After the Dead Space 2 developer said the game was considered a failure it's not hard to see why companies want gamers to spend more money. I'm curious how much profit games that sell, say 5 million copies, make. I suppose with 3rd party games the platform holders take 30%, in addition to the publisher getting their cut.

It's so complicated that you guys are stilling not getting it .

And they said this guy was the messiah for xbox gaming. What a dud.

In others words its harder to put microtransaction and rip off gamers then in multiplayer games

and you guys are saying that this is good? come on people (fanboys out there) be for the games and not the brand....this is not good for the gaming community( this kind of mind set) this is one of the main reason i cant support MS....ohhhhh MS or you put your-self together or you just need focus on Windows alone....because you really are start to be a virus in gaming industry.....lets say if this is praise by people,probably by 2020 we will have only online games,and not focus on single story mode...you guys are ok with that? because im not at all.

I could list a handful of single player games that have generated huge profits (while ignoring the countless many that don’t) and prove you ‘wrong’.

The older I get the less and less multiplayer interests me (competitive at least) so it’s cause for concern to see it become the primary focus and revenue stream for many studios but I’m also not naive enough to not understand the shift and not appreciate I am in the minority, whether I’m happy about it or not.

All I know is the day single player dies is the day I leave gaming behind

...it's literally simple. You make a game, it's good, it sells.

You don't need damn algorithms to try to find the right players to target to milk for more purhases!
You don't need "dynamic pricing".
The "complicated economics" lies in the Microtransaction Mess that is GaaS.

Single player games with strong multiplayer components have been around a long time. I'm not sure why companies like EA and Microsoft are suddenly confused about this.

1. Make a single-player game.
2. Don't f*cking pull a M$ and cancel it, or load it full of BS DLC or micro-transactions.
3. ??? (Actually, not at all. If it's a good game and you promote it, it will sell.)
4. Crazy-F'ing Profit.

Do single player story dlc, like tombraider did and others.

Leave it to the worst gaming company to say it's complicated. Like they could even cater to the less complicated MP side of things.

Basically they have a hard time charging extra money with ideas of doing so.

It's also more money and effort if creating single player DLC.

I hate this generation, been taken over by corporate asshats taking advantage of easily pleased 'customers' who enjoy repeats

The fact I read customers were spending $15k on Mass Effect 3 multiplayer alone just proven once again the rich and wealthy get what they want not genuine fans who may want more single player features.

sounds like microsoft is trying to cop out on games. whilst sony and the ps4 continue with great games

If you want single player or multiplayer or local co-op, go Nintendo.

Complicated for Xbox I suppose.

Genuine question pls nt trying to troll or anything

When did the PS4 hardware start posting profits and how much have their individual single player games made and sold? Anyone with that info?

I understand Sony fanboys walking around with shiny badges saying single player games work for the PS4, but the reality is, from a business sense, very much true as to what the person is saying.
The reality is that for many studios, single play makes little or no sense. Even Rockstar with GTA5 see no sense in huge investment in single player as anything other than a marketing tool. It is why EA have used Single Player in many of their games as a 4 hour long storyline to get players to buy the game to then convert to the far more flexible and profitable Multiplayer game. The reality is that multiplayer games can generate revenue with constant DLC, Loot boxes and so on, whereas single play is extremely expensive with sales usually based on first few weeks of performance and then no revenue generated.
And as much as Sony are leading the way with single player games and will continue, it is because they are investing directly into that and are using it as a marketing tool. The actual reality is that nearly 8 out of 10 single player games are NOT generating enough profit to sustain the developer into other projects and why over the past 10 years a lot of developers have incorporated Multiplayer more and more into games to try and increase revenues.
It isn't the same for every studio, as some are generating a profit and are coping, but for a majority of studios, they cannot simply rely on a single player game to break even, let alone make a significant profit and so they focus on multiplayer and add loot boxes to generate steady consistent revenue.

