Is Single Player Gaming Dying?

The indie scene always have some interesting games: SNKRX, Vampire Survivor, Factorio, Rimworld, ETS 2.

Recently I am wondering why I need a new video card - All I play is indie games these days.

Its not dying. Just unsubscribe to your usual big name game publications. Just browse the steam store front page. Literally hundreds are released everyday. Most are crap but there are few gems here and there.

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I wouldn’t say it’s dying but it’s definitely rough in the AAA space. Graphics seem to be the primary focus with content being secondary. It also depends on the genre as there are a lot of single player games available in the indie space but only if that appeals to you of course.

For me, I realize that my tastes have changed over the years where I now play RPGs, JRPGS and have even started dipping my toes into strategy games, something I never used to touch. From my school days I recall promptly returning some game called Age of Empires 2 I had borrowed from a friend asking him WTF is this SH*T! and also dissing a little know title called FF7 after playing a PC demo because I had to pick attacks from a menu…so yeh my tastes have changed drastically.

Similarly, I don’t really play multiplayer games often unless it’s coop with a friend. There are some titles I thought I would have liked but just never returned to like Division, Destiny and Monster Hunter. I also have my guilty pleasures that the masses hates like Far Cry for example but I primarily play these games solo almost never touching the multi player content.

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On the flip side… I brought a COD title the other year, to play a single player campaign, with some multiplayer, and ended up with a launcher for eight multiplayer games, in addition to the single player game I was vaguely interested in.
Even more fun, is I am forced to update the battle royal side I don’t play, because of the mass cheating, in order to play the single player bit I want.

Okay, I do play the multiplayer side, but not the battle royal fiasco, nor the other 3 main games in the launcher.

/rant 30:00 over…

Anyone got actual Legit complaints?

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Game publishers have been pushing this narrative for a long time because they see live services as a way to get people to keep paying them constantly in addition to the £60 (and now £70) up front. How’s that going?

Well just as one example with EA leading the crusade against single player story based games BioWare tried to make a Destiny clone and it absolutely bombed. Meanwhile another EA title, Jedi Fallen Order, was a pure single player game that sold astronomically and was pretty much universally loved. These two occurrences prompted BioWare – with EA’s blessing – to completely scrap Dragon Age 4 and remake it as a pure storybased single player game as opposed to the Live Service that was previously in development.

So no, single player is not going anywhere when even EA are backing away from this madness.

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I played the single player campaign of Call of Duty WWII which I got from Humble some years ago. After reading this, I went ahead and had a check on my steam library and saw a separate game entry for the multiplayer version and also a Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Dedicated server which I have absolutely no recollection of.

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I actually liked cod:mw3. spent about 100 hours single player, and about 1500/1700 mp/spec-ops in it.

I’m not against MP, or the franchise. just the forced nature, I guess. and added Ree.

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Don’t think so.

RPGs are still giving a lot of fun to players and they can be sold in many copies.

RTSs are back, adventure games, etc.

Even sport games can be played in SP.

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No, single player games aren’t dying.

They’re trying to be made obsolete, though.
The big publishing houses have been pushing the “no one wants single player games anymore” narrative for a bit over a decade and refused to publish things that people genuinely want, because it’s easier to monetize a multiplayer game by adding visual bling and “limited edition” stuff than it is a single player experience.

EA was proven to be an idiot in this regard after people wanted a single player story driven game and they said “no, no, no, no, no.” but after the most recent Star Wars Jedi single player thing they released was enormously successful and was beyond well received they were “Wow, we didn’t expect the response to be quite this overwhelming.”
[insert a barrage of insults aimed towards AAA publishers of your choice]

And they all seem to operate in this manner. They refuse to listen to the people that play the games, but listen to play testers and their gaming communities for feedback. Then invest hundreds of millions in a project only to become Fallout76 or some similar garbage.
Then along come small-ish studios that release Senua’s sacrifice, Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, Life is strange, Torchlight 2…and suddenly the industry is taken by storm at the uniqueness of these “simple” games.

I’ll give ID software and Bethesda a pass on this because the newest Wolfenstein series was outstanding and exactly what I’ve been waiting and hoping for. Also Prey was amazing. And there are more than a few other similar examples. There are also some of the other studios I didn’t mention because you get the idea.

/rant

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No.

