14 DAY TRIAL // More and more video games are now trying to add multiplayer modes even if they are not a clear fit for the game universe, for example in Mass Effect 3, but one role playing game developers believes that the focus on single player can still create big hits.
Ken Rolston, who is the one of the developers working on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, told IndustryGamers that, “I think what a single-player game is, it is a tailored experience for the single-player, and there may be publishers who are rightly aware that if you had more multiplayer stuff in it, they would have some virtues, but I know that the single-player game experience is the one that we can best tailor to the player right now and that there are technical and asset reasons why we can’t gracefully make them all go co-op player or multiplayer.
He added, “So for the short term, I believe the single-player game has an unambiguously solid market. There are people who prophesise that they’re going to make their MMOs better narrative experiences. I’m sure that they’re right and I’m sure that they will only make them, say, 5% better. And that’s still not like 100% it’s all about you, Mr. Player. I’m pretty confident single-player still has a real big market.”
Ken Rolston has a long history of working on role playing games that focus on the single player story and on creating a universe that allows a player explore and understand a world.
The developer led the development of both The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and TES III: Morrowind, which many players still see as the best of the series.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will mix a deep backstory, which is written by well-known fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, with a more action oriented battle system and a character progression that does not use traditional classes.