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Take-Two CEO: We Never Believed Single-Player Games Were Dead Unlike Our Competitors

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick talks about single-player games, and states that he doesn't believe they're dead, contrary to their competitors.

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-Foxtrot405d ago

Lol

Yet all the money you make you don’t think they are worth meaty single player expansions anymore

GTA V Alien Invasion DLC or Undead Nightmare II / Cowboys Vs Aliens

--Onilink--404d ago

To be fair, even before multiplayer took over as much as it has now, single player expansions have rarely been huge sellers in most games. And even then the quality vs value is usually not there either, just look at 90% of SP expansions in Ubisoft games.

Even games like Doom Eternal or BotW had just decent expansions

-Foxtrot404d ago

I didn't really think they were anything special

Doom Eternal did a story quickly that should have been kept for the third game

Why rush a the big villain, the Dark Lord like that when he could have been fleshed out more.

Arkane Studios did the same thing with Dishonoured and the Outsider, a huge mysterious character wrapped up and explained in like 2 short DLC episodes.

FPS_D3TH404d ago (Edited 404d ago )

The GTA 4 expansions were all high scoring expansions though, same with undead nightmare. They were touted as must have dlcs and really set the bar for any expansion out there. Ubisoft and Bethesda aren’t exactly known for consistent fantastic expansions. Fallout 4 had maybe one must have dlc with the rest being fluff. I don’t really play ubisoft games to care about their dlcs but the Division 1 & 2 got ok dlcs. I don’t consider bethesda or ubisoft as a studio that delivers the same high quality as rockstar normally does (trilogy remakes being the exception), so I wouldn’t dismiss dlcs being potential big money makers for rockstar, especially considering the vocal crowd that’s been asking for such with gta 5 for a long time. I’d say it’s too late now, but GTAV would’ve made a buttload of cash on dlc just based on the sales figures alone for GtaV. Entire franchises don’t even sell as much as that on single game.

--Onilink--404d ago

True, though some of the expansions Rockstar has done are for the most part exceptions to the rule in regards to quality/value, that said, if I had to guess, those might be the reason for the lack of new expansions too. Good products require time and budget, and if those DLCs didnt meet whatever sales expectations they had, it could be the reason why they stopped doing them

DefenderOfDoom2404d ago

The first DLC for DOOM ETERNAL, Ancient God's part 1 is incredible. Beat DLC a year ago on ULTRA VIOLENCE and now trying to beat it on NIGHTMARE difficulty. 1 year later . ID SOFTWARE did it right. Plus they have been making Master Levels for free if you own DOOM ETERNAL. Some of ID SOFTWARE best work for Doom Eternal are in the DLC and Master Levels . I am still playing DOOM ETERNAL almost 2 years after release because of single player DLC.

dumahim404d ago

That's a good point. I almost never get expansion DLC stuff anymore. They're often so underwhelming and content for the price is usually a pretty poor ratio compared to the main game. About the only time I do get the DLC is if I'm buying the super, mega, deluxe edition of something for the extras and it comes with the season pass anyway.

FlavorLav01404d ago

Ghost of Tsushima expansion was great, Last of Us 1 had a great one, Uncharted Lost Legacy was another good one. Second Son: Dying Light was highly praised if I remember correctly. Bloodborne had one of my favorite DLC of all time. IMO I think it’s safe to say that Sony gets them right, where most others fall short on add-on single player content.

When done with a purpose and more story to tell, it can be great. Either shoe-horned in or carved out content from what should have been original game content is what we get instead these days by the likes of almost all EA, Ubisoft, SquareEnix,T2 “products”

Omegasyde404d ago

Dlc for Witcher 3 was phenomenal.

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 404d ago
Tapani404d ago

Don't be so entitled. They make great games that are very complete and long. They are not going to tick boxes for you, nor they should. If you want to make a game based on your ideas for an expansion, go and do it.

