Online popularity killing gaming.

[seasprite]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

I never saw GTA going online. Especially to the point where they completely ignored single player DLC. I hope what I'm suggesting never happens. But it already did with GTA. The two single player DLC's for GTA IV were nothing short of outstanding. And then they complete 60% of the single player DLC for GTA V, and literally just quit because of GTA Online. That's just scary. They probably spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in development, voice acting, programming, etc., and then just said, "meh, Online will make up for it." And they were right. $500 million in online alone, and that was months ago. It's probably not unreasonable to think they'll make $1 billion from GTA Online alone. That's simply incredible.

Again, I agree that there's a market for single player story games, but there's a bigger, much more lucrative market for online games that include an infinite amount of microtransaction. If a company that generally makes single player story games includes an online mode that all of a sudden makes them hundreds of millions of dollars, where do you think their emphasis will be moving forward?

As of right now GTA is the only developer that I know of that has experienced what happened with GTA Online. And I hope it's just an isolated case. But I would be beyond surprised if Red Dead Redemption 2 didn't have a huge emphasis on the online portion of the game. And the same I'll go for GTA VI. And Rockstar will become trend setters for that model.

Again, I hope I'm wrong. But I know some huge Triple-A titles on the horizon have these online modes. If they make the company big bucks, their desire to create single player content will diminish significantly. Cyberpunk 2077 could be the next example of this. That's the developers of The Witcher (as I'm sure most of you know).

The games I look forward to the most for the next few years are, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Starfield, and ultimately the next installment of The Elder Scrolls.

And I could not possibly care less about what those games offer in regards to online modes. Unfortunately, for millions of gamers, that's all that they will care about.

I read an article that said 90% of gamers that buy these big open-world Triple-A games will never see the single player ending unless they YouTube it. I believe that wholeheartedly.


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I know where the emphasis is going and I believe I already posted my thoughts about that.... I think it's a good thing. The more money involved, the more innovation we are hopefully going to see. The video game market has exploded over the past decade and many woild argue that most of that is contributed to online capability of games.

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[DocHolliday]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

They are simply following the money. Monetizing the game after the initial buy has sky rocketed video game stocks.


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[DellyTrey23]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

Well, that's my point. I'm afraid that they will be, eventually. All it will take is for other developers to have similar success that Rockstar had with GTA Online. Again, Rockstar was on record saying they were going to make a "substantial," amount of single player DLC. And we didn't get any of it whatsoever. It was completely abandoned once Online became popular. I firmly believe that Bethesda's next big IP is coming in 2018 and will be an open-world space game called Starfield. I also believe it will be the first game from Bethesda Game Studios that has an online component.

If Bethesda made $500 million from the online mode alone, their emphasis would shift. Just like Rockstar. There's undoubtedly a market for single player, story driven games, at least right now. But once companies that make them start making hundreds of millions of dollars from their online modes like Rockstar, they'll stop.

That is my ultimate fear. I've read a few articles that talk about how there won't be games like the ones Naughty Dog makes after five or six more years. And as I stated in my original post, I won't be the least bit surprised if Red Dead Redemption 2 gets no single player DLC and if GTA VI has a 10-15 hour single player "throw-in," story that costs Rockstar minimum development time/money.

It's sad, really.



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True but our main beloved IP's won't be affected by this. Look at Bethesda they made an Elder Scrolls Online because they don't want to have it intervene with the main line of Elder Scrolls games. I'm telling you right now when we get a Witcher 4, Elder Scrolls 6, Persona 6 etc it will bring more hype to offline games. The reason why online games have become more dominant the past few years (although there was a shift of balance in 2015 which kept momentum through this year where offline games made a comeback) is because of how barebones 2013-14 was. The first two years of the new consoles was heavily lacking in offline story driven games. Lets start with 2013, AC Black Flag and GTA V were ports. In 2014 we got a heavily downgraded Watch Dogs 1 which was a blunder. AC Unity is self explanatory what a mess. The two games that stood out were Dragon Age Inquisition and Shadow Of Mordor. Those two games ignited a flame back in the RPG genre and come 2015, Witcher 3 came and blew everyone away and made the statement that story driven non linear RPG's are here to stay. Bloodborne and Dark Souls helped keep JRPG's relevant and then FFXV came which was a good game but had its flaws especially Chapter 13. Persona 5 is what changed the game for JRPG's this year that was a hit. That lasting effect also rubbed off with Yakuza 0 which has been a franchise since 2005 and never was popular in the west until earlier this year. As for the Sandbox genre since GTA has buried Saints Row and other similar games including the terrible Mafia 3, Rockstar have all the power in that genre of games. I believe Rockstar games will always be story driven but an online presence will be larger now after the success of GTA Online.

