Microsoft Says Single Player Games Are Becoming Complicated

Meanwhile, Sony and Nintendo have no problem releasing single player game after single player game...

I honestly hope single player games never go away because that's the day I walk away from gaming or go to the platform that still offers it . That's including Sony . At least Sony as been on top this generation with great single player experiences .

So single player games are like health care? Got it.

@oatmealwarrior92 agree totally

@rjejr lol!

They are shifting and changing but there is money to be made. Create a quality experience first and then add some cosmetic items for microtransactions and then create some good dlc (like the Witcher etc).

If the gameplay is good usually the graphics doesn't matter, zelda botw is worse graphically than horizon zero dawn and uncharted 4 but doesn't have problem with reviews and sales.

The arm race for graphics is scary though, how can publishers/developers see uncharted 4 and horizon zero dawn and say "we gotta do better than this". When I see uncharted 4 and horizon I think how much money does sony spend to make game this good, and what happen to naughty dog and guerilla games if the game's bombed.

I hope there's still a lot of single player fan so developers can make more single player game.

@Bliquid Yeah, this. Persona 5 is a ps3 game but the graphics still good compared to current crop of this gen game. The style of the graphics help too, anime/cell shading style type of game doesn't need more power compared to more realistic games like uncharted 4 and horizon.

@Bliquid I couldn't agree more, Persona 5 isn't the most graphically technical advance game but the STYLE of that game makes me orgasm everytime I open up the goddamm menu or go anywhere in the game!!, Hell the loading screen is good!!

I really see that Japanese Devs focus more on the fun and satisfaction aspect of a game rather than western devs who constantly tries to push technology but fails in presenting something worth someone's time

Single-player games are complicated for you because you are incompetent.
These PR statements of Microsoft are a big joke, can't forget when Phil Spincer said that the cancellation of Scalebound was the best for the Xbox gamers. Are you serious?

@Cpt_Price There is also the fact that Xbox doesn't have exclusives anymore, all their games are also available on PC.
No exclusives, no new ips, no Japanese support, things are really awful on their side.

While Dark Souls and Bloodborne aren’t strictly single player games, I think that’s what a lot of single player games will look like in the future.

@AzlanWake13 To be fair a lot of Japanese companies push technology as well. I mean Square has consistently been a company pushing game technology to its limits. I think western companies in general have just forgotten that while there will always been a place for blockbuster games with huge budgets, they aren’t required for games to sell well. Some of my favorite games from this year( Etrian Odyssey V, Mary Skelter, Persona 5, and Project Diva Future Tone) likely don’t have the largest of budgets after all.

@Bliquid BOTW and especially Odyssey look absolutely amazing. It just doesn't have realistic graphics, and it's not trying to. I've always been a fan of "cartoony" graphics (a reason why Wind Waker is my favorite game) because it just makes the game more fun for me. I'm not saying games like Uncharted 4 don't look great too, I'm just saying games can have good graphics even though they aren't realistic.

I call BS. Minecraft proved the opposite.

Is there online or microtransactions in mario odyssey?

Make single player games more like watching a tv series with friends? Seriously? I am fine doing Fallout, Gta, Resident Evil, ect completely solo. Online is fun too when i want interaction with people while gaming.

MS have trouble making any game lol please shut up Sony & others do it fine why not try making any game MS does not have to be SP

This is the reason I'm becoming increasingly less enamored with the Xbox brand and I do worry Sony will follow the same path eventually but for now at least there's PlayStation and Nintendo. Just a shame to see more and more publishers take this ridiculous stance on single player games.

Disagree so much. What matters is gameplay and a good length of game. Look at games like assassins creed unity that look really pretty but poor performance . So graphics and resolution and like opposite ends of a scale . Also the the order 1888 was also very pretty. Less than 20 hours and very little shooting or any gameplay . I think the main reason ms are struggling cos they have hardly any original ips

Its not like people even take Microsoft seriously anyway.. let them dig their own way to the bottom of the barrel. Make a good game and people will buy and play, its really that simple.

