are single player campaigns dying out?

i have noticed for years that online game genre is being favored over single player campaigns now thats fine if you love online gaming but me i always enjoyed single player campaigns now big companies are pushing online gaming over single player campaigns take rainbow six siege the developers stated that they worked on the online part first and single player second.I think that its almost like its dying out

what do you think are single player campaigns dying out?

Dunno, plenty of single player RPG to play. The Witchers 3, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, etc or games like Life Is Strange etc that are single player ...

There is plenty of single player games to be played. Multiplayer is more common in fighting games, sports games, shooting games.

While there is a steady growth in online gaming, I've been playing single player games almost exclusively this gen. There are a lot of superb ones to choose from.

• Pikmin 3
• Bloodborne
• Bayonetta 2
• Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
• Super Mario 3D World
• Batman Arkham Knight
• New Super Mario Bros U
• etc

No they're not dying out. There's still a lot of single player campaigns in games these days. I think that some people just feel this way because online multiplayer has been growing very rapidly in the past two console generations. Things are simply just becoming more balanced.

It's not dying out. Single player has been an afterthought in many shooter games for years. Just more recently, I guess, they started leaving out the single player to focus on online.

But there are still plenty of single player games.

Not at all, we still have the new DOOM game that will focus on single player and that's saying something that single player isn't dead and won't be going anywhere, that's just suicide for the gaming industry to do so. When it comes to first person shooters, I always enjoy singe player liner shooters such as DOOM and such.

Nah they're not dying out (thank goodness!)... but if by some chance they eventually do, that'll be it for gaming for me.

I don't think so....I only play single player games.....games are my escape.....and I still find games to play.

Same here. It seem that multiplayers are not as popular as they used to be. Like, in WoW heydays for

example.

as a single player only gamer i can confirm they are alive and well. when / if the time comes when that's no longer the case i'll say my goodbyes to gaming

I think the trend is beginning to change. Until last year there was a perception that all games should have multiplayer component be either pvp or co-op.

@swantn5: You're off your rocker. Dragon Age, Witcher 3, Fallout, Assassin's Creed, Just Cause, Uncharted, Final Fantasy. How the hell did you miss all of that??

@swantn5: Witcher 3, Fallout 4, MGS V, Bloodborne, Arkham Knight, Tomb Raider, Life is Strange, Dying Light, Until Dawn, Assassin's Creed, The Order 1886, Just Cause 3... Pretty much all good games are single player

The only online games I even own are Black Ops 3, Rocket League and Elder Scrolls Online

no i think they are getting stronger than ever. Last gen we would see single player games with multiplayer shoehorned in and now it seems to be moving away from that.

as others pointed out , there are many amazing games focusing on Single player experience . but I have to admit shooters are lacking in SP . it's been a long time since COD and BF just used SP as an 4-5 hour introduction . Halo was the only shooter that really focused on it's universe and story . until Halo 5 which had a rather disappointing campaign . I would say many shooters abandoned it .

it's clear that in recent years many companies that like to make money more than making good games focused their efforts on online part of the game and limited the SP experience . People who pirate games can't play the Online . that makes greedy publishers like Activison and EA limit their game's SP and make most of it online .

There's a lot of great SP focused game and a lot of people, both hardcore and newcomers who love them.

I wouldn't say they're dying out at all. I could create a long list of great single player games. Multiplayer and online games are only rising in popularity, and I don't have a problem with that. I tend to enjoy the multiplayer in games more than the single player, but don't get me wrong, I still do enjoy my single player campaign.

So, no. I wouldn't say the single player games and campaigns are dying. More like, dwindling since the continuing rise of online multiplayer.

I will say though, that shooters tend to have very weak single player modes/campaigns.

No. It's just that there are more games coming out with a focus on the social Multiplayer element in a society that nowadays are highly active on Social Media and with people more or less always connected and reachable.

Let´s test your argument.

Witcher 3 - SP

Rise of the Tomb Raider - SP

GTA V - Strong SP with a Strong MP

Fallout 4 - SP

The Witness - SP

Batman Arkham Knight - SP

Uncharted 4 - SP

Hitman - SP

Xcom2 - SP

Watch Dogs - SP

Assassins Creed - SP

So do you think that Single Player games are dying out? Nah not really right.

Not even remotely.

