Baldur's Gate 3 remains one of the best single player RPGs released in recent memory, arguably of all time, and is all the better for allowing co-op. Nevertheless, founder and CEO Swen Vincke has taken aim at those who say single-player gaming is dead, a familiar discourse that has once again reared its predictable head.
Vincke came out swinging on Twitter/X, and as primarily solitary players, we couldn't agree more when he said: "That time of the year again when big single-player games are declared dead. Use your imagination. They're not. They just have to be good."
Considering that Kingdom Come: Deliverance II went and did a Baldur's Gate 3 earlier this year, blowing expectations out of the water, meaningfully moving the venerable RPG genre forward, and captivating millions of players for hundreds of hours, single-player games seem alive and well to us. Of course, these two are exceptional examples. But then, that's sort of the point.
It's unclear who managed to get under Vincke's skin. Still, in a follow-up, he explained his reason for speaking out: "The why of this tweet is hearing chatter about important industry figures stating there is no future for (big) single-player games. Which means discouraging investment in (big) single-player games. Which bothers me. Because I don't think they have it right. The problem is that this type of attitude has consequences. Because before you know, it becomes a mantra."
Obviously, single-player games aren't dead, but can you see what Vincke means? Take to the comments section, alone, and become immersed in an engaging experience all your own.
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As opposed to multiplayer games which can be rubbish and still thrive. 😉
In all fairness, there are other important key factors like development cycle, marketing and release timing that can effect the end result. But I do agree that media, industry analysts and enthusiasts have been way too cynical about single player games when there have been many successful ones that say otherwise like SH2 Remake, Metaphor, Astro Bot, Persona 3 Reload, Balatro, Dragon's Dogma 2, and Black Myth: Wukong. It's just becoming a tougher contest for people's time with how many great games come out these days.
I'm tired of single-player games and multiplayer games. Where are the zero-player games?
@HotGoomba The cookie clicker idle games are pretty good!
Manage your budget, manage your expectations, manage your marketing, manage your QA.
All these managers and everything is mismanaged. Maybe fire the managers, especially HR, and just let the nerds cook.
I mean he’s not wrong, but unfortunately just being good is not sufficient enough to guarantee a game will do good in the current climate
Sadly not all good single player games can sold well enough to recoup the cost or even turn profit 😔
Games like Kunitsu Gami, Gravity Rush, Puppeteer, God Hand, and Haunting Ground are some examples of good games that doesn't sold well and overlooked by gaming community. Heck, one of them, God Hand, was a victim of false review by western gaming journalist who doesn't have enough knowledge to review a character action game.
The problem is "good" is extremely subjective. Doesn't matter how good a game is, I don't play anything first person, or sports, or too difficult,more too brown, or too PC looking,more retro looking, or pixelated.
It doesn't matter how great a point and click adventure is, it's not going to do Cod numbers. And is Cod even that good? Is FIFA /EA FC even always great, or just the only game in town. Same for Madden and MLB The Show.
Broken isn't subjective, broken is broken, but a game can run great but not be of interest to people.
And then there's install base. I think there are several games that sold poorly on Wii U that did just fine on Switch. And there's another one releasing soon.
Just another guy, just another opinion. Having a game be "good" as in not broken is probably a good Vaseline for ALL games though,single, multi, free, etc. Don't release your game broken.😝
Funny because I hear way more horror stories about live service than I do about single player games. The real reason the industry wants live service is because it’s easier and cheaper to make one game for 15-20 years. Gaming will die for many many people when and if ot goes full live service.
I literally could not care less about game sales except with regards to sequels being commissioned. I do not care how many copies are sold, a game is good regardless of how it sells, same as movies in the box office. Perhaps if everything didn’t need to be the next big thing or the studio faces death then it would be a healthier space.
I love my single player games.
@breakneck Veilguard was not good. Neither the story not the gameplay were good enough to make you want to play this game for 50+ hours. That's why it didn't sell.
Let me tell what the Devs who said that single player games are dead actually meant: "Stop playing them because we do not get a continuous supply of cash from your time."
That's it. They hoped single player games were dead. EA and Ubusoft tried desperately hard to make it happen. Even Bethesda were open about this during the release of Fallout 76, with Todd Howard bitching about not making any money from the thousands of people still playing Fallout 4.
