Phil Harrison: "Single player game's days are numbered."

[Steelmaker]

"Former Sony Computer Entertainment America front man and current Infogrames president Phil Harrison made the bold claim Wednesday that the games industry will soon move away from single-player titles, like Alone in the Dark, and into strictly multiplayer experiences."

Incidentally, I disagree with Phil but if for any reason this is true I am officially done with gaming!

[SDon1969]

I disagree as well, I still know a lot of players who don't go online much. My time goes about 75% single player and 25% online play.

[jw]

i dont go online at all, ps3 isnt connected

[Beta Man]

I have two PS3s, and one game.... COD4, and I ONLY play online.... it's the most fun.... AI can be good... but never as good as real-people.... so I like to sniper people

[Mr. Hanky]

Originally Posted by Steelmaker

"Former Sony Computer Entertainment America front man and current Infogrames president Phil Harrison made the bold claim Wednesday that the games industry will soon move away from single-player titles, like Alone in the Dark, and into strictly multiplayer experiences."

Incidentally, I disagree with Phil but if for any reason this is true I am officially done with gaming!

Agreed!...I hope it isn't ending. I am definitely "old school" on this issue, in that my videogame interest is captured by an interesting story/premise/theme as a means to a journey, rather than to test my mettle against other live players in a deathmatch. While I can understand the appeal for the latter, I don't think it is the end-all/be-all of gaming (or shouldn't be).

I've been in an online match once, just to try it out on Resistance. Can't say I was any good, and ultimately, I get the fps-headache, anyway (so I was at a distinct disadvantage to say the least). Most annoying were the annoying pops/clicks from other people's headset audio chatter and the one annoying guy who must have had the microphone inside his mouth, he was so loud. I was playing the game with volume at a polite nighttime level, and then every so often I get this blaring audio chatter at the level of a full-on explosion in home theater mode!

[NJ_RAMS_FAN]

Originally Posted by SDon1969

I disagree as well, I still know a lot of players who don't go online much. My time goes about 75% single player and 25% online play.

same here. i spend about 90% single and 10% online. i only go online when my friends go online..

[eli1277]

hardly ever online, to many dumbasses online to have fun playing games.

[NJ_RAMS_FAN]

Originally Posted by eli1277

hardly ever online, to many dumbasses online to have fun playing games.

true, i remember my days of counter strike on pc. man it was fun but then people start using cheats which is dump.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by eli1277

hardly ever online, to many dumbasses online to have fun playing games.

Which is exactly why this won't happen.

There's many older gamers like me (over 30) who don't want to deal with immature geeks while trying to play a game.

[Chocolatejas]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

Which is exactly why this won't happen.

There's many older gamers like me (over 30) who don't want to deal with immature geeks while trying to play a game.

Yup. I hardly play online. I refuse to get a head set. I remember hearing crap on the last PS2 game I played online. No thanks.

[Bluoholic]

Who listens to this guy? He overhypered shyt when was with Sony and overhypes shyt now... Every Sony pre e3 conferences I wished he would stop talking so much.

[silversnake]

this is the most ridiculous claim i have ever heard. i would have expected this from a guy from xbox but not from sony.

Single player should never die , it's what gets you in the mood to play the multiplayer

[jkwest]

This guy needs to come up to my neighborhood and try to get anything over dialup....

Until that day....not going to happen.

[Marquoz]

I hope that Phil is completely wrong, there is still a lot of fun hanging out at home, playing a game by yourself when sick, or have a day off. Unless a game online is a complete clean slate every time you start it, casual gamers will be run off because they can't compete with those people that are on 24/7. That is most of the reason I have never gotten into MMORPGs, I don't have the time to level up, and keep paying over and over for a game I already own.

Then there is the problem of pay for perks. That also upsets the balance of games for casual gamers. If I log on day one, and am going against somebody who has spent hundreds of dollars to upgrade their character with things I'll never buy, that doesn't make it enjoyable for me.

I hope the shift doesn't become everything online, I will end up having to buy an old computer, and going back to the gold box D&D games.

[Vampyre]

Originally Posted by Steelmaker

"Former Sony Computer Entertainment America front man and current Infogrames president Phil Harrison made the bold claim Wednesday that the games industry will soon move away from single-player titles, like Alone in the Dark, and into strictly multiplayer experiences."

Incidentally, I disagree with Phil but if for any reason this is true I am officially done with gaming!

I hope this isn't true. I like playing with myself.

[WickyWoo]

It's pretty obvious that Sony has gone from one extreme to the other

First the guys in Japan were tying the hands of the good people doing PSN, now it looks like they're throwing everything behind them and them only

For every Battlefield or Quake there's 30 games with an online component that people yawn over and leave. Good games get one or the other. The games people remember forever are the single player experiences every time. The best recent feature has been (finally) the ability to play through the single player modes with people online, but I wouldn't want to do that with Doom 3 or Bioshock for example. Having somoene else "with" you ruins the atmosphere

[Bluoholic]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

It's pretty obvious that Sony has gone from one extreme to the other

What Sony has to do with this topic? It's Harrison who spouts out this stupidity and he is not with Sony anymore, but you probably knew that a month before Harrison left them.

[Steelmaker]

Well what Phil seems to forget is that there are certain genres of games that do not lend themselves well to multi player. Things like Japanese RPG's, platformers, 3rd person adventure games, etc. What are devs going to do? Abandon all of these genres??

The only way I see this becoming true is if developers no longer want to invest the time and resources into developing AI into their titles. I'm no programmer but I would have to think that by omitting AI development, it would cut down development time/costs considerably.