I agree with majority of posts here,singleplayer is not dying out,but I find multiplayer stronger then it's ever been.Myself I play multiplayer 95% of the time.I own Halo 5 and I haven't even tried the campaign yet.

If developers should stop making single player games that is the day I would retire from gaming and find another hobby.

Suit yourself. But I see way too many of these kinds of posts on the internet.

"I'm quitting gaming if discs are gone!"

"No more gaming for me if single player modes die!"

If you enjoy single player campaigns and such, fine, I do too. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. But, seriously, cry me a river. Multiplayer isn't that bad.

If single player games stop being made, I'll stop buying new systems and games. It's that simple.

@BattleStreak - The multiplayer itself from a gameplay perspective... no. The users on multiplayer being assholes... yeah... it's that bad.

@Telekill: It depends what game you play. If all you play is Call of Duty, then yeah, there will be assholes abound. But it's not the case for every game.

But why is that a reason not to enjoy multiplayer? You don't have to communicate or talk to anyone. Don't use a headset. Most people do private chats now anyway.

@battlestreak: Lets face it multiplayer is repetitive and gets boring really quick, nothing beats a single player campaign with a deep story that pulls you in for the conclusion, the only thing exciting online is doing co op raids like in destiny.

See, that's where everyone has different opinions. I like actually facing off in competition against other people. Actual people. I love single player campaigns/story modes. Especially the good ones. But, I am starting to lean more towards multiplayer now. I'm starting to play more of it.

Everyone has different opinions.

I also enjoy a good single player game, I can't wait for Doom I'm so pumped up.

What the Hell are you talking about, OP? We've had online only multiplayer only games for decades, if single player was going to die, wouldn't it have happened by now? And by far the vast majority of new games that come out are single player focused.

@swantn5: In terms of games with both single player and multiplayer then possibly.

The way I see it though is that games are kind of moving apart. Multiplayer dedicated games and story orientated single player games are forming their own categories.

Which is fine by me. It means I can ignore COD completely and not even have to wonder what the single player is like.

The day that single player campaigns go away all together is the day I stop gaming though. Good job games like Witcher 3 and next year Deus Ex are still doing fantastic jobs.

I guess that MP is just cheaper to make.

It is. Around 75% of the developers budget goes towards the single player campaign/story. Also I would assume multiplayer has more of a lasting appeal.

Another point to the seemingly anti-multiplayer crowd. And again, not trying to start any fights. But, in my opinion, single player games are the ones that are slightly boring and repetitive, most of the time. You play through the single player campaign once, burn through it in a week, and then most likely never touch it again. Of course, if it's the average single player campaign out on the market. I still love single player campaigns, but 90% of them are just as, if not more, repetitive than multiplayer.

Look at your contenders for GOTY for 2015. A lot of strong SP games! Dying out? No, hell I feel they are as strong as ever.

Im buying more single player games than ever. As i've gotten older, i crave good stories.

Im slowly beginning to loathe online.

@swantn5: Don't think it will go multiplayer only. Think they will see a drop in sales, like ESO compared to Skyrim sales. If it ever does I'll just take the $2000+ dollars I spend each year on gaming and spend it on a new hobby.

I think Co Cop games are on a come out. Blood borne, Resident Evil, Borderlands, Journey. You know, games you can pop in and out of in story

Nope. Just because there are more online games now than in the past, doesn't mean single player games are in decline. Just look at the number of each and you'll see there are still many more single player games than online being made.

I don't haven't bought a single game with online play in the last 4 months. And I don't even play online, I will say goodbye to that gold membership.

No, it's either a good single player but bad multiplayer or vice versa.

That or tacked on multiplayer.

Not dying out - just shifting direction where you tend to find them.

Back in the day, Call of Duty had a heavy single player campaign with tacked on multiplayer. As time moved on the focus of the game shifted from making a solid, enjoyable single player campaign to throwing something together that was okay and focusing heavily on multiplayer. Then they moved to including a lot (I mean, a lot) of QTE in the first player campaign and now it feels like you're mostly playing an interactive movie and the single player campaign pretty much sucks. The focus was shifted even more to multiplayer.

For games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield - yes, the single player campaigns seem to be an after thought and most of the game design was pushed towards multiplayer.