That isn't to say there are rights or wrongs, or that everything is black or white, but I do wish that people would put fanboyism to one side and just look at the whole economic picture and see that it is incredibly hard for a console maker to get developers to develop something that requires MILLIONS of investment with no guarantee of making any profit from it. There are a LOT of big name studios that have made single player games that have flopped (Mass Effect 4) and the costs of development and the low sales volume could bankrupt small nations. If the big studios struggle, smaller ones will also struggle, and Sony can only fund single-player gaming to a point.
And it is completely the gamers fault because gamers expect too much now. They want AAA Hollywood hits with big graphic performances and excellent gameplay and still don't pay out for the games until they are reduced or offered free on Games With Gold.

The article is correct. That without some ingenuity, the single player market is stagnant and has little room for growth because any single player game requires big investment and largescale risk in an economic time where big studios are fearful of taking risks and bankrupting themselves.

"They can't be easily or reasonably micro-monetized" is what he means.

Most on this thread should start to read this article again. I have seen no one stay on topic and instead go off into multiple tangents.

And this is why I don't support MS. I really wanna buy the slim version but MS keeps saying BS like this and not releasing any games.

My decision whether or not to purchase a Xbox One X is “complicated”.

Another issue that shouldn't be broken down into personal allegiances. This is a problem that will face all gamers, regardless of platform. The industry is making lots of excuses and reasons why, they need to do this or need to do that. The reality is, they will only do what we let them get away with. We're all familiar with the concept of 'divide and conquer'. If you guys refuse to suspend you alliances for the sake more important concerns in gaming,the publishers win.Gaming, and gamers, loose. That's how simple it really is

As a gamer that prefers single player experiences by a wide margin. MS is not the company I look to for gaming needs. they've made it pretty clear that they want online multiplayer, games as a service, to be the way gaming heads. This is where xbox fanboys need to make a choice, what's more important, cheerleading MS, or keeping ming away from that future.

Soooo... what she is talking about is microtransactions aren't very useful in single player games... Shannon does a terrible job overall and should be fired.

The question is are single player games not economically viable or are they just not as profitable as gaas titles? I'm guessing it's the latter. It seems like now it is going to require first party support to keep creating single player games which Nintendo and Sony both do quite well. Microsoft not so much.

It's very strange seeing "gamers" accept and defend the "economics" of why they no longer get good games on their console.

Single player experiences will always be the holy grail of gaming,always has & always will be.

I have no problem with developers adding dlc and multiplayer to expand profits for their games, but if the costs to make single player no longer become justified in relation to profits then gaming will pretty much be done.

5 million games sold for Sea of Thieves, Titanfall, GT Sport or whatever ist not only a $60 game sale, but a $60 XBL / PSN+ sale as well.

naughtydog and bethesda say otherwise

"economic viability"

... if you had no clue, this is the future of M$. No more moneyhats and for sure no more "failed project funding" ala GB or SO ... full force on GaaS in every of their games, even potentially with their older 360-XB1 games ... if they can make an extra buck or two. economic viability ... fuck off!

The problem with this argument is that MS are not delivering ANY games, multiplayer or otherwise (outside of Forza which is seeing diminishing returns each year). It's just more utter bullshit from MS that the faithful wolf down but anyone with any common sense can see right through.

Phil and his stupid generation, don't know what gamers want.

Well thank God i have a huge library of SP games that i haven't played yet,it seems in the near future i will play more games from my huge backlog instead of supporting this shit trend that is GAAS and Microtransactions!

What an ugly red flag those comments are if you're an Xbox gamer. My god, what are they doing at Microsoft?

make a fantastic single-player game and sell lots of copies...........not that complicated, xbox boss.

Basically confirming they ARE dead for M$!

That explains why they dont want to publish the sequel for sunset overdrive.

What happened with scalebound?

As long as they don't get rid of campaigns I'm good. That is the meat of the game.even ubdont hear a lot of people bragging about these played or beaten the campaign, trust me, they play it it's just got never know until u asked them.

