110°

Should Multiplayer and Single Player Exist Separately?

After Peter Tamte's open letter to Bobby Kotick concerning his comment that "Bungie are ... probably the last remaining high quality independent developer," PixlBit examines the concept behind Tamte's challenge of splitting apart single and multiplayer gaming experiences and selling them to players separately.

outrageous5691d ago (Edited 5691d ago )

What you will see is what is happening right now with game like Mag...nobody cares. The SP is a critical piece of the puzzle. People buy the games for the story, graphics and gameplay. Some may buy it for co-op, while others only play multi-player either alone or with friends and/or a clan. Either of the above scenarios lead you to the same conclusion...You have to cater to one to get the other. Maybe the guy is only a sp type of gamer. He gives the multi-player a shot, likes it, gets pretty good at and then maybe joins a clan and he's hooked...lol.

You can't have one without the other because you limit your target audience/demographic.

In regards to price...they will ALWAYS make an excuse for why it has to be full price...ALWAYS. If its a SP game it should be half price. GOW should of been $29.99 because it didn't have Co-op, multi-player or even DLC. Alan wake is the same thing...tho Alan Wake does have an episodic nature to the DLC, the point is the game is really only a single player experience. Halo Reach by comparison is a feature rich game that puts single player games like GOW to shame. If GOW is worth $60 then Halo Reach is worth $120.

Imperator5691d ago

And I'm sure you'd pay $120 or in fact, any price MS told you to pay right? lol, What's with your hate on SP-only games? GOW3 was epic, and one of the best games this year. It's a AAA game worth full price. And no, Reach ain't worth that much. In fact, I'd never pay that much for any game.

Downtown boogey5691d ago (Edited 5691d ago )

Another thing... MP is easy to build with the existing tools of the Campaign.

@ Imperator

Leave your fanboyish views out of this.

mastiffchild5691d ago

No. You cannot quantify a moments pleasure into pounds, dollars and cents so easily. What of the cost of development? What of different genrers? It's not so simple as to list features and say "this has more it's worth more"-it just doesn't work that way and that kind of thi9nking will prevent any great single player games being made in the future. ~Reach is a good game in a great series and a series known for having MP and a lot of features. However, GOW is a different beast and in SP, and in technical terms, it's superior to Reach. SA put everything into their SPO while for Bungie it was the lesser of their worries with Reach-one of the reasons I'm no longer as big a Halo fan as I once was is the constant leaning towards a MP that was never my fave bit anyway-I prefer a lot of other shooters in terms of co-op and MP and it was the Halo universe I really liked in game but, unlike SA and GOW, that side has just taken a bit of a back seat and it would be my opinion that Reach SP< GOW3 SP by some distance.

SPO is also the most expensive part of a game to make-why do you think COD, every year, just has tweaks to the MP and reworked maps? It's because they can do it cheaply to offset the cost of SP which needs a whole lot more investment and effort-writers, more animations, cutscenes the list goes on and on and if your focus is split how can you claim to have put as much in as someone just making a SP game-or indeed if someone JUST makes a MP game.

Halo is GREAT value and you could argue that GOW isn't as great but when they sell a bit of DLC as a full game(ODST) I don't think Bungie or MS can be held up as giving great value either. GOW might be fairly adjusted in price but half price is daft when i9t's SP cost as much to make as the whole of Reach did(at a guess)and you can't ignore how much better looking it is. Just cos that wasn't as important to Reach or Halo fans doesn't mean GOW3 didn't need to be more appealing to look at, did it? I think, maybe a ten dollar cut would be right but half price is just silly and takes no notice of the extra costs of SP.

dinkeldinkse5691d ago (Edited 5691d ago )

No, it shouldn't be. If SP games were half price, there wouldn't be SP games anymore. Just a bunch of watered down games with no story and the same multiplayer in every game.

Just imagine a gaming world with nothing, but CODs to play.

gatormatt805691d ago

Instead of completely separating the two I think maybe they should just continue to make the single player and multiplayer together for the current MSRP, but also make just a single player game only and charge less for it, maybe charge $39.99 or $49.99

raztad5691d ago

LMAO@"If GOW is worth $60 then Halo Reach is worth $120. "

SP>Multiplayer for me. Storytelling, voice acting + all the stuff involving a good SP campaing > maps.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 5691d ago
NYC_Gamer5691d ago

they might aswell leave out the sp mode in call of duty games

mrv3215691d ago

There's a SP mode in COD games?

despair5691d ago

its funny now but back when COD 1,2 and the expansions were out the single Player campaigns were very long and fleshed out with great gameplay, now its an afternoon of trial and error with a poor excuse for a story.

DelbertGrady5691d ago

I feel the same. The scripted re-spawning enemies kill the gameplay.

