Yes single player games are going no where. Is there more focus on multiplayer games as of now? Yes but they are not side lining the single story besides for a few titles.

phil we already knwo this gears of war 2 will change multuip0layer forever. it will get goty we cant comment on mgo as that is a pile of cap gears of war 2 sp wil be amamzing same with multiplayer = longevity and toatal apckage = goty 2008 cry more

doomed! do you hear that bioshock2? you are teh doomed. hear that mg5? doomed! hear that mass effect 2? doomed! hear that (fill in the blank) doomed!

Completely disagree.

Metal Gear and Final Fantasy say hi.

i noticed that military-ish games [most of them happen to be FPSs] tend to rely on a good multiplayer part to succeed but a fantasy-like game is more story driven and focuses on single player.

i love a good single player from time to time but i <3 FPSs and shooting other people online more

I disrespectfully disagree

I ONLY CARE WHAT SHANE KIM THINKS, HE IS MY GOD
PRAISE TO ALLAH-KIM

is he on crack ?
i played GTA4 single player and didnt bother trying the multi-player
the best games in the industry and highest ranked are mostly single player games.

I don't think single player games are doomed by any stretch of the imagination, I mean look at BioShock, Resident Evil, Mass Effect, etc...

However, I do think that good single player games are going to be less and less common with time, as developers can make more money in making online multiplayer games without the dedication and resources it takes to make a good single player game.

Single player games are all I play, I'll always prefer the depth and emotional pull a good single player story can give. You can give me Uncharted or MGS4 any day over a battlefield or Warhawk game.

I remember about 15 years ago, someone said traditional books were dead and all books in the future would be those choose your own adventure things (go through the door? turn to p23 for yes, 91 for no), it'll never happen, games like Silent Hill will always be able to offer something that a MP game cannot and because of this they will always find a market.

are times when I just want to immerse myself in a story, without having to see what my buddies are doing, where they are on the map, whose with me, whose not......

sometimes I dont feel like talking my way thru a game.

nope, single player games will never die!!!

Yeah, right Phil.
So 50% of 360 owners and similar percentage of PS3 owners are not using their machines online, but somehow they didn't buy a games machine to play games?
The most successful machine of this generation is the WII which has no virtually no online play!Admittedly many of the big sellers on this platform are multiplayer, but thats all the players in one room - not this online community sh*t he's talking about..

More players today, play games offline than online. Thats a demonstrable fact.

I have access to online with live and PSN, but quite frankly I spend 90% of my time playing single player campaigns or split screen with people in the same room. Hearing yet another US brat shout 'boo ya' at me in Live is about as far removed from what I want in gaming as it can get.... maybe I'm just showing my age! :)

this is wht i imagine Atari said to you "PHIL PONG WAS 2 PLAYER AND THE GREATEST GAME EVER" and they cycled that through ur head a couple of time til u completely forgot about Oblivion, Ratchet and Clank, GTA4 (the single player is the main part of gta4), FF, even GH single player, SKATE's single player, and Bioshock. Some of the best games in the past few years have been single player, except for CoD4, or Halo, but even those had a good single player, and u know wht phil, the developers put those in there because they're smart especially when they make a 10/10, or 9/10 game, *cough*Warhawk*cough*

i just feel like playin by my self, like if i see my friends online all playin the same game, i just feel like playin a game myself, example everyone playin COD4 online, i might just put on GTA4 and play myself

so i dont feel that single player games will ever go and games such as MGS4(single player), Bioshock, Final Fantasy and i feel that single player games that are 6-8 hours will go and games over 20 hours will stay

This is a duplicate story, this came out two days ago under the heading "Phil Harrison on the Decline of Single Player Gaming"... We've already learned about and discussed this in other words.

So he's saying the non mmo type RPGs are doomed? Please. This time Phil, you're wrong. Online is a big part of the new gaming era, but sometimes people need a break from playing with other people and just sit back and relax while playing on their own.

Mr. Harrison is wrong. I don't really like online games. I mostly play single player games... most of my friends do.

I see what he's saying. But it only works with certain genres.

This ex-fishhead is still running his mouth.

Go work on Space Invaders you $ony hack!

SP games aren't going anywhere when it comes to developers who know how to make a good game. GTA IV springs to mind as well as Bioshock. Go ahead and phase out SP campaigns in your Atari releases but don't expect your sales to climb or the industry to agree with you.

Don't think so, gamers will always want games with story.

If you want to sell a game...you need multi-player.

Look at Bioshock. The game is a masterpiece...but due to lack of multi-player...the sales weren't up to par.

Never ever. i love singleplayer games. i do like online playing like mmoprgs and stuff but there are times where i just want to play alone. i dont want to search for people to paly with all the time, or compete against others. my best gaming experiences are singleplayer games like FF, RE, Uncharted and the list goes on and on.

uh, I think i enjoyed GTA IV single player more than multiplayer..so no.

And are they forgetting about their next big hit? MGS4??

