EA’s boss Frank Gibeau has said a fairly contentious thing which I will write here but only if you promise to read on after the break and get the whole context of the thing. Promise? Ok, good. “I have not green lit one game to be developed as a single player experience.”
Gibeau was speaking for aCloud Gaming USAreport in which the interviews are all leaning towards why cloud gaming is a big deal and what the companies are doing to adapt to the technology. Gibeau’s answer was to the question “EA has made some huge achievements in digital – what doyou see as the key growth areas moving forward?” and his fuller response was “We are very proud of the way EA evolved with consumers. I have notgreen lit one game to be developed as a single player experience. Today, all of our games include online applications and digital servicesthat make them live 24/7/365.”
Now, let’s look past the 24/7 thing, becauseit’sjust not true.
He is not saying that he’s proud to refuse the commission of any singleplayer only game, though his sequence of speech certainly allows to conflate to that conclusion, but he is saying that he has actively opposed the creation of a singleplayer game with EA money. Which certainly suggests that EA sees no place for a singleplayer game. He offers no reason for this knocking down of the singleplayer games, only that “a platform that connects consumers across multiple devicesis going to allow us to provide a much better experience for gameplayers.” Suggesting that a connected experience is a better experience. That a singleplayer game is a worse game for not having multiplayer. The oddity of it is the confidence in the multiplayer element and denying the choice of a singleplayer only game.
It’s worth reading the full piece to be sure you’re clear on exactly what Gibeau is saying, because it sounds like EA are willingly, and actively, limiting the variety in their catalogue for no reason other than a hopethat multiplayer makes games better.