It's this general mindset at MS that is the reason insomniac is STILL looking for a publisher for SS OD 2 cuz MS wants MP only too invest in despite the fact they need more games like SS OD on their consoles that offer sp offline campaigns and yet given the opportunity to have it MS STILL hasn't gave Insomniac the green light thus showing their true nature as MP only games company devoid of any new interesting first party games other than halo gears and forza..... and now Insomniac is being very vocal about wanting a publisher and watch and see how MS will avoid them like the plague. I hope Sony snatches it up and the sequel is a better game that sells like crazy on the PS4 and shows once again how stupid MS truly is and how they say one thing and in reality don't really give a crap about the core gamers unless they can nickel and dime them to death. Sad reality but true unfortunately with MS this is proof with what LOONEY Loftis is spewing putting her foot right in her mouth while revealing the true nature of MS in terms of games and their extreme lack of exclusives.....they are starving for new ips yet they are being reluctant and cheap as shit in terms of investing in them a while they are spending a fortune on releasing the X......unreal. Corporate greed and stupidity go hand in hand lately over at MS in terms of single player NEW IP's.

If you build a good single player game they will come. Its sinple

How come Sony and Ninty don’t complain about “complicated economics” when they release singleplayer titles on their systems then? Keep on smoking whatever you’re smoking MS. Maybe one day your sales will match those of your competitors.

Put simply its a lot more difficult to monetise linear single player games. Also people are more likely to trade them after playing them and we know much MS hates the 2nd hand games market. Looks like there aren't gonna be many of those type of games any time soon on xbox apart from maybe multiplats.

Excuses excuses...

Translation: "It's harder to gouge players for money with single player games."

The economics are complicated for MS because they are expecting huge sales for every game, but if they can be profitable over their entire library they can be less succesful for some games, but they refuse to do things that way they rather take the easy road and milk the shit out of the sheep they have control of with MT and Gaas and subs instead of trying to build studios having a few big hits mixed in with less succesful games and even some failures but it would even out. I am not sure why Xboxers are talking profits why does that matter to them it should be games and MS really isnt delivering much on the multiplayer fromt either

It’s not complicated. Complicated is trying to explain this to a bunch of economic illiterates. He shouldn’t have said anything or just told the blunt truth.

The people who don’t like microtransactions, Microsoft doesn’t care about you. You are in the minority and they choose the people who do like MTs over you because they pay more. There will be single player games. With random loot and an option to pay for that loot without earning it. It’s that simple.

Who needs single player exclusive IP's if you HAVE A 6 TERAFLOPS 320gb/s MEMORY BANDWITH BEAST!!!! BEST VERSIONS OF GAMES!!!!!!

Because we all know that power is the only thing that wins generations!1!!!

MS does everything behind closed doors. Just want the quick dollar.

Eh.... so long as cool smaller studios make awesome games like Pillars of Eternity, Divinity Original Sin, and the likes of those? I couldn't care less about "AAA" schlock anymore.

"AAA" can go get f**ked and die. It would be doing the hobby a favour to have another "video game crash", and rebuild from the ashes.

And they will never be dead. Indie games exist.

no its complicated due to over paid "bosses" like yourself. Dramatic and constant evolution, quit trying to slow it down you dinosaur

Say that to Sony and Nintento.

Online, offline, let's just see a stream of 1st party XB games 1st

Hmmm... one of the best rated games on consoles is a single player rpg. Sony has quite a few great single player focused games. Funny how they quote gamers as the reason for most of these changes but it’s clearly just about the money. I’m rather quite tired of how many multiplayer games there are out there competing for your time. More single player games are welcome imo. I’m looking forward to metro 2034 very much and if I’d finished wolfensteins the old blood already I’d likely be grabbing that as well. Single player is wanted and multiplayer is nice but when it’s tacked on its a waste of time and most games shouldn’t bother imo (looking at you doom). Multiplayer games like destiny 2 and it’s recent season changes that tie eververse items and special events to a season are partly why I don’t have time to play other multiplayer games as well. Too many games asking for your time, all the time.