@breakneck "nothing worst than some JRPGS" that genre looks AA 99% of the time. They didn't have the budget of Veilguard. With high budget comes high sales targets. And Veilguard was not good enough to entice people into purchasing it.
Single player games have never been dead.
I'm convinced this line of thinking was started by greedy execs who wanted to push live service slop and now no-one can get over it because it generates headlines and engagement.
And now here I am feeding the machine lol.
I can't even remember the last time I played a multiplayer game...
This is entirely subjective Multiplayer games are DEAD to me.
I like Swen Vincke but this statement is so obvious it doesn't need stating. Plenty of single player games succeed and plenty of multiplayer games fail and vice versa.
He's not wrong. We do tend to put rose tinted glasses on about the past eras, but a lot of rubbish got released too. I'm a singleplayer gamer all the way, I guess the silver lining is these devs really have to make incrediable titles to stand out...then bring it on. Just pls, let studios that specialize in the format, make those type of games, it usually doesn't end well when they don't.
It's very well for a game to be good and fun.... and not sell well. Developers should focus on that instead of following trends.
Single player games are the best and what people grow up with.so it's always going be there. Word up son
This is completely true. I only play single player games lately, even Monster Hunter Wilds in the Single Player Online server.
If it’s a fun or interesting game, I will buy and play it. Xenoblade Chronicles X will be taking my time soon, and Suikoden 1 & 2 are already on my Switch. BG3 is one that I have not purchased yet, but once it hits that $30 sale, I will probably get it.
No such thing as a dead genre, you just need good games.
I mean, except light gun games, band games and dance games, those genres are dead since you also need special hardware for those.
I'm the only one in my friend group that prefers offline single player open world RPGs which is a shame.
Multiplayer options are irrelevant. I started out single player in the 70's or local coop in the living room. I haven't experienced an online part of a game in over a decade as its generally an awful experience. Apart from racing, then it's great to play virtual dodgems with all the carp as I never play enough to get top leagues. But my kids do nothing else. Bit of balance there.
Swen is my spirit animal.
Whoever says single player games are dead can get in the bin
If you spend bazillions of money and years of work developing a game that plays exactly like 100s of other games, that’s on you, not “single player games being dead”.
I think some of the decision makers that are claiming this don’t understand what “good” is. Biggest isn’t always better, more visually appealing isn’t always better, more complex isn’t always better, etc. granted Baldurs Gate 3 is all of these things and still better, but cmon. All these companies could quite easily make an incredible game like that if they tried, it’s not like their devs aren’t talented.
Plenty of good single player games failed. We just saw that with Prince of Persia. Delusional statement.
The last 3 games I've played: God Of War: Ragnarok, Prince of Persia, and Dragon Age: Veilguard. All single player games! Absolutely love them all! And before anyone jumps on me for liking Veilguard. No, it's not Inquisition. But it's still good.
@Shad361 Prince Of Persia is so good! I hate that it failed the way it did.
@CielloArc Guitars are being made again for Fortnite, the genre’s huge because of everyone playing Clone Hero or YARG so Epic created Fortnite Festival and it’s doing well.
I love more.offliness, coop, single player games. And sure! Had to be good!
Sadly, the game doesn't need to be good; it must fit a set definition of mass-market "good." If you follow the formula you may find success.
They fall into some core categories:
The Casual Gamer:
AAA Sports games - FC25, NBA 2K25
Large Franchises - Harry Potter, Spiderman
PlayStation "Filmic" games - God of War, The Last of US, Death Stranding
The Nerds:
Historical and Fantasy games - Witcher 3, KCD 2, Dragons Dogma, Warhammer, BG3 (D&D)
JRPGs - Persona, Xenoblade, Like a Dragon
The Hardcore Gamer:
Souls Like Games - Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Wukong
The Family Gamer:
Nintendo games - Mario, Zelda, Pokémon
Everyone:
Rockstar games - Any
The problem with the industry is that they pour so much money into each game that comes out it needs to make major bank to be considered a success. Cutting back on realistic graphics and making the worlds smaller would go a long way to trim the costs and raise their profit margins.
As if that wasn't hard to work out it's just companies/execs/publishers don't care unless it makes the amount of money they want/what they can understand/see and don't care.