So gamers are asking for faster framerates and higher resolutions? That'll explain why the Switch has doubled the sales of Xbox this year and why the standard PS4 outsells the Pro by a wide margin and why Microsoft themselves say the X won't outsell the S. Perhaps it also explains why Xbox owners are getting giddy about backwards compatibility as seemingly they aren't making any new games.

I keep hearing this single player argument all the time yet the top 2 selling systems at the moment have built their names upon them and this year their biggest success stories are Crash, Horizon, Zelda, Uncharted and soon to add Mario to that list. Maybe Microsoft should just try and make some great games first, Halo was a long time ago and they bought Rare and allowed them to ruin their own franchises and all they have left is the yearly update of Forza

Oh and the best selling console in September? The SNES 😆😆😆

The search for photorealism leads to Uncanny Valley even on a gaming point of view: if you create a photorealistic world, then everything in it should act realistically and that requires hard work on AI and a well written story.
I played many SP games on the reviled WiiU and they all look wonderful thanks to their artstyle: Paper Mario, Yoshi's Yarn, DK, "clay" Kirby, Zelda WW, Wonderful 101 and Captain's Toad are a sight for sore eyes.

@johnny30 I personally wouldn't say the length of the game is that important though. Games such as Inside or Undertale are only about 5 or so hours, but are some of the best games I've ever played. If the game doesn't need to be long, then it really shouldn't be, since a game dragging on is way worse than a game that knows when to stop and to give a proper ending.

Its not so complicated if all the single player games that are greats are in microsoft console, but the reality is the greats single player games are all in sony’s side.. so its complicated for Microsoft, single player and story campaign is still the art and core of video games, some like it some maybe not.. but if you want arts.. tou find it in single player or campaign/story mode.. if you want competitive or just to have fun, play online.. its not so complicated after all

I think the future console games is who that can manage bigger install base.. so if the install base is bigger or wider the more developer games will interest because of the wider target market will be.. so if sony want to continue to grow and make ps5, im very sure they wont leave ps4 user, they would make backward compability with ps4 or go along with it just upgrade the hardware just like happens in ps4pro, because starting something new like ps5 with little user would be like panasonic 3do, sega saturn.. that have a great hardware but very little install base.. that would make game dev and console bankrupt, because theres very litte that buys the game.. in terms the high production cost of a AAA games, it happens in shenmue and sega.. so please mantain and dont leave ps4/pspro user if sony’s eventually make another hardware.. i think the future is already here just keepin up with the new hardware and mantaining the install base.. would make the gamers, the game dev and console/hardware happy.. btw its just my opinion

@get2sammyb is that meant to be insinuation, not insulation in the first paragraph..

Sorry, my sports writing job has made me notice these things more, and if ya anything like me, it would drive you mad, if ya noticed it yourself!

On Topic:

I can understand this attitude to an extent, but as mentioned above, there have been so many top class, single player games released over the last year, the argument is buried before it starts.

Make good games and people will buy them, it's that simple...

"she noted how gamers’ insatiable demand for better graphics and higher resolutions is driving the cost of campaigns up"
Well, yeah, it's obvious. But graphics seem to be the only thing a lot of morons care about these days, rather than actual good games.

Asinine. Gamers aren't demanding better graphics anywhere near as much as publishers think, if they are then explain the popularity of games like Minecraft, FIFA, Rocket League, PUBG and LOL. If devs feel like getting the use out of superior hardware, why don't they make it so games run well and have the option for 4 player splitscreen, like games on the SNES.

Or better yet, cut back on graphics and make it so games can come out more frequently, they won't have to suck money out of player's wallets at every opportunity, they can actually be financially viable and devs can get a wage they deserve.

And the argument that games will sell less if graphics are cut is quite weak, mainly because if the budget is reduced it will still be easier to make a profit. Game industry, things should be getting better with better hardware so sort yourself out!

@Bliquid Thats why i buy these japanese rpg's not the best looking but great fun.

single player is always going to be there.that's how I started playing games.multiplayer online game sucks.single player is here to stay.PlayStation has been having the best story telling games since day 1 in 1995.word up son.

@andreoni79 Same goes for ICO, The last Guardian, Shadow of the Collosus, Rachet and Clank, Dark Cloud and so man more still hoping for the Last Dragoon If they polish it and make it look some updated textures Im good. Final Fantasy 9 is still better then 15 even If it looked worse.

