EA's Frank Gibeau Has No Interest in Releasing Single Player-Only Games

[Tharic-Nar]

With comments made in a preview document for the upcoming CloudGamingUSA conference, EA Labels' President Frank Gibeau has stated that he hasn't green-lit a single game that doesn't have an online component. He further states, "Today, all of our games include online applications and digital services that make them live 24/7/365."

You can read the rest of our post and discuss here.

 

[madmat]

Don't most of the games you mention have multiplayer mode? If they do they're not single player only games. Even if they're not multiplayer in campaign mode, they still have a multiplayer component to them.

 

[Rob Williams]

That is all you have to say about this very interesting subject? To call me out on my error?

MP3 is the only one there with an MP component, but unlike most games, SP came first in that game, not second, and it shows.

 

[madmat]

I'm just pointing out that while they say no single player only games it doesn't mean the death of single player. It probably means that they'll all have some element of multiplayer whether it's just TDM, DM, CTF and CO-OP on top of campaign mode or something more like L4D with it's CO-OP only format that substitutes bots for other people.

 

[Kayden]

I really do not mind if there is multiplayer I even prefer to have it then to not have it in most FPS games, but in others I don't think it should be there, ie: Mass Effect 3. I do believe that multiplayer should be focused on by another studio or a separate smaller team, because like you said Rob about Max Payne 3 "unlike most games, SP came first in that game, not second, and it shows." and I totally agree.

I think many COD and BF games have suffered both in SP and other critical development areas (like the BF2 engine) because they focused primarily on MP and even though they have had moderate to amazing success from title to title. I think it sends a bad message to other studios that it's only thing gamers want, when it isn't.

In my opinion I seriously think Mass Effect 3's multiplayer was developed so they could sell more key codes for that $10 fee because so many people bought ME2 used and didn't care about the DLC that came with it.

 

[Rob Williams]

I'm just pointing out that while they say no single player only games it doesn't mean the death of single player.

The problem I foresee is that this means the SP will be weak while the MP will be solid, and that's not really what I want to see. The games I mentioned in the post all had amazing experiences, and none of them focused on MP to any real degree (save for MP3 which actually did have an MP mode, though I never met anyone who played it).

I think many COD and BF games have suffered both in SP and other critical development areas (like the BF2 engine) because they focused primarily on MP and even though they have had moderate to amazing success from title to title. I think it sends a bad message to other studios that it's only thing gamers want, when it isn't.

Maybe I am just a sucker for the series (probably), but I admit I've loved the SP campaigns in all recent CoD games. The biggest problem to me has been how quickly they can be beaten (which to me is a viable complaint; compare MW3 vs. a game like SR3 or ME3).