Single Player And Multiplayer Begin To Merge

[Marutia Ortia]

Games traditionally feature both single player and multiplayer as separate entities. With the rise to prominence of PSN and Xbox Live, the two modes have been competing with each other. Underwhelming multiplayer in strong single player experiences and lacking single player gameplay in exciting multiplayer focused games were all too common in recent years.

 

At last year's E3, there was a clear tide shift in the game industry as the two modes began to harmonize. Destiny, The Division and Watch Dogs offered glimpses into games that acted like MMOs with players in huge connected worlds and raids, but all with the polish and mechanics of a top-tier AAA action game.

 

While The Division may not end up hitting until 2015, expect to see more and more games that are both announced and released featuring this melding of single player and multiplayer. It's another way to effectively make games "always-online." Do you think that this is the future of games development?

[Bomb Bloke]

Decent multiplayer still requires decent online services. That means reliable servers, and lots of them. Many larger companies feel they can provide them, buuuut... they're usually proven wrong, and I don't think we'll be seeing many smaller development studios jumping into "always online" any time soon.

 

Frankly, online requirements just annoy people. A recent example would be the latest Sim City. Having online features shoveled into a game isn't a bad thing (like eg unlocks that are handed out when X amount of players reach a certain goal), but making the game rely on those elements is.

 

(Granted, Sim City didn't "rely" on internet access for gameplay purposes so much as "because EA said so", but if something can be done in single-player, then that's often how players will want to be able to play it.)

[Kret]

Not only do they require reliable servers, but many of us can't really rely on our own ISP nor the country nodes to be reliable. It's understandable that the multiplayer component will not work if any of the mentioned factors fail, but not so much when you want to play single player.

 

The crossover of the multiplayer and single player experience seems like a nice innovation, but it should be treated as a extra for the consumer, not a way to force always online for the single player experience. If it is the future of game development, then it is a future I dislike.