This weekend,
Super Mario Odyssey
Wolfenstein New Colussus
Assassins Creed Origins
3 highly rating single player games right there.
MS only want to repeat franchise (Forza, Halo, GoW) and games as a service in their model, focusing on MP.
I am totally tired of being told how great old games will look on the Xbox One X, especially now they've wheeled out the original Xbox games as BC.
We still have Red Dead 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 to come, it's only complicated for MS as it's not a quick buck for them.

And MS say this as they're releasing a 6 teraflop console!

I would much rather graphics didn't improve if it meant we keep getting SP games. Would much prefer that over better graphics and no SP.

Keep in mind that this is the same company that said Kinect would be the future, so there's really no telling what constitutes "complicated" in their book anymore.

Sony and Nintendo seem to be doing fine with them, so I am not bothered if MS wants to focus on other stuff. With the original Xbox, MS experimented quite a bit with different types of games to see what would stick. They offered a decent variety of single and multiplayer games. By the end of that gen, it was clear MS would focus on online gaming. Now, I don't even see the point in them attempting something like BotW or Horizon. MS can keep focusing on the stuff I am not interested in and appeal to a different type of gamer, and I'll just play the games I am interested in where they are at.

Another thing that is complicated is releasing a souped up version of an existing console while still keeping the current one's sales numbers secret

@Flaming_Kaiser Neither I nor you have mentioned an open world title and that doesn't surprise me. In this gen, all the games I loved started from an idea of gameplay and then evolved it in a concrete setting (I think of Bloodborne, Dishonored 2, The Last Guardian, Alien Isolation, Inside, Dying Light...) while open world games always feel to me as huge and glittering theme parks in competetion with each other to show which one is the bigger and best looking; unfortunately all of them have similar attractions, often badly allocated and unsafe, with malfunctioning sanitation even if the admission tickets are always more expensive.

Especially when you do them so badly

I think that Microsoft would happily kill Xbox tmorrow if they could. I would happily see us end the graphics race now where we are. I wonder though what Shannon would say if Uncharted & Bloodborne (for example) were exclusive to Xbox. Or if Xbox hadn't destroyed their brand by having no bloody idea about what gamer's want. I cannot help thinking this is sour grapes at the Tomb Raider Exclusive backlash as well as the rather lackluster showing of Dead Rising 3 & 4.

@BranJ0 each to their own lol. I wouldn't spend 40-60 on a game that has no replay value or less than 30-40 hours

I really don't see this as a strictly MS point of view. EA, Ubisoft, etc are also struggling to deliver the Single Player game without adding in some MP/Loot box DLC attachment.

You can say 'what about Sony?' with Uncharted (another game with MP and DLC attached). Horizon:Zero Dawn - as great as it is, doesn't have the same depth or scale as the Witcher 3 (government subsidised). Fallout now has Mods to 'buy' and ME:A - similar budget to H:ZD, was more ambitious and had a MP with 'Loot box' purchases. H:ZD has a far less progressive upgrade path, far less weapons, side quests etc, far less 'consequence' to decisions etc - its much more 'linear'. Like I said, its a great game but you cannot compare that to the larger RPG games that came out. That doesn't mean that H:ZD was worse before any fanboys get all shirty - its still my GotY so far.

Point is, we may see games like Uncharted as a SP game but their is MP too to subsidise some of the cost - it still came with a Season Pass. Halo 5, criticise it all you want but they offered all DLC Maps free as will SW:BF2 so they have to pay for that work somehow.

I am sure that Nintendo's games like Mario and Zelda are probably big budget games but then they are almost certainly guaranteed to sell, subsidised by re-issues, remakes, purchases of NES/SNES mini, 3DS versions of old Mario/Zelda etc etc. Much like I bet Naughty Dog/Sony are subsidising the cost of SP games from games like Last of Us: Remastered, Nathan Drake Collection (both 2nd and 3rd biggest selling 'exclusives') as well as other remakes/remasters - low cost production games.

This month (Oct), I have bought 4 games - all 4 for Single Player - Forza 7 (I know it has an MP and will no doubt have additional Car DLC), Evil Within 2, Wolfenstein 2 and Assassins Creed: Origins. You could also have bought Shadow of War too.

