Multiplayer is a big deal these days, to the point where even a game focused on a single-player narrative feels the need to shoehorn some online component into the mix, regardless of whether or not it works. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has criticized this, because every now and then, he’s awesome.
“Let’s forget about what the actual promise of a game is and whether it’s suited to a narrative or competitive experience,” he mused. “Take that off the table for a minute and just think about the concept-free feature list: campaign, co-op, how many players? How many guns? How long is the campaign?
“When you boil it down to that, you take the ability to make good decisions out of the picture. And the reason they do it is because they notice that the biggest blockbusters offer a little bit for every kind of consumer. You have people that want co-op and competitive, and players who want to immerse themselves in deep fiction. But the concept has to speak to that automatically; it can’t be forced. That’s the problem.
Pitchford used Dead Space 2 as a specific example, adding: “It’s ceiling-limited; it’ll never do 20 million units. The best imaginable is a peak of four or five million units if everything works perfectly in your favour. So the bean counters go: ‘How do I get a higher ceiling?’ And they look at games that have multiplayer.
“They’re wrong, of course. What they should do instead is say that they’re comfortable with the ceiling, and get as close to the ceiling as possible. Put in whatever investment’s required to focus it on what the promise is all about.”
As someone who totally supports the concept of the single-player game, I have to agree with Pitchford here. Of course, I’d love to see Gearbox practice what Pitchford preaches. As great as Borderlands is, it felt a bit flat in terms of character, and I feel that the faux-MMO vibe was to blame. I’d love to see the studio focus on crafting a good story with that series, personally.