Give this guy a clue.

Sorry i think yer wrong... at least i hope so.. heh i have 45 PS3 games , i do play online at times yet not nearly like i play alone in single player, hell nearly all of my favorite games are single player.. they usually have the best story.. (rpgs of course).. just keep those single player games comin..and i'll keep playin beyond.. heh

Guy dont have a clue , plenty of us still enjoy or prefer the quiet and storyline (of course especially in rpgs) something that have yet to be properly achieved by any game in mmo or multi .

The closest ironically would be coop campaign in fps . So sod of phil i still prefer any FF (and they're not my fav ) over wow ....

single player will not die,

however I currently will not buy a game that does not have a good multyplayer, single player only games (with the exception of rpg's) rarely last more than a few hours, and are certainly not worth 60+$.

@LeonSKennedy4Life

Yeah but the MGO experience is nothing as great as the solo . Its a nice bonus to keep the game going , possibly even great , but there is a reason its not sold on its own ... its not why people get MGS4

There are markets for both, although Multiplayer is growing more rapidly.

Still, SP will have its marketshare. See Bioshock. It has been played a lot!

Um...no.
I love single player games.

becoms obsolete,is the day i stop buying games and stick with previous gen games.

as sony fans have told 360 fans,not all games have to be multiplayer.and this coming from phil is surprising,but i guess he believes everyone should be connected.

or games should at least have an online component that extends it's life beyond single player.(this i agree with)

i agree with the second because of the awsome additional content that can extend a game's life through downloads.

but,no singler player,......"H#LL NO!"

megaton.............

Is he planing a 4d game that's multiplayer?

Another 100 million dollar multiplayer game confirmed? This guy clearly hasn't played games to have fun in a while, he's clearly gaming to live.

unfortunately that would be the day I would stop playing videogames. . .

if that happened. don't play them much as it is just waiting for MGS4!. i'm really starting to dislike this guy. he's just not saying the thing i wanna hear anymore.

i love single player games, at this time i see the multiplayer an add-on for a game, sometimes takes an integral part in the game (COD4) but mostly not. just my opinion

my game playing days will be over, at least of that gen, not like I'm gonna give up those which I do adore like GOW. Except for Wow, I haven't enjoyed a single Multiplayer game, it just annoys me.

Actually the Xbox Live community has strayed me over to single player games. I can only stand hearing noob, f@g, pwned, suck my c*ck/d&ck so many times a day and that is 0. I can't stand the little kid that thinks it's cool to swear, or the other gamers that wins every match because he wastes all his life perfecting the game and then criticizes you for not being as good as him (Oh, I'm sorry. I have a life).

All that has strayed me to play more single player games.

i prefer to be a little more of an old school about this subject.
online is cool but without a solid single player mode a game to me is worthless thats why i don't own games like warhawk and unreal tournament.

i think phil is drinking out of the same bottle that ken kutaragi and shane kim are drinking out of.

sorry, not every company is there to make n00b games for the Wii.

What he is saying is games like warhawk will extinct games like Bioshock he is smoking that world war 2 weed

Remove single player and I will quit gaming.

It is fine to jump in multiplayer here and there for certain titles, but the industry is making one very big mistake to believe gamers want to be forced to play multiplayer. That just may make me grow out of gaming if it were to come true.

and Metal Gear 4 will seal his stupidity!

See, Atari's problems with sales wasn't that single player games don't sell. Their problem was that their single player games WERE SH!T. Their sales will still suck if they continue to make sh!tty, though multiplayer, games.

"Former Sony Computer Entertainment America front man and current Infogrames president Phil Harrison made the bold claim Wednesday that the games industry will soon move away from single-player titles, like Alone in the Dark, and into strictly multiplayer experiences."

Then they will be moving into bankrupcy as the majority of gamers are SP only. Meh whatever, you dont make it I dont have to worrry about buying it and something else will take its place.

He knows more than all of you here that's for sure. He works inside the industry he may know a little mare than us. I dont think the SP is doom but is is gonna become second to MP.

I don't care who says what or what sells the most...the day games are no longer story driven and simply become an interface for MP, is the day I hang up my controllers for good.

The best games of all time are story driven, emotional even. If that gets taken away, I'm done and will find something else on which to spend my hard earned money.

I dont listen to someone going to work for a company whose only current success and reason the're not pushing daisies once again , isnt even developed by them , but by bandai namco (dbz)

he's just spinning this crap because they'll probably go the mmo route like everyone else , to try cashing in some buck (but fail miserably)

Fans considering I hear them talk about how good there online is so yeah and of course they probably mostly play online.

More and more I am thinking Phil got fired rather than quit.

So all the people with no broadband are pretty screwed huh?, kinda glad he got fired if this is his real opinion.

white nerds need to shut the hell up with predictions
he went to ATARI!!!
ATARI!!!!!!!!!!

god!!!!
ATARI needs to just roll over and get scrwed up the asss

heres my prediction Alone in the dark is going to flop!
ATARI will continue too see money trouble!
this douche will be replaced with another joke for ATARI!!!!

