Frustrated by a new survey that shows most people prefer single-player games, a reader argues that big publishers have no interest in giving people what they want.
I’m glad that a lot of attention was given that this week, to the report which says that most people prefer single-player games to multiplayer. I particularly liked the interview with the IO Interactive boss and how it was said that publishers are obsessed with making the games they want to be a hit and not what people actually want.
You don’t have to be an industry expert to see that big companies are making less single-player games than ever and are still trying to roll a double six and get a hit live service game… while always coming up with snake eyes. The idea that they’re making art or care about anything they’re doing other than making money is laughable, although you could argue it’s naïve to expect otherwise.
But what has become increasingly obvious about the rise of indie gaming is that they’re successful because they do two things which traditional publishers refuse to do: they keep prices low and they make games people want. Perhaps more importantly they make games that the developer wanted to make, not just to turn a profit but because they have a passion to create something good.
Now, before you think I’m romanticising the situation too much, clearly indie developers want to make a profit too. Many of them probably got into the business specifically to make money, and the love of the game was secondary, but at least it wasn’t 20th. If you’re going to put yourself through all the risk and uncertainty of being an indie developer, I’ve got to believe you’re in it for more than just the reward. Otherwise, you’d just get a safer job programming something else.
Almost all the nominations for Game of the Year at The Game Awards are indie games or smaller publishers, like IO Interactive, and that’s clearly not an accident. The big publishers like EA and Take-Two and Ubisoft have had their day. They’re not going away but they long ago stopped making anything new or anything that isn’t a $300 million monster than takes 10 years to make.
I’m not saying I’m not interested in all their stuff – I’ve enjoyed Battlefield 6 and I’m looking forward to GTA 6 – but they are not the heart of the games industry anymore. All they do is make the same games again and again, while making less and less of anything else. Activision already only makes Call Of Duty and look at the trouble that’s getting them in, when the new one doesn’t sell as much.
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Japanese publishers are mostly immune to all this, because their budgets are much smaller. People used to laugh at Nintendo being purposefully backwards with their tech but who’s been laughing the loudest the last two gens? Especially as Nintendo actually do give fans what they want.
It’s time we realised that big publishers aren’t there to make our dream games come true. They don’t care at all what we want, only what they can convince us to buy, that will make them lots of money. For a long time now they’ve realised multiplayer is more lucrative, because if you like something you encourage your friends to buy it too, so you can play with them – rather than just sharing it if it’s single-player.
Once microtransactions took over there was no question. The money you make from a multiplayer game with DLC and cosmetics and everything is infinitely more than a single-player game you play once and never touch again (and probably sell on, in the old days).
So publishers want to make us want that sort of game. They push multiplayer and live service games on us constantly, because that’s what they like – from a business point of view. Video game trends aren’t always set by gamers. We have to break away, get off the tracks that the publishers want us to trundle around on, travelling from one sequel to the next.
We need to embrace indie game makers and those that are actually in gaming to please ordinary gamers, not investors and shareholders. So for anyone that hasn’t bought Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 or EA Sports FC 26 this year I salute you, you’re sending out a message. Just as one will be sent out if EA mess up Battlefield 6 or try to make its sequel something worse.
As consumers we have the power over publishers, it should be us they’re trying to please, not themselves. And I like to hope this is the year that started to become true.
By reader Gamborne
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