Much of the industry will tell us that single-player games are dead, disappearing, or increasingly unfeasible for companies to justify continuing to invest in them, although they don’t justify hits like Zelda or The Last of Us.
However, one industry veteran, speaking, spoke to Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley, saying single-player games are not dead and it is true that multiplayer titles are largely more successful, but that games single player will follow.
Statements by Industry Professionals
Jason Kingsley says: โI think people are desperately trying to figure out how to get more money from those who are willing to pay more. And I think today is something that dominates the news, although I’m sure companies will never stop making single-player video games.”
“I want my works to be played, to be enjoyed, to be reflected upon, and to be enjoyed again,” explain the founders of Rebellion, who have not hesitated to analyze the current state of the video game industry. โIt is a very changing industry, fads come and go. If you look at free to play games, a lot of people bet on them but there were also those who said, ‘Oh, actually, we don’t like them that much.’ And then we switched to virtual reality, and now they are the loot boxes โ.
“The thing is, the industry is incredibly dynamic, think about how far we’ve come in the past 25 years.”
“If developing a game costs 100 million and you sell five million copies for $ 40, the numbers just don’t add up. So what should big companies do to keep investors happy? โ
Conclusion
I think I agree with him, and after all, this year alone, we’ve had Horizon: Zero Dawn, NieR Automata, Witcher 3, Nioh, Persona 5, Super Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Assassin’s Creed Origins and Oddysey, and by, Of course, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as big-name single-player games that succeeded, I don’t think single-player games are about to go away. With all of these blockbuster titles, the offline game industry has never been more praised and reached jaw-dropping heights as it has these few years ago. We have no idea where producers and investors have gotten the idea that these games aren’t making money, just look at the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt release that sold over 30 million copies across all platforms. Just makes you think what kind of sales will CD Projects next game, Cyberpunk 2077 will have. With the marketing and hype that is surrounding this offline game, we are optimistic and can say that we have an unreleased hit and game of the year, perhaps decade on our hands.