What the hell's going on the in the world? Are people's lack of reading comprehension this bad? Take everything people say out of context?

Phil just thinks that people (consumers) are just wanting some type of social interactivity in their games now. Whether it's multiplayer, DLC, or whatever. If you F*ckin read his actual comment, no where does he say "SINGLE PLAYER IS DOOMED"

This is his whole quote. Read it carefully.

Phil Harrison: I haven't read the quote, but I can tell you the context in which I gave that quote. It was not uniquely about Atari; it was more about the industry as a whole.

Alone in the Dark is a beautifully crafted single-player adventure game. I don't think the industry is going to make many more of those. I just don't think consumers want to be playing games that don't have some kind of network connectivity to them, or some kind of community embedded in them, or some kind of extension available through downloadable content.

Now, that's not to criticise Alone in the Dark - it's just to recognise the industry is changing, and the role we play as creators and publishers has to reflect those changes. I don't think I'm alone in having those views, either.

I think Phil is talking about a connected community with every game. So it doesn't necessarily mean capture the flag in Final Fantasy XIII but having online communities connected to games. Like for example it would've been great to have online score boards with Time Crisis 4 or Devil May Cry 4.

So even though it's a single player game there is still some competitiveness to it. So think of it like having different reputations for each game. Kind of like achievements but it goes beyond a simple score and is more specific. So doesn't just track what I've done but how I've done it, kind of thing. An example could be like achieving 10 head shots and getting a grade on performance C-.

I love single player games, and I don't think I could ever picture most of the games that I play being multiplayer(I tend to play alot of RPGS and Adventure games).

I mean I just don't think some games would work very well, and as we all know theres never really any story/ or progression depth in most multiplayer experiences, If finally fantasy VII had been multiplayer and I had to listen to someone screaming in my ear when Aries died it would have diminished the impact of the game, same goes with so many other experiences that I have had with gaming.

So I don't see Single player games ever becoming extinct, but then again I'd still rather play a videogame with some buddies on the couch then over PSN, or Live, Who knows maybe i'm a Dinosaur but I prefer being able to talk smack in person than through a mic.

Now that Jim Ryan is gone just need to remove Herman Hulst from his position! And maybe give Shuhei the position he deserved.

This gen hasn't been the best for games, last gen consoles are still out there and now there's been talk of the PS6 and Xbox Two for a year or so. Many games this gen will be ported to next gen and the cycle will continue. The re-release of the Neo Geo AES+, games on cartridge for £70 ($95), gaming is going back in time. Gaming has gone pricing mad with the high cost of games, consoles and controllers. The men and women at the top are clueless.

It’s always interesting to hear behind-the-scenes stories like this, especially involving veterans like Shuhei Yoshida and leadership figures like Jim Ryan. That said, there are usually multiple sides to decisions at that level. It could be less about not “listening” and more about differences in long-term vision for PlayStation. Yoshida played a huge role in shaping the brand, so whatever the reason, his impact is undeniable.

If true, and I'm inclined to believe it is, it goes to show that Sony lost their way when they became more western/didn't respect the PlayStation origin story. Andrew House and Jack Tretton did great work, but they also didn't try to fundamentally change the PlayStation DNA. Ryan oversaw the death of Japan Studio and a live service direction.

I already figured this, good lord imagine if Shuhei took over instead, would've been a platinum era 😩

I miss the first three generations of PlayStation. The way they turned PS3 around, we knew they meant business. We were all worried for a bit there around launch. Eventually from 2008 they started shifting slowly. But since Yoshida was fired, it's never been the same. Still enjoy my PS5 daily. I got a backlog dating back to PS2 lol So I'm fine but new games aren't as appealing anymore.

It seems like we were thrown on to the worst timeline possible where everything is too expensive and the wrong people were put in positions that makes the world a shitty place. We could have had Shu as the head of PS but we got the shitty alternative. Same goes for everyone in power around the world. Doesn’t matter the company or country the majority of us got the shitty picks and the world is declining like never before. I do think PS can come out of this because of their studios, talent and IP but they need someone more in touch with gamers leading things like Shu was. They’re still the best place for console gaming imo but it could be much better than it is especially without the massive live service failures. The rest of the world I have a lot less hope for right now. Hopefully the pendulum swings back towards the good ole days but I’m preparing for the worst.

There goes illuminati distraction story

So now there's certifiable proof that Ryan was in fact "fired", as opposed to when it was first announced that he "retired", in order to save face.

There's another guy who recently "retired" as CEO of another large gaming company, after doing a dismantling job as lead for well over a decade.

seems legit, the business man, fires the one who has ideas to move the business forward.

Jim Ryan is the reason why we are entering year 6 since the PS5 launch and many of us don't feel like the PS5 has gotten started as yet.

I hope going forward, we will see a return to form.