DVD/Blu-Rays are dull of menus/features nowadays even.
They don't know how to market, put effort in and not make them dull, they want money, don't understand game design and make slop.
People that care/understand it make points like this of players/developers, but only those making a video essay/in the dev space people actually listen to and we know as well as they do they are right and agree with them.
But those that don't/and don't care it's pretty obvious they want it to happen and don't care how you get it or agree by their word as final, change it later and the projects end up all over the place.
Many modern games have me thinking up ideas in them then to actually buy them because they lack anything compelling mechanically. Their structure/formulas are boring and the tone/worlds/story/level design and graphics are just boring so I ignore them because I know what I want in games and it's from old games not for nostalgia but quality/variety of ideas and execution we don't see anymore.
RPGs with mechanics/maps with good level design ideas in them not just story as the only focus and sub par combat/level design is a big one for me. It's why I prefer tactics games I find most turn based/action RPGs quests and level design boring.
Platformers with good movesets not just look at the characters/world and are super boring. It's a mechanics based genre, why wouldn't I judge it on that.
Shooter maps/enemies/guns and AI for them. Not the bland MP games we see these days when more dynamic or interesting mechanics happened. Give me Battlefield 2 Modern Combat jump between characters around the map EA. It won't happen. But I'll still keep that game for that mechanic no doubt.
Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands Wii or PS3/360, Wii for sure it was more fun even if PS3/360 is a fair game. Wii ones was more mechanically interesting besides being good at using the Wiimote.
Prioritizes are different nowadays. SO PS3/360/Wii it is besides the odd 8th gen that DO appeal to me rarely but still do, it depends on their execution though.
Even MP games I don't care for I can still have ideas for, they just choose to be lazy/make the bare minimum or focus on cosmetics and boring maps/gameplay or textures. That's on them.
Part 2:
Racing games with boring or few modes/event types & stretched to 20 hours, that's on them I am gladly enjoying the same length & more modes/event types in older games because they put effort in.
Not just esports, passion the team has and players go why did this take 1 year for a DLC no one cares about/doesn't function well anyway, or modelling tires/licensed cars.
Even Wreckfest also having no licenses and yet has the same boring minimal 2 modes. Older games cared more. FM8 is just wow racing, give me bowling, point a to b, drag, speedways or other things 1-7 even had.
Races/derbies, 2 event types. I saw/enjoyed more in older games. Even Flatout 2 had the driver throw across maps thing, we won't see that anymore, too violent for people with no brain. Sigh.
2 I will complain about if it doesn't put effort in either with new event types and just recycling/remixing the same.
Wrecreation should be good or else why bother with a creative project like it.
I don't seek classes of cars/disciplines they would say it's too hard to do, they don't even need to offer that.
I seek progression & working within certain rules is totally fine. If only rally, only street, only circuits, but add a bowling, time gates, drift, hillclimbs, touge or other stuff modes, that's fine. That's all I want yet we can't even get that. They offer the bare minimum or think we forget what old games offered. No I don't and play them/buy them over modern games. XD
I got many gate/cone/time trial and more modes in WRC3 an annual game and it's my favourite entry. The later ones or even some of the older ones are bland in comparison.
NFS Unbound compared to Carbon, PGR or others, event types, layouts, etc. How they handle it is the problem.
Playing PS3/360 games it was clear how much presentation/game design many still appeal to me that 8th/9th gen don't and some PS3/360 games bore me.
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2010 is ok, but the Wii version appealed to me more and that isn't getting re-released any time soon so glad I played it. I binged that game, 360/Switch copies on it, barely played because the presentation/game design wasn't as appealing. I've played all Burnout games, doesn't mean I think HP 2010 is that great either. People praise presentation, I praise game design and if I can sit to play it/make a purchase.
So yeah PS2/PSP/Wii versions to me were more fun. I don't seek presentation, old console versions were more fun to me. Not just oh fancy worlds, lighting, particles, etc. but the core was always better or sure lesser menus but who cares.
Indie nostalgia is annoying so I only purchase the ones that appeal to me and being up front even if harsh about those I think need to put more effort in. Because I want them to not take the easy money option/play it safe like AAA do.
That one is brutal and its true.
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