Crows90404d ago (Edited 404d ago )

How does he feel entitled? Who are they supposed to tick boxes for if not gamers? Games are geared towards gamers and therefore must tick whatever boxes are necessary for the concept. You're making it seem like devs know best...yet you forget it takes creativity to come up with ideas and that creativity can always come in the form of criticism. And devs don't always know best...otherwise all games would score 10/10

Tapani404d ago

@Crows90

You are contradicting yourself, and in doing so showing that you are not entirely familiar with a creative process. Creativity is not born out of a need for consumers, but a need for the creative individuals to create something. It is not about who knows the best and for who. Creative people have a need to create and they do this to satisfy this need rather than the end user. The latter is a bonus, but not a necessity, and in a creative process should never be the starting point.

Rebel_Scum404d ago

Not every Red Dead needs a undead nightmare expansion.

Outside_ofthe_Box405d ago

Have been sticking with GTAV(online) for 3 generations and not a single single-player dlc. . .

Nitrowolf2405d ago

take-two as a whole though has released a number of both single and multiplayer though
RDR2
Borderlands
Mafia
The Outer World
Tons more.

This isn't pertaining to only Rockstar, it's a company as a whole

locomorales404d ago

A lot of people thinks T2 is just Rockstar North.

UltraNova404d ago

Let's not forget them buying Zynga too. They definitely know where the money is at, they are just trying to appease their primary audience (SP gamers).

RaidenBlack405d ago

We just believe in our GTA Online

H9404d ago

I like how EA said this thing and everyone act like every company ever have said it

Zhipp404d ago (Edited 404d ago )

To be fair, that was a general sentiment expressed by industry big wigs for a time. I don't think Phil Spencer explicitely said they were dead, but I recall him questioning the value proposititon of single player games. Something changed over the course of last-gen that revived faith in single-player experiences and lead EA to greenlight Jedi: Fallen Order and M$ to invest tons of money in studios that focus on singleplayer content.

I personally give credit to the massive success of Sony titles like God of War and Spiderman, CDPR's The Witcher 3, and the huge fan backlash to EA's statement.

Unknown_Gamer5794404d ago

Phil has always been treated as though he has more credibility than he actually has. He’s the guy behind the brand that’s always been in last. In all fairness, I believe you’re right that Phil actually did believe that. For all the interviews he does, I’ve never gotten the sense that he’s ever been in touch with what is actually trending in the industry.

tehpees3404d ago

Single player game sales never actually declined in sales. The suits in charge of the big companies have found out it might be possible to constantly make money of the same game so want to opt to take the approach of extending the game's life instead of just selling the game as it is. The problem is the greed of the suits in the board room.

They have completely forgotten what many Indies actively know, as long as the game turns profit you are fine. AAA companies have forgotten simple rules because they get sidetracked by bigger numbers. They think you need to spend big to be big. They have lost all control of their budgets and are expecting consumers to do as they are told but the days are coming where they are fighting agaisnt the consumers instead.

Unknown_Gamer5794404d ago

I don’t even think EA actually believed that either, as there has always been overwhelming data to the contrary and I refuse to believe a large company like EA doesn’t have internet.

They’re just a trash company who saw that their single player titles were doing poorly, and decided to push a narrative that single player games were on the decline in the hopes that it would drive up sales of their multiplayer titles. They ended up on my game company boycott list pretty quickly after that, and stayed on there for quite a while.

hotnickles404d ago

They aren’t dead they just take a decade to make while you ring out all of the shark card money you can ha.

excaliburps404d ago

Well, sad to say, but it works for them. They can release one game per gen and still rake in the $$$.

hotnickles404d ago (Edited 404d ago )

It does. It doesn’t exactly make them the champion of SP games though. It’s like Hollywood making one good movie to fund all of the other crap nobody wants to watch.

rpvenom404d ago

Agreed. Very unfortunate.. hoping there will be a new GTA killer to compete and make them get their motivation back in order

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