Single Player Is Not Going Away, Says Valve

A Valve executive has stated that despite the push from a lot of developers to create complex multiplayer driven experiences the unconnected single player video game is in no danger of disappearing in the short term.

Erik Johnson, who is a project manager at Valve, has told Gamasutra in an interview that, “There is an interesting question in how many projects should be offline products, and how long that is going to be viable. Half-Life 1 was a really offline product. I think customers want to find ways to talk about the thing that they are a big fan of with other people, and ideally experience it the same way.”

He also says that even single player experiences can be better if they create a community around them, saying “With single player games that were completely in a box, and there was no way to experience anything else, I think there are things that customers want that those games don't take advantage of. That could just mean that you want to be able to chat with other people who are playing through the same part of the game as you, or the fans can write commentary nodes in the game and everyone can experience those.”

Games like BioShock chose to ditch any multiplayer experience in favor of putting together a strong narrative aimed at the (single) player that can challenge their ideas while also delivering a complex gaming experience.

But even BioShock could not resist the need to add multiplayer, which appeared in the second game in the series, created by another developer.

Steam has been focusing on connected experiences in the last few years, with the two Left 4 Dead video games and with the development of Steam as more than a game delivery system.

The focus on single player will return for the upcoming Portal 2, balanced by the introduction of cooperative play.