GRcade

Amy Henig also adds her voice to the growing number of industry bods questioning the validity of single player experiences, despite that last year saw some of the best and most popular single player games released in HZD, BotW, Mario Odyssey, Nioh, Nice Automata etc.

What is it with this growing narrative from the AAA industry to downplay single player games while openly, and in some cases, aggressively defend the need for loot boxes etc because of "rising development costs"?

It you make good games then people will buy them, whether single player or multi-player.


http://www.mcvuk.com/articles/developme ... if-they-ca

Amy Hennig wrote:"If it costs you, say, $100 million or more to make a game, how are you making that money back, and making a profit?"

Noones forcing you to spend $100 million to make a game, if you cant make a profit at that then spend less making the game, be realistic in what your game is likely to sell and set the budget accordingly. Screwing the consumer at every oppertunity is clearly not working.

Amy Hennig wrote:"Why would anybody buy this if they can just watch somebody play it?”

Why would anyone play a game ever, why not just go to the movies. Its because games are interactive, they give you something that movies cant, if your game is good enough as a game then people will buy it and play it.

The movie and music industries fought downloading for years until they realised that Netflix, Spotify and their ilk were here to stay and they were the way forward. Instead of fighting the steamers, find a way for everyone to be happy with it. I doubt many sales are lost because someone streams your game, instinctively it would have to heighten interest, if youve just wantched someone play through a game and they had a good time with it then youre more likely to buy it, not less. Makes no sense to say that streaming out a game means noone will buy, its not a movie its designed to be experienced, not just watched, if your game is just as good when someone watches it being played then maybe your game is the problem and you need to make a more compelling interactive experience, just a thought.

Her forte is clearly story so I can kind of see her point, why go see a film when you already know the plot. That starts to fall down when you consider watching someone stream a game or talk about it selling you on it so you go buy it yourself. Also, if it’s fun to play people will want to play it not just watch it.

As for the viability of single player games, it’s difficult to comment against people in the industry. I’d be interested to see Bethesda’s financials for the past few years though. They’re marketing themselves as the saviour of traditional gaming a bit recently. Having picked up and played Wolfenstein 2, Evil Within 2 and Prey 2 over the last year and thoroughly enjoyed all of them, I’d be keen to know if they’re being financially rewarded for this stellar output.

That's like asking why would anyone play football if they can just watch it on TV.
Ok, so I know all the basic mission structures in Assassins Creed Origins but that hasn't stopped me playing it and hugely enjoying it anyway.

Considering 2 of the most anticipated games for the PS4 are Days Gone and Last of Us 2 I'm unsure why single player content is being so downplayed.

the eponymous bollock wrote:it’s difficult to comment against people in the industry.

Not if what they're saying is clearly silly.

It's going to be interesting to see what these people say when the end of year results are out and single player games like Mario, Zelda, Horizon and the new Assassins Creed are doing so well despite the so called death of single player.
Single player will never die and will always see a resurgence as new styles come into fashion.

Preezy wrote:

the eponymous bollock wrote:it’s difficult to comment against people in the industry.

Not if what they're saying is clearly silly.

"Read the TV guide, you don't need a TV."

Grandad, The Lost Boys.

Rax wrote:if your game is just as good when someone watches it being played then maybe your game is the problem and you need to make a more compelling interactive experience, just a thought.

This. If you make a MUH FEELS linear walking simulator with no real interaction then there is little difference. I felt that way about Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.

I've picked up a few games or intend to get some because I've seen Pedz stream them. Games I wouldn't have otherwise.

I'm triggered why a thread was made about a pleb expressing a plebite opinion.

Nintendo seem to have lots of medium-sized, middling-budget teams working on steadily outputting a variety of games, which sometimes don't push the most polies that have ever been pushed but are always well-polished and good fun. If some particular game isn't a smash hit, it won't sink the entire corporation.

I know it's not exactly the same as they manufacture hardware and have second-parties too - and God knows Nintendo have their own problems, like still not really 'getting' online a decade after it became an essential feature - but it seems like a good model for the industry to look towards.

I probably wouldn't buy a single player game if I'd watched it streamed all the way through, but then I don't see the point in watching a stream like that and wouldn't do it. I like my games to be unspoiled.

I don't have enough free time to play games myself, I'm not going to waste what little time I do have watching someone else play a game!

I don't mind the concept of streaming generally, and I know some people do some interesting things with it - but it's not for me I don't think.

+1 to the not watching game streaming crowd. So at least I'm not a part of the problem? There's no denying how big game streaming is though, and I'm pretty ignorant on how it affects the industry. How is that even measured?

If you come into video games from a narratology perspective then streaming is a massive problem as it does let people watch what is the main focus of the game. If you're coming from a ludology background however then streaming is an excellent thing because you are sharing the act of playing and creating interest in that game play.
The question of streaming being good or bad for the industry can really be boiled down to that. For writers like Hennig it is something that completely goes against her interest of writing a narrative experience.

It's because of game streaming I bought PUBG, a game I have no poured more than 300 hours into. This reminds me of the time Jimmy Kimmel said people who watch other people play games are dumb.

Brerlappin wrote:

Photek wrote:I'm triggered why a thread was made about a pleb expressing a plebite opinion.

Did you just call one of the best videogame script writers in the industry a pleb?

Anyway, i know its old man yells at cloud territory, but i will never, ever, understand the appeal of streaming. Let me sit at my computer/console and watch someone else play videogames and listen to them try and be shitty comedians while they do it. Nah im good fam.

I've only ever watched Let's Plays but sometimes it's interesting to see as they will show you how to get some Easter egg you might not have known about, or talk about some interesting detail of the game that you would have never known about otherwise.

At any rate, those things are the whole reason I got into Metal Gear Solid, I would have never bought the games had I not watched the Let's Plays first.

Isn't You Tube more of a thing for watching narrative focussed games? You'd have to be pretty flexible to watch someone stream a game from beginning to end.

The point being that YouTube has been big for ages and it hasn't hurt story driven games.

Hyperion wrote:I probably wouldn't buy a single player game if I'd watched it streamed all the way through, but then I don't see the point in watching a stream like that and wouldn't do it. I like my games to be unspoiled.

Exactly.

Don’t see the point of watching linear single player games. I’d probably watch like a few minutes of a open world single player game just to see how it looks.

Bizarre statement though as streaming and let’s play has actually done wonders for games that nobody has ever heard about, so there’s plenty of other stuff in the industry that she could have moaned about.

Games like cuphead and PUBG wouldn’t be as successful without the streams.

PES Fan wrote:

Hyperion wrote:I probably wouldn't buy a single player game if I'd watched it streamed all the way through, but then I don't see the point in watching a stream like that and wouldn't do it. I like my games to be unspoiled.

Exactly.

Don’t see the point of watching linear single player games. I’d probably watch like a few minutes of a open world single player game just to see how it looks.

Bizarre statement though as streaming and let’s play has actually done wonders for games that nobody has ever heard about, so there’s plenty of other stuff in the industry that she could have moaned about.

Games like cuphead and PUBG wouldn’t be as successful without the streams.

Kinda seemed to me like her career has stagnated due to some unfortunate decisions out of her control and she’s decided streaming is to blame.


I would have to see hard numbers backing up a decline single player games sales to believe that’s actually happening. In reality, the shift is because the big companies have realised online multiplayer games are far more profitable because they’ve figured out ways to keep making more money from players.