Has Single-Player Gaming Run Out of Steam?

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Written by BuckGB on September 27th, 2007

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"When you discuss 'replayability' in any given game, that replayability is usually driven by one of two things: a strong multiplayer component that makes gamers come back because every time they play online, it's a different experience, or new content that continues to expand the single-player campaign. Typically, multiplayer drives gamers to come back again and again more frequently than any sort of single-player campaign."

This is a step change for Shadowrun, where previous instalments in the franchise were highly regarded single-player RPGs. So does this move to exclusively online content suggest that single-player gaming is reaching its expiry date? Gitelman says that the move to online is the result of the team's experience with online gaming. "We leveraged the skills and knowledge of those great people to create an online competitive game with Shadowrun. It really played to our strengths and I'm incredibly proud of what the team accomplished."

So will Shadowrun return to its story-based roots? "There is definitely a market and demand for a more conventional single-player action/RPG based in the Shadowrun universe," he says. "I'd love to see it get created. But what would really be cool is a meta game - story game, in other words - that could be affected by the multiplayer play. There's a challenge for game designers."

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