EA has come out and expressed the importance of single-player games following a recent controversy. If you keep a close eye on the industry and have been around for a while, you’ll know that EA does not have the best history with single player games. Former EA Games president Frank Gibeau stated in 2010 that single player games were largely dead and people should expect a shift toward online games. After this, people began to notice games like Dead Space 3 featuring co-op with microtransactions and games like Star Wars Battlefront launching without campaigns. It was a pretty alarming move and one that proved to backfire in many cases while major single player games like Skyrim, God of War, and others would continue to dominate.
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In June, EA made a joke tweet that many saw as anti-single player games, prompting all kinds of backlash from the community and even EA developers. It was a wild affair to say the least and EA is still trying to make up for it. During an earnings call earlier this week, EA CEO Andrew Wilson emphasized the importance of the games in their portfolio and offered some insight into how they choose to make games. With that said, CFO Chris Suh still noted that live service, online games are a major part of EA’s success and the company will continue to invest in those kinds of games.
“As we think about single-player games, we think it’s a really, really important part of the overall portfolio that we deliver in the fulfillment of those core motivations,” said Wilson. “The way we will plan for it all the time is really just looking at our community, and looking at how they’re spending their time, and looking at where motivations may or may not be fulfilled. And we’ll look to supplement that with the addition of new online games, new multiplayer games, and new single-player games.”
EA will release Star Wars Jedi: Survivor next year as a single player only game. EA will also publish the remake of Dead Space in early 2023. With that said, most of the publisher’s games still look to be multiplayer-focused, but there is a healthy variety amongst the company’s portfolio.
Are you happy with how EA is handling single-player games lately? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
[H/T Twinfinite]