Just dont by crappy AAA games. Lots of games are hitting the market that are single player in the indy and small dev areas.

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I think single players arent as much enjoyed anymore, lots of people started playing online a lot more making that much more profitable.

Looking at the most popular games throughout the years it is mostly single player games as well. Multiplayer games seem to be played more on twitch and stuff tho which might make it seem that multiplayer games are being played a lot more.

I have been playing mostly singleplayer games and was actually thinking of renewing PS+ for example since I barely play online but then they added the collection stuff which actually is a great deal tons of single player games to play now.

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False.

You are just buying into idea that the marketers put out there in the internet. The vast majority of actually good games with good gameplay are single player games. But that of course depends on how much you prioritize graphical fidelity and quality over gameplay.

Online games have a lot eye candy and glowing stuff to make you go ooohhh or aaahhh. Compare that to the absolute sh*t graphics SNKRX has. If you look at that game with graphics alone, no way you would even want to play it.

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Also a lot of peer pressure, shaming “Basic” players, who can’t convince their parents to buy “just” a $2 skin…

Nickle and dime them into the evil hooked ecosystem…

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I enjoyed counter strike. I dont mind games like that, that are solely multiplayer. Some of them are fabtastic such as siege and csgo. I also love runescape. On top of that the last single player game i played was skyrim. Im not really a fan of single player games anymore. I do like aoe campaigns. But after beating them what is the point to own it other than to play games against other players or your friends online?

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Can’t say I much like online games. Most of the time, the players I’ve encountered in online game worlds act like spoiled 10 year olds and totally ruin any sense of immersion. So even in MMOs, I usually end up playing solo off the beaten path. Frankly, I’d rather just mod Skyrim into something unrecognizable and totally new…

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I think there are a few jems that come by, but with micro transactions, and other ways to charge people monthly, it’s a hard thing to fight against.

I think the most original, immersive, and character driven game is one that flew under my radar… “Days Gone.”

I think RTS and 4X games still do well for single players, but most action and shooters are focused on online play.

A lot of single player games can be rehashed mechanics, over or under done characters etc. I will say Mass Effect Andromeda made me cry a little. I played it and held out hope… but the characters killed it for me.

I really hope as many game devs read this as possible… I am dying for a great single player game that checks all the boxes… Immersive, believable characters, unpredictable arc, some realism to ground it, good story, challenging yet fun.

Lately, I have found myself modding old games to have something to play (as @imrazor said).

I think my best MMO I played was EvE (with a good group of players), and custom built limited access servers for games like Ark, modded Arma the original Day Z lol. I may run one of these again one day now that I have a significant and reliable internet connection. I miss that kind of play and being on comms. Then again I’m not very social.

For now it seems the tempo of game releases (especially of AAA games) is still feeling the backlash of COVID. Much like the movie industry.

OH AND… Assassins Creed Valhalla… After Odessy it felt like a let down with so little interaction or tie in with the Isu. There is in a way with artifacts but thats it… The world also felt barren by compairison and I was walking riding forever to get places.

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Hear hear!

Ive been a high sec Unista carebear, did a few months in WH space and finally well full space-cartel 0.0… carebear full circle :rofl:. Ive participated in the last player record breaking event with TEST and Friends vs Goonswarm and friends. The game is like 40% voice comms, 30% metagaming (propaganda and the like) and 40% bad statistical data from excel spreadsheets. Its too much and too intense and a lot of dedication of time. I loved it all the same.

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Multiplayer gaming I would say is dying. Look at all the PVP games that keep getting shutdown or basically fade away because without the playerbase, its a DEAD game!

I think FO76 will shut down sometime soon also. Once the cash-cows leave that are paying for premium FO76 subs that is (there can’t be many)

If you want your Multiplayer game to last, don’t do a always online service that has private internal servers. LET people host their own servers (not host on a 3rd party).

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:+1:

for triple A titles.
i would say the single player experience is dying and has been since cod 4.
saying that its been a long drawn out painful death with many AAA titles just half-assing single player.
often with the end result that multiplayer sux too.

indi titles its very much alive im glad to say.

BF2042 will be the glorified example, of playerbase deathroll
Along with the [diabolical] “Pay-to-Play [properly]” tactics , within Diablo Immortals,
when it comes to eFFing with its target audience

Since you mentioned FO76… HowTF is FO76 [still] operating?

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