[Gagnon39]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

Bethesda Game Studios did not make ESO.


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[ESPNdeportes]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

They are simply following the money. Monetizing the game after the initial buy has sky rocketed video game stocks.


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This is the whole "Games as a Service thing." Release a product, continually update it, but also gives strong incentives for people to keep spending money. Compare that a one-and-done story game, and there aren't as many ways for them to make money.

http://kotaku.com/top-video-game-com...mes-1795663927

[HustlinOwl]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

with the prices leagues charge for exclusivity rights in sports games, the MUT, HUT, and DD make it even possible for these games to exist

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

with the prices leagues charge for exclusivity rights in sports games, the MUT, HUT, and DD make it even possible for these games to exist

One doesn't need exclusivity rights to make a profitable sports game though. EA goes that route to kill the competition, not for profit.

[HustlinOwl]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

One doesn't need exclusivity rights to make a profitable sports game though. EA goes that route to kill the competition, not for profit.

need the license though and thats not cheap

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

True, but they were easily able to afford the license long before Ultimate Team.

[Smallville102001]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

I just about never play online as I prefer single player store modes and franchise mode in sports games and find that most people online are to good and its just not fun and I think it is also wrong that all consoles charge for online now. Splatoon 2 I am playing online and love but I cant remember the last time I played online outside of that game. I think online should be 100% free to play as while. With that said I don't think it is getting killed as there are a lot of good/great single player games still and I would say very few games are like really online with very little offline gameplay. Most video games still have a lot you can do offline. DLC is something I am not for either most of the time as it already cost a lot of money to buy systems/games but not all games have a DLC and fell like they held back things just to make more money. I understand why DLC and online game play are such a big thing though as it makes companies a lot of money. If DLC didn't sale so great and if people were not willing to pay money all the time to play online and for microtransactions then they would not be such a big thing or they would cost a let less then they do now. Its just another way for companies to make even more of a profit.

[RockinDaMike]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

I'm with you. Since I moved to the Philippines, the internet is just terrible for me so I went from a heavy online user to single player the last 5 years. It takes days to download one game so I don't even attempt online gaming.

What's good is that I'm building a PC and went on Steam and there's a ton of single player games that will keep me busy for years and I'll get them dirt cheap when I'm ready to play them.

My backlog is so huge now that I'll stop buying new games, minus nba 2k and just enjoy the great games that came out a year or two before.

Maybe a suggestion is to be open to try a new genre that you never played and that can open up a big catalog of games you can try at a discount.

[bvb24]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

GTA is a totally unique situation. What other game is putting out monthly DLC for a 4 year old game? How many games will be able to do this and maintain a massive audience with massive profits? To me it seems like there are more and more open world games coming out each year so I don't see any negative affect in this genre.

Sports games are a different story. Ultimate team has totally changed the development cycle and will continue to dominate the developers time. I've just accepted this. The only way I can even play franchise modes now is with a bunch of "house rules."

[cheddabob7502]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

I know I'm guilty of Playing (majority of last year) Madden Online ranking matches. It's just fun out thinking an opponent and beating them down with my Niners . But I do feel your point about having games catering more towards online gaming. This topic reminds me of TitanFall. I was stoked to get my hands on the game and dive into campaign. Then once I found out there is no true single player campaign, that was a killer for me. I stopped playing it and uninstalled the game.

I do agree that story/single player campaign or offline franchises are not what they use to be. I love playing those games by myself and that's how i grew up gaming. Was with original story mode games from Sega/Nintendo days. I'll play online matches hear and there but majority of my gaming is in offline modes.

But gameplay is always key. Like Ryse:Son of Rome is an amazing fun game. I can't wait for Shadows of Mordor either. Hope Madden gameplay is as good as it's advertised.

[bhurst99]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

I'm basically a single player only guy but I don't think online popularity is killing gaming.

We've had too many good single player only experiences to believe that with games like Horizon, Fallout 4, Skyrim, Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

There's certainly more of an emphasis on milking multi-player experiences for every penny gamers have with DLC, microtransactions, etc. I'm glad I'm not part of that.

[Herky]

Re: Online popularity killing gaming.

I love story and choice driven games where you grow your character. While I do enjoy Destiny that story was just a side piece to what could have been a really cool universe.

BioWare putting focus on Anthem ticked me off. That company is know for story driven games and while Anthem might be good, they really sold Andromada short in terms of the dev team and resources.

I do like playing online at times but I'm an old school gamer at heart who mainly just like to hunker down and play solo. Games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout, and Skyrim are my stables along with Madden and The Show. I don't need multiplayer to enjoy them.