, a lot of people will only buy a game if it has some online ability, that way they feel like they really get their money's worth.

I've known people to skip out on really great games because they lacked a multiplayer element.

[ironcreed]

Yes, mindless kill, die, respawn multiplayer is the only way to go! I mean, who actually wants to sit down at night in the dark and get immersed in a nice long campaign where you actually feel like your taking part in something in order to get a sense of satisfaction from reaching the conclusion? Sarcasm aside, that is what it has always been about for me and always will be. The day they stop making single player campaigns is the day I just find a new hobby.

[2pacalypsenow]

ugh i hate the social media age

[Kopite_2020]

In a word no

[Gen0ne]

Nope

[Treian]

Not at all.

[SolidDuck]

There will always be your single player games especially rpg's like fallout, skyrim, dragon age, dragon's dogma, darkaiders 2, and so on. A lot of action adventure games have added MP, but so what. Was uncharted 2 worse than 1 cause they added MP. Or assassins creed. No they were not. The single player portions of those games are still great. I think its a non issue.

[RickHiggity]

Big publishers may just be trying to compete with call of duty by producing mostly MP games. But if skyrim has taught us anything, it's that single player games won't be going anywhere for a while.

[Ogygian]

No they're not. Economics dictates that where there are potential consumers there will be suppliers, ignoring government intervention.
If the large number SP only consumers are forced to buy games with an MP element, then the cost of the MP element is wasted cash, which could have been spent on gaining more sales from the SP only market by polishing the SP experience.
The gaming industry is full of too many sensationalists who think that anything rising in popularity will completely and utterly replace everything else. If you listen to the gaming companies, you'd be forgiven for thinking that we'll all be playing free to play Iphone MMOs about 21st century warfare.
The truth, however, is that it's hard to predict how big a rising market will grow. There have been growing single player PC and console gamer markets for the last 40 years. That's not going to go away because of some 2013 fad.

Not only that, but we all know that the real long term destination of video games is VR Single Player and Multiplayer games, with the former having AI capable of passing the Turing Test.

[topekomsi]

Ask me 3 months ago and i would have said "yes definitely" , but after playing games like gravity rush, uncharted golden abyss, unit 13, soundshapes, puddle, escape plan and those are just for my vita.

[urwifeminder]

These days if your game doesnt have multi it is forgotten really fast devs are just trying to get the game to not be over in a week or ten hours.

[ShaunCameron]

Basically (online) multiplayer is the new difficult for difficulty's sake to boost the game's length and supposed worth.

[optimus]

I don't think they are; quite the contrary, i think they're gaining ground once again... Multiplayer is popular now because broadband is cheaper than when it 1st started. Nintendo would lose a lot of money in their systems seeing as how their biggest sellers tend to be single player games. I think everything happens in cycles, there was a time when the market was flooded with fighting games, then driving games had their turn, as did the survival horror types, now it's multiplayer...

all it takes is 1 or 2 single player games to break sales records and take the world by storm and you'll see developers focus their efforts on creating single player games once again... there are a handful of single player games just around the corner that may do just that. ;)

[Tyre]

Sp games are alive and well, stop fear mongering. Mp only sucks. Most people play the games for the SP first and then enjoy the mp. SPs are just starting to get interesting, where is ur head at?