14 DAY TRIAL // Wolfenstein: The New Order, the upcoming entry in the long-running first-person shooter series, doesn't have a multiplayer mode because it would've been a superfluous experience, according to publisher Bethesda.
First-person shooters nowadays almost always boast some kind of multiplayer mode, going from the standard competitive one to cooperative ones that emphasize survival against waves of enemies.
The upcoming Wolfenstein: The New Order, however, will not feature such a mode, as both developer MachineGames and publisher Bethesda didn't see the appeal of adding such an experience into the new game.
While talking with CVG, Bethesda's Pete Hines emphasized the core principle of the publisher, which is to make the best game using your previous experience, without resorting to superfluous features just to fit in with the rest of the industry.
"We believe in defining the game experience you want to deliver, and if multiplayer is a part of that then you should do that. It's no different than any other feature: it has to be part of what it is that you want to make. In the case of MachineGames their background is not in multiplayer stuff. They make cool, interesting and compelling singleplayer experiences, much like the Arkane guys with Dishonored or anything Bethesda Game Studios has made."
The first really multiplayer experience from Bethesda is the upcoming The Elder Scrolls Online, which takes its medieval fantasy role-playing game universe and transforms it into a multiplayer game for the PC, Mac, PS4, and Xbox One platforms.
Hines further emphasized that adding a new mode to a game, like multiplayer, ends up affecting both the single-player campaign and the studio as a whole due financial problems.
"We've obviously had a lot of success doing singleplayer games, and as a result we may just have a different view, but we don't think adding a feature just for the feature's sake is the right approach. You spend a lot of time doing that and it's not free: you have to hire the people to do that, you have to spend all that time polishing, and that time could be spent continuously improving a singleplayer experience. That's always been our approach and I don't see that changing."
Wolfenstein: The New Order is set to debut this May for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One platforms. Those who pre-order it will also receive beta access for the upcoming Doom game from id Software.