Crytek: 'The notion of single-player has to go away'

[Commissar MercZ]

Saw this article over at destructoid. I thought it is relevant with the increasing focus on multiplayer and making games more tied up with social networking. I personally like my share of single player games, I don't completely agree with Yerli's position here.

http://www.destructoid.com/crytek-th...--247397.phtml

For years, numerous pundits have called for the death of single-player games, and while some of us gnash our teeth at the thought of losing solo experiences, the creep of multiplayer has been undeniable. This is good news for Crytek, a studio that apparently can't wait to be rid of single-player.

"I think the notion of a single-player experience has to go away," CEO Cevat Yerli told IGN. "However, I'm not saying that there will be no single-player experiences ... it could be it's called Connected Single-Player or Online Single-Player instead.

"Online and social can reignite single-player in a new type of context and provide benefits that will make you want to be a part of a connected story-mode rather than a disconnected story-mode. Sure, if the technology forces you to play a traditional single-player game online, that doesn't make sense but if it's offering actual benefits to be online then you want to be part of it."

...

Few weeks before, Gabe Newell when talking about the differences about single player and multiplayer for valve, jokingly referred to single player as "a feature film where your lead actor is retarded and autistic, but you can think of it like a feature film." Comments on his use of words aside, I guess it underscores what a lot of developers feel about single player and its worth.

[MrFancypants]

The notion of Crytek needs to go away. Their games are rather crappy anyway. They should stick to engine development.

[Adrian Ţepeş]

Oh snap!

And I agree. Not only that, but the fact that video game companies are becoming more like social think-tanks is a tad disturbing. Just stick to making fun, recreational games, and stop trying to "connect us". Video games will do that on their own.

[Schofield]

But I like single player.

To hell with Crytek, Crysis 1 was pretty good though.

[Nemmerle]

Crysis 1 was good only until the $£^% aliens turned up. After that I lost interest in the series entirely. I get the percentage in doing a multiplayer game - you can make your assets go a lot further when you don't have to come up with a story and voice acting and you can implement gambling mechanics to keep people on a certain risk-reward track. But I don't like it - even the best MMOs don't come anywhere near my best single player experiences.

[Schofield]

Yeah the alien twist was kind of unneeded. They presented no challenge to fight whatsoever, as they were so big and easy to hide from. Crytek should just stick to engine-building though, like Fancypants said.

[Jamoking]

They make one good game and now single-player is just suppose to roll over and die for them?

Originally Posted by Adrian Ţepeş

Just stick to making fun, recreational games, and stop trying to "connect us". Video games will do that on their own.

Exactly, I don't need them playing "matchmaker," there's already over a hundred websites for that

[Fracture]

Originally Posted by Nemmerle

Crysis 1 was good only until the $£^% aliens turned up. After that I lost interest in the series entirely.

Agreed.

And it is absolutely idiotic to say that single-player needs to "go away". I mean, sometimes I enjoy single-player more than multi-player depending on the game. Most CoD games I buy are for the campaign. Call me weird but I never really enjoyed the multi-player in the CoD franchise... Somep people just want to play by themselves. Let them.

EDIT: And was he saying single-player needs to go away specifically for FPS games or for all games? Because if thats the case, and he had his way.. he would practically destroy the whole RPG genre...

[Schofield]

Some games just shouldn't have single-player because you can tell that the company (Activision ) clearly is focused on multiplayer, so the single-player portion is just a waste of time and not even good or re-playable.

[Commissar MercZ]

I forgot to add in the article link, that's been edited in. Anyways.

Originally Posted by Fracture

EDIT: And was he saying single-player needs to go away specifically for FPS games or for all games? Because if thats the case, and he had his way.. he would practically destroy the whole RPG genre...

It seems he was speaking about single-player in general. Even in RPG there's been an emphasis on trying to shift to MMO models over offline play.

I think that ties into what the article author points out at the end, that Yerli is making this assumption based on the success of an online-only model for some games (say TF2) to the whole industry.

I mean this comment wouldn't be so off point had Crytek had good multiplayer. 1 and 2 were only good for a single playthrough for me and weren't particularly memorable beyond the engine's visuals. The MP in 2 especially just seemed to be overlevelled players running around with almost perpetual cloak and shotgunning people in the face.