Wolfenstein Would Be Diluted From Multiplayer Features, Says Narrative Designer

At a time when many publishers are looking for more of a microtransaction (like EA’s supposed [...]

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At a time when many publishers are looking for more of a microtransaction (like EA's supposed business model), multiplayer-laden sort of gaming experience, it appears that Bethesda is staying true to single player experiences, what with The Evil Within 2, Doom and Skyrim for Nintendo Switch, and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus focusing more on the player going solo.

But there's a good reason for that, in the case of Wolfenstein, at least. The last two games we've seen in the series, The New Order and The Old Blood, have both been lacking multiplayer, and the same goes for Colossus. Narrative designer Tommy Tordsson Bjork recently spoke to GamesIndustry International about why this was such an obvious choice.

"The only way we can create these super immersive narrative experiences is if we can solely focus on the single player," he noted. "Having a multiplayer component in this work process would just dilute it all. That's the danger if you try to do two things at once."

And no better example of that is Bethesda's own Doom in 2016. Single player thrived with an action-packed campaign, but a lot of players saw its multiplayer as more of an afterthought – though some appreciated the feature.

"We just keep our heads together, and focus on making a really good single player game," said Bjork. "Doing our thing is what makes the game great."

And he's right. Both of the Wolfenstein games offered up lots of thrills and chills without the need to get other players involved, and something tells us that New Colossus will follow a similar path.

Of course, this has been the company's mantra for some time. Back in 2014, speaking with CVG, Pete Hines explained that the developers at Machine Games are all about "interesting and compelling single player experiences" without multiplayer getting in the way.

Now, we're not sure if future Bethesda products will follow this mantra – the multiplayer-laden Quake Champions is doing quite well for the company – but fans probably wouldn't want it any other way. Especially now, with so many other publishers changing their plans for success.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus releases on October 27th for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. It'll be released in early 2018 on Nintendo Switch.

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