They make a lot more money on multiplayer games.

How are the economics “complicated”? You make the game, you sell the game. That’s it.

* Stop trying to max graphics with team of 200+ artists for every game. Go Nintendo style with Art Style > Realism.

An appealing art style will sell, and the games on Switch look good enough for what they are.

Way too much focus on graphics drives the price of creating games up to the point these companies can only reasonably and financially make like 5-10 different types of games.

Stop being obsessed with graphics and maybe this goes away. Other devs have said it too.

This just pushes people to Nintendo platforms.

Maybe complicated to her since she thinks games like Quantum Break and Recore are on the level of Halo and Gears of War. She is the wrong person for the job.

“It’s complicated, it’s not you, it’s me.”

As a gamer, it is not complicated at all.
Make good games and they will play.

Games as an Art, not Games as a Service.

Look, I love Xbox, and defend shit when it makes sense. But this right here.....DOESNT MAKE SENSE. Dumb

Guys at MS' head are not passionate gamers that's why they don't give a sh** about SP. They decided to invest all the budget in Kinect because they wanted a piece of Nintendo's cake and it failed. Now the money is gone and they are blaming the economics... So the economics are not complicated for Sony and Nintendo? I thought the Asian area was going throught an economic recession...

So.....basically in the future we will do away with awesome experiences such as Last Of Us, Witcher 3, GTA, Read Dead, God of War, Zelda BOTW, Uncharted, NIoh, Horizon ZD, Nier Automata, Final Fantasy, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Mario, etc. That's right, in the future every single game will involve a bunch of ( insert creature, race, vehicle, machine ) running around ( insert stage type ) using ( insert weapon type, vehicle type, machine type ) to shoot/kill all the other ( insert creature, race, vehicle, machine ) till they are dead. Sounds freaking amazing, exctitng and not at all boring after the 100th time doesn't it. Sorry how could I forget about games like Persona 5, Yakuza, etc. Ja.....I mean who still wants to play crap like that? FFS

I feel like extending the 'game experience' could actually hurt profits rather than help them. I'm still trying to power my way through single-player games from last year due to all the extra DLC and online components I want to try out. I never buy anything at retail price anymore because I don't have time to keep up with the content that comes out. By the time I'm ready to buy the next big game, it's 6 months old and $30. Then when they try to milk that $15-30 DLC, I've already moved on to something else.

I'd buy way more games at the full $60 if they delivered a complete experience from start to finish and didn't try to force extras down my throat. It just doesn't make sense to dump $100 on a game and DLC instead of waiting a year to get the 'Game of the Year' edition for $10-20, when there are so many other options on the market.

This is a very good example of why I don't care about Microsoft and xbox
Single player ftw

The "economics go bad" because Microsoft has no ability to make a single player game with quality. They don't even try anymore and still cancel the attempts, now they are lobbying to bury this market ("If I can not succeed, you will not either, because I'm going to destroy it")

We saw what The Wicther 3, Horizon Zero Dawn and Zelda Breath of the Wild did. Now let's see what Cyberpunk 2077, God of War and Mario Odissey will do

I mean. I can understand.. but come on guys just stop expecting 3million sales from every single game and budget for good single player games.

This is why I sold my Xbox,Minecraft ruined every chance of MS actually investing in anything. (Cuphead being the exception but even that needed the PC platform to do well)

Aka they can't come up with creative ideas for single player games like Sony and Nintendo

And here I thought Don Mattick was the worst Xbox's boss. I was wrong.

"Xbox boss Shannon Loftis, Head of Xbox Publishing for first-party games department..."

That must be one empty department lol

code for...we can't nickle and dime you unless MP is involved. Exactly why rockstar and grand theft auto has turned sour on me. I crave an epic single player game with incredible story and even...incredible story dlc..shocker

Imagine if