RetroSoldier5691d ago

I own all the current gen COD duty games and I enjoyed them all. On single player. I'm not a huge fan of online multi-p, but I still like to pointlessly shoot at things.

I enjoy the voice acting, I love the cenematics, its a good experience in my mind and I would likely not play the game if those things did not exist. If they got rid of SP, they would loose money. And no video game compnay likes that.

wat6345691d ago

Bobby kotick should sell the multiplayer portion separately, besides, most of his customers are dumb. Hes smart to take advantage of them.

A Cupcake for Gabe5691d ago

I like when the SP and MP are seamless, like in Red Dead or Borderlands. Jump in jump out fun.

mastiffchild5691d ago

IF Borderlands HAD a proper SP I'd be with you but to me it was mere practise for the co-op wasn't it? Just like L4D, no? I couldn't in all honesty call what they have proper SP and even though I take your point about the lineless transition in B'lands et al I still don't think it matters as long as I get some frame of reference from the SP to make the MP shooty shooty relevant in some way. Give it some purpose.

Thing is I STILL say that SotC gave me as much fun and pleasure as any gamne full of MP features so how ddo we guage value?

ddurand15691d ago

If they were sold seperately that would be fantastic. I really cant remember the last time I played through a SP campaign, unless you count demons souls.

If they sold them seperately they would entice more people to buy DLC as well. Assuming that the MP part would be 30-40$

Show all comments (29)
50°

Bungie Ends Its Marathon Duo Queue Experiment, But Teases Its Return in Season 2

The Marathon Duo queue test ends as Bungie confirms its return in Season 2, with new experimental playlists already on the way.

Read Full Story >>
theouterhaven.net
17d ago Replies(3)
S2Killinit15d ago

Its neat especially since not everyone might have two friends playing it. Makes it more personal to go at in duos.

Inverno15d ago

It's 2026 and basic match making features in MP games are still being drip fed to an audience that still gets excited over said basic feature being implemented.

60°

Marathon hands-on preview | Notebookcheck

Darryl Linington from Notebookcheck.net writes: "Early hands-on time with Marathon, spanning roughly 10 hours, points to a distinctive extraction shooter with strong shell-based class design, layered faction progression, surreal presentation, and a dense UI that still needs smoothing out."

Read Full Story >>
notebookcheck.net
Flenter48d ago

Fantastic extraction shooter,very addicting 💙

48d ago
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MrDead48d ago

Almost 16,000 reviews on Steam currently has the game sitting on a very positive 90% Not sure if it has the player numbers but those who are playing seem to be enjoying themselves.

Putte48d ago

And as of now a 5.1 user score on metacritic. Really bad.

LiViNgLeGaCY48d ago

On Steam, you have to have bought the game, in order to play. On metacritic, ANYONE can review it. I'll leave it for you to decide which one matters more.

MrNinosan48d ago

Trolls on Metacritic, must be a new thing or you were born yesterday

48d ago Replies(1)
Putte48d ago

The game is really really bad. So generic boring and lifeless. UI is terrible. Bad and slow gameplay. Not sure who gives the go ahead for these games. Insane all that money companies just throw away for no reason. Nobody a asking for these games

LiViNgLeGaCY48d ago

You haven't played it. That much is apparent from your comment. Gameplay is FAR from slow and boring. I do agree the UI definitely needs to be re-worked. But then again, you're just repeating a complaint you're reading about, not actually experiencing.

MrNinosan48d ago

Can you show any proof you've actually played it, by sharing your PSN ID or Steam profile? Nah, guessed as much.

48d ago
Outside_ofthe_Box48d ago

Gunplay is the best thing about the game. To call it bad is wrong. Just because it isn't a twitch shooter doesn't mean it's slow, not everything has to play the same. Everything else is generic I agree.

Flenter48d ago

Yes I am. But tell me ,with goty games do you play? Have you even played Marathon? If not ...S T F U!!
So sick and tired of the hate BS 🤮🤮

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 48d ago
ITFGaming43d ago

Would be amazing if some comments could go on the source.

50°

Kotick claims lawsuit objecting to MS-Activision deal was "tied to Embracer's desire to boost sales"

Former CEO describes lawsuit filed by Swedish pension fund as a "collateral attack" on Activision Blizzard.

Read Full Story >>
gamesindustry.biz
OpenGL101d ago

Yeah, the Microsoft deal has DEFINITELY worked out for everyone.

galgor100d ago

Can this mother fucker just get lost already

PRIMORDUS100d ago

He belongs in here ⚰️, hopefully sooner than later.

MrDead100d ago (Edited 100d ago )

Kotick Made $155 million from MS in the buyout, the little b*tch needs to stop whining. Thanks to this Microslop deal and massive industry consolidation thousands upon thousands of devs and other workers lost their livelihoods. This greedy piggie pervert needs shut up and f-off.