SP games aren't dead and won't die. Its just that they are 'big risk' with 'small reward' margin titles. It costs a LOT more to build a SP game - paying Actors to do voices and mo-cap action too - sometimes more than 1 actor plays 1 character, script writers, concept artists, story boarders, etc all before you get to actually making the 'game'. Then you have character modelling, environment building, animators etc etc.

An MP game is far easier and can often be 'built' from an existing framework - changing the assets/characters etc and replacing the maps of the previous game to 'new' maps. Its a lower production cost with much easier ways to monetise it - DLC Maps, Season Passes, RNG Loot Boxes etc.

Point is, the cost to build an 'extensive' SP game is much higher and most people - if they even finish it, will only play it once and discard it, trade it in, which then others may buy and the Sales drop off radically. Then you have the issue of making the story 'engaging' for ALL. Not all stories resonate with people, not all characters are received the same way. I know a lot of people who couldn't get into the Witcher, the world he lived in etc and don't understand why I think its the best game this generation - easily the best! Some may say the same about Bloodborne or some other game. How much did the Order cost to develop - 5yrs isn't cheap so I wonder if Sony actually lost money on that game?

Its not as simple as SP games are what Gamers want but how to fund these without taking a loss. H:ZD allegedly had a budget of £40m and if it didn't sell well enough to recoup that, its not like the game had built in micro-transactions - they could have had more outfits - split them down into helmets, tops, bottoms and shoes, maybe 'dyes' to colour them with maybe some 'clip-on' details to the weapons to customise the look of the bows - a mix of animal, robot and/or 'old world' trinkets for example, Different looking Quivers, belts etc - all in Random loot boxes to supplement any 'losses' on trying to recover that £40m and any advertising/promotional costs...

Personally, I much prefer Single Player games but I also understand that a 'decent' SP game costs a LOT more to make and has a bigger risk too. I hope that Publishers find a way to keep delivering these without resorting to underhand tactics.

As for MS, they are keeping old games alive, preserving them for all Xbox gamers - for FREE. Some of these (13 launch OG Xbox games and 4 XB360 games) are 'enhanced' above the 'original' standards. All the OG games are now presented in the full 1080p and the 4 360 games are 9x the pixel count (4k) and 10bit with HDR added for the X. They have a dedicated department to Backwards Compatibility to preserve these games for FREE to its customers - of course that only benefits if you own the games in the first place but its still something they are giving their community. I am not saying Sony don't do anything for its community either etc but just to address some of the negativity.

All MS are saying is that they understand the market, the problems they as well as other big publishers are experiencing with bringing SP games to market. It maybe that Sony have less issue because they have multiple sources of income that offset a lot of that risk - more studio's, big selling console(s), PSN, PSNow subscriptions, money from sales on PSN etc etc so that they can offset a 'game' losing money with big profits on multiple other areas.

Microsoft: Single player games are becoming complicated.

Sony: Hahahahahahahaha

Nintendo: Hahahahahahahaha

I don't know what's going on at M$. To me i think they've lost the plot.

Control Alt Delete

People want better graphics and resolutions - only if your on PC that is its that platform them 2 things are a huge demand not console. On console the demand for a great gaming experience is what people want that on PC too.

The problem with this statement is that it's something other publishers have already been feeling, because lootboxes are popping up everywhere across PC/PS4/XBO. Sony's 2017 is stellar for single player games, but we don't know much about what's on offer in 2018. God of War and even Spider-Man could all of a sudden pop up with a lootbox system.

It's this 4K gold rush that's part of the problem. Not only did both Sony and Microsoft have to release separate consoles to cater to the resolution, they aren't making sales stronger as production costs go up. So eventually, we'll likely see another Tomb Raider situation where selling millions isn't good enough for the publisher.

Sad times we‘re heading. Always online and microtransactions are killing it in the long run. Keep your collection of offline SP games close to you fellow gamers. In ten years time you will want to come back to them ...