A lot of people have suggested games that have good single player campaigns already. Here are a couple of games I've played recently to include:

• Pillars of Eternity
• Divinity: Original Sin (I do have a co-op game going with my younger brother)
• Dying Light (decent single player, but a lot more entertaining when doing at least co-op)
• Shadow of Mordor
• Grim Dawn
• Thief (this was okay, it wasn't my favorite out of the series)

Single player campaigns are still out there and are very abundant. It just all depends on what you're looking for and what genres you play.

Far from it. Storytelling is one of the oldest, most reliable forms of entertainment. Though now, devs are using single player as a way to bait people into multiplayer for microtransactions. No matter how fun a multiplayer game is, it will never give you the amount of immersion you can get from a well crafted single player experience.

The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 were perhaps the biggest games of 2015 and neither one features a hint of multiplayer. Even games like GTA V sold well because of it's single player. Regardless of how well GTA V Online is doing, if Rockstar announced that GTA 6 would be multiplayer only, they would lose out on way too many sales.

No, they're not dying out. The two are just separating.

Developers like online games. They can't be pirated someone above said. That might be a big part of it. IDK. What I do know is that they don't have to program AI or focus as much on a story and that makes things easier. For the most part I hate playing games online. I will even play COD "multiplayer" with bots much of the time. I hope Developers don't go the easy route of online only games with no single player. I would definitely loose interest in video games if they did. I probably represent a very small part of the community though.

I stopped playing multiplayer games around the launch of mgsv, have played plenty of games since then and I have a lot of games waiting to be played. Their not even close to dying out, their not even slowing down, idk where you've been looking but plenty of single player games are a comin.

We might be seeing a movement in trends towards an either or approach. You'll have games like The Witcher that are clearly meant for single player, whereas games like COD are more for the multiplayer only crowd. I remember when Battlefield 3 came out in 2011, I never even touched the single player, literally never even chose it on the menu. It could be a good thing, as the companies making games tuned more towards mp or sp will not feel the need to have to tack on the other in their game, weakening their focus on the side they wanted all along.

Gosh, I hope not. The only online gaming I ever really enjoyed was Halo 2. Even then, I mainly played it with my friends by hooking up 2 or more xboxes together and playing local multiplayer. That and Goldneye 64 are my best multiplayer moments.

I play games for the story. Lately, we've had a slew of shooters and online cash grabs. Does not grab my cash or my attention. I hope it's just a fad, but since Call of Duty Modern Warfare, this is where games are going. Why? Because people keeping buying them. Then they buy the DLC. If I was a developer, even though it'd go against my spirit and mind, I would be forced to pump out these types of games as well because that's where the market is.

Is single player dying out? The answer to that lies with the consumer. Not as an individual, but as a mass. I feel like I've been running against a massive stampede of people rushing to buy the next Call of Duty clone for years. Let's raise awareness and get these people turned around in the right direction. Back to where games ought to be! Who's with me?

I have read this interesting discussion on the same question on many sites and would like to say that, "No the SP games are not dying in fact they are still a popular genre for those players who enjoy a very good story with twists and turns, like in adventure games". I started playing the games way back in the 1987 back then there were just console games not the modern ones of course but on it playing the games by hooking it to our television sets was a way to remain occupied, back then the games were also not those Hi-Res games of top quality as seen in modern AAA ones but still it was very enjoyable and they were all SP ones or 2 players max. then came the era where PC games became more popular and the cost of owning one PC was also within reach of average person, in those came the games like Road Rash, Chronomaster, Dink Smallwood, Doom series, Quake series, Castle Wolfenstein, Hexen series, AOE series, Half Life Series, Serious Sam series, Starcraft games, Resident Evil series, The Elder Scrolls series, The Longest Journey, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, Dreamfall Chapters, and many many more all of them were SP ones. While most of them did shift to MP but still the players who played the SP ones still hold on to it till date. Will SP games / campaigns die? that would depend on how good a story tellers the present / future developers are or would be, That would eventually decide the fate of SP games. But as long as there is a very good immersive story behind a game that would enchant the players and keep them engrossed in it the SP games would never die because storytelling never died even after generations of being in existence, so how long would MP games keep the players occupied? sooner or later they all would have to return to the stories and that is what would keep the juices of the SP games running on and on.

Playing Dishonored 2, it's great.