DISCUSS
Should we be worried about playing solo?
Samuel: Hitman is seemingly dead, lads. Well, at least as dead as DeusEx is—the last episodic game was great, but Square Enix took a big writedown on IO Interactive, and is trying to sell them. It’s rather sad, because it followed MassEffect apparently being put on hold the previous day, following the mixed reaction to Andromeda. Who’d have thought even two years ago that the future of those series would be in jeopardy? Do I sound slightly too pessimistic here, chaps? Must I check myself before I wreck myself? Are singleplayer games about to cash in their chips?
Phil: No. Although imagine that ‘no’ is being elongated and the pitch of my voice is raising higher and higher until it’s nothing more than a shrill squeak, because honestly I just don’t know. I don’t think singleplayer games are done, but I do wonder if the industry is sustainable in its current form. I liked Hitman, and I’m sad it hasn’t done better, but is a few underperforming games a reason to condemn all of singleplayer gaming?
Andy: I feel like people have been declaring singleplayer games dead or dying for like a decade now. But despite compelling evidence, like Rockstar’s aggressive shift from singleplayer DLC to its dedication to GTAOnline, I’m not sure it’s going to happen yet. Even if big hitters like Hitman and DeusEx have been underperforming, and the top three most-played games on Steam are Battlegrounds, Dota 2, and CounterStrike, I think there’s still a huge number of people who want to play games on their own. They just don’t seem to be buying the right ones.
Samuel: I think if you’re making a big open world game, you’re okay. GhostReconWildlands took off, and while that was also co-op, the success of Fallout4 shows that people definitely want this stuff when they’re certain about the value of what they’re getting. Also, Doom did nicely, didn’t it? It probably doesn’t help that Hitman had that weird new business model that made it a little complex to decipher for people who just want to throw money at Steam and have a complete game.
Phil: I feel like Hitman was facing an uphill battle against the negative reaction to its episodic release model. All the cinema ads in the world aren’t going to help when you get to the Steam page and see a ‘Mixed’ rating. Hitman eventually won people over because it kept being good, but I’m sure the damage was already done. It’s sad that IO couldn’t treat Hitman’s mild, niche success as a success. This is something big publishers are especially bad at. Publishers such as Paradox seem to be perfectly happy releasing hardcore strategies and old-school RPGs, and enjoying the breakout successes when they happen.
Andy: Hitman is such a lavish production. There’s fine handcrafted detail in the levels that 90% of players won’t even see. A bit of random ceiling in Paris is more ornate and detailed than entire levels in other games. And I wonder if that contributed to its losses. I mean, I love it, and it makes for a gorgeous game, but maybe if they’d been a bit less artistically ambitious the game would be in a better place. There’s an expectation for ‘AAA’ games to be on the cutting edge, but maybe that’s ultimately harming them in the long run. That luxurious golden ceiling, and other details like it, must have cost a fortune.
Samuel: Andy and those bloody ceilings. Crikey. Maybe it was worth cancelling Hitman just so we don’t have to listen to him banging on about them anymore.
Phil: If anyone’s had to bang on about Hitman, it’s me. And, even despite reviewing it seven times, I will still be pretty sad if that’s it for the series. I’m still not convinced this is a trend, though, just some unfortunate closures and reshuffles at the start of a new financial year. Singleplayer gaming has survived the closure of numerous game studios over the years. They even survived Daikatana. I’m pretty sure that they’ll survive through the fact that all anybody wants to do these days is ship Overwatch characters.
Samuel: *rubs knees* Winston and Torbjörn. Cor!