I think video games are the future of an art form.. theres music, graphics, drawings and also story.. single player games that are worth to keep, ends up to be my collection of “art” form.. maybe the difference about sony and ms is all about love and like in making games.. if you only like to make games.. you tend to think the outcome.. like money, time consuming, etc.. but if you love something you tend to go to the extreme.. not thinking about money, time consuming, is it gonna fail or not.. you simply just making games and thinking about ideas even theres no ones around.. i hope ms has the same thirst and love of this so called new form of art,.. if its hard and complicated just stop and rethink what has lost in the journey, xbox used to be great, but they just upped the hardware graphics and get the exclusive from recent playstation consoles.. and not from original ideas.. for ms please just dropped the business for a moment.. and just make people happy by making an original games.. like nintendo did..because in terms of hardware console selling, xbox its not just fights ps4.. its crushed by ps4.. and its a fact

Here's my take on it.
M$ bought their way into the games industry. Gave players everything they wanted with 360 and built up a fan base. They then decided we have a fan base now, (or more like didn't decide as it was all part of the long term plan) so with Xbox One we will now change the games industry to suit ourselves and get back some of the cash we spent getting into the industry. We'll focus on multiplayer and we'll tell gamers what they want. It's important we get gamers to subscribe to gold.
Your cunning plan is not working Bill.

I love single player experience. I don't have hours daily to play and upgrade my collection of loot. I want to play my way ease in when I want and have an experience I can remember. I don't want a freaking head to shoot me as soon as I arrive and restart maybe because he has a hundred hour playtime under his belt.

Every publisher must have his go at multiplayer. Also every publisher must have his go at single player.

If they implement multiplayer they should select the kind of players you play with according to age playtime and level. The last thing that I want during my relaxation time is a freaking ten year old shouting at me because he had nothing to do meanwhile I was hard working for my family and children.

@carlos82 I have the little bugger but Im kinda dissapointed how little effort was put in making it look better but then again it was €80.

@BAMozzy But where are you getting this info that it did not sell enough? It sold 3,56 retail and not counting digital. Now the Complete edition for a nice price which Im going to double dip. I just preordered the DLC before i heard no problem though i dont mind.

@Flaming_Kaiser What game are you on about??

I said IF H:ZD hadn't sold enough to recoup its £40m budget, Sony has many ways to recoup that loss. I never said it didn't sell enough. That's the reason why Sony are more inclined to invest in SP games because the Risk is not as impactful as it would be for some other publisher.

Its the same with ALL Sony's games. If they invest £50m on a SP game and it fails to sell enough to recoup that investment and any additional costs like advertising and marketing, they have many other sources of income to offset that loss. I bet the Order 1886 didn't make a profit but Sony can offset that by PS+ subscriptions, console, peripherals and PSN sales, Profits from the multitude of studios and their games.

H:ZD may have been a 'bad' example as we know that sold 'well' and is currently the 4th biggest selling Exclusive behind U4, and the 2 ND remastered games. It was the principal though. I could have used Days Gone - a new IP SP game that no-doubt has had a big investment from Sony but its not as much as a Risk as some other publishers may face.

I do think EA are making big excuses about SP games - after all they make $800m a year just from Fifa and that is more than enough to re-invest in a big SP game that, even if it turns out not to be 'profitable' could still be offset by the big profits that Fifa makes. EA though don't have consoles and profits coming in from ALL games released on that platform - especially from PSN sales. EA obviously loses 'some' profits to Sony and MS for the sales of their games on those platforms. A £40m game made and published by Sony would not need to sell as many games to be profitable as a £40m game published by EA, Activision etc.

IF you actually read my post though, you would see that I wasn't critical of H:ZD or its Sales at all. All I said though was that the 'risk' to Sony of making a SP game like H:ZD, Days Gone or any other Sony SP exclusive is a less than the Risk to others because of the multitude of other sources of 'profit' that Sony get in. This frees Sony up to invest in games like H:ZD and fortunately (and deservedly) that risk paid off.

@Flaming_Kaiser I thought the console looked nice but I have the European one which was quite nice to start with. If you mean the american one I can see your point as it's a bit ugly

Becoming complicated, is that why MS haven't released one for ages

It’s more simple and confortable to launch a game that the players have to do their “own story” by shooting everything up by no aparent reason, beside not to die. Rinse and repeat...

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