Single-Player Healthcare (The Jimquisition)
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- čas přidán 26. 06. 2024
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www.thejimquisition.com
sharkrobot.com/collections/Jim...
After EA murdered Visceral and "pivoted" its Star Wars game, there has been much talk of the death of single-player games.
The Jimquisition explains just how long this debate has lasted, and why single-player is doing okay.
Bonus Content: Oh, Ubisoft! - Hry
"Single player games are dead."
Translation: "We can't figure out how to make more money from single player games so we don't want to make them any more."
A more simplistic translation: "Until they make more money, single player games are dead to us."
Just one important adjustment: "We can't figure out how to make ALL THE money from single player games so we don't want to make them any more."
It's not that SP games aren't profitable, they just aren't AS profitable as all those trendy online games where you can shoehorn in exploitative bullshit to squeeze every last cent out of your customer. And, since all the money in the world still wouldn't be enough to satisfy those corporate shitlords, that might as well mean that SP is dead.
It's a catastrophe that single player games exist... It means "those" people aren't playing our exploitative multiplayer games.
"We need to make it multiplayer because we know we can't get away with shoving dlc into a story mode"
Single players are alive and well,
What dead is split screen, sure some games include some decent split screen co-op but these days even freaking halo 5 lacks split screen and that game is designed for co-op at the cost of good gameplay.
The part that gets me the most is the article you showed that said "Single player games are dying, and that's fine". No. No that's not fucking fine. Even if it were true, it should never be fine. People shouldn't be "fine" with companies wanting to drop single player games in general, which is most certainly *not* a niche, just because they don't play them.
It's probably not even that they don't play them, likely that the 12 year olds that make up the focus groups don't play them.
I used to play pretty much nothing but online shooters once upon a time. When I got so good at them that I got tired of winning, I gave them up entirely and went back to the JRPGs I once loved. I bought fourteen of them for the PS2 on Ebay. I remember those games far, _far_ more fondly than Call of Honorfield 4: Brown and Grey Edition.
These games included Ar Tonelico 1 and 2. Which is why your profile picture gets two fucking thumbs up from me, you goddamn champion.
I don't care what anyone says, Mir is and will always be best girl.
When they often do analytics with games that have single and multiplayer what they find is the majority do still stick to single player.
I’ve read the article is as dumb as the title itself.
I agree i only play single player exsperences & thers far less of them now
"We want to make games that people will want to come back to for a long time, and that's why we are focusing on multiplayer games which are dependent on servers that we will shut down in a few years when it no longer makes financial sense to keep them up."
Chris Hamlin this
The game will be dead and i won't be able to come back cause its a multi-player.Thank you.I'm playing FFVII now for the 6th time.
Is that Darkspore you're referencing?
Had fun when I had the chance to play it, nearly cried when I revisited its site to see the "sorry and fuck off" message(first instance of being blatantly betrayed by EA), shall never forget. Good thing I played the pirated version instead of buying it, far as I'm aware they just ran with the money, the fucks.
Yep, also these are annual games
"A few years"? You mean more like 9 months when they shove out the next version of said game.
"Bathesda, for all it's faults, still remains committed to well-crafted single-player experiences..."
*Sobbing quietly while 'Country Roads' plays in the background...*
Every time a AAA publisher says something is "dead" they're just handing potential revenue to the indie market.
Jim:
The word they meant to say was rePAYable... not rePLAYable.
You know, as in 'how will they pay us more money at some later date?'
Jinx Dragon THIS needs to be the official term
Jinx Dragon I think you just created something on par with fee-to-pay and triple AAAcess.
Jinx Dragon Damn dude, this term really does deserve to become the common jargon used to refer to this kind of attitude from publishers.
Jinx Dragon so simple, so true, this sentence truly define the atittude of todays AAA
Jinx Dragon couldn't be more true!
If single player died then my interest in video games would die along with it. I don't play video games to interact with people, I use it as an escape (as stereotipical as that may sound).
It doesn't sound stereotypical, in fact the opposite may be true at this point.
Seriously, I play video games to get the fuck away from people too. I interact with people for up to 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. When I'm done, I don't want to talk to anyone. I just want to huddle up in my room, in my big blanket, and let my mind cool down and wander off to other things.
Just what I was thinking! I find multiplayer games straight out boring. Got about 200 games in my Steam library and the muliplayer 'features' in them gather dust unplayed, untouched.
davernrush THIS!!!! Escaping stupid people IS why I love games.
davernrush I don’t have many online games, 95% are single player. I don’t mind playing with others until they start pulling the same shit as my nephew did during theTimeSplitters games by taking all the health, swearing to protect me, and then dying like 2 minutes later. I prefer mostly single player games.
"Bethesda, for all it's faults, remains committed to single player-"
Oh you sweet summer child
COUNTRY ROOOOOOADS
L
Now ther cometed 2 hds & 76 now 😢
Single-player games are dead, guys. Only a small handful of budget-priced, small-scale indie games still cater to the niche single-player audience. I mean, I can hardly think of any... I guess there's Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Uncharted, Final Fantasy, Skyrim, Mass Effect, GTA, Yakuza, Metal Gear, The Witcher, Tomb Raider, Divinity: Original Sin, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed, Life is Strange, Fallout... But, I mean, who's even heard of any of those titles?
Living Myth divinity is multiplayer and single player but I agree with your point lol
What have the Romans ever done for us?
DIvinity 1 and 2
+Rajhkeem Beck Ah, that's true. To be fair, a number of the games I mentioned have at least some form of multiplayer element or mode, but it doesn't overshadow or invalidate the single-player experience. I would say the multiplayer mode in Mass Effect 3 feels like a tacked-on afterthought (maybe same with Dragon Age: Inquisition, can't believe I forgot that series), but it's more or less harmless.
You could also argue that some of these series are exceptional examples, and not representative of what the majority of the industry will support. But then again, so is Call of Duty's success -- how many competitive shooters actually get anywhere near its sales numbers? I'd say Overwatch is also an exception, as other games have tried to jump on that bandwagon and fell flat. There can only be so many of these types of games, before players are just going to be like "I already have that, why do I need another one that isn't as good?"
Also, multiplayer-dependent games are a dangerous gambit in the long run -- because if you don't have a consistently active player population, you can't get into a match, and there basically _is no game._ If a game like this isn't a major hit right out of the gate, even the people who did buy it will get frustrated and leave, and there is no way to recover. Meanwhile, if a single-player game doesn't perform well immediately -- well, that's bad too, but there's at least a potential path to garner more sales over time.
Living Myth there is also the last of us while it does have multiplayer I doubt anyone bought it for that.
I pivoted my Star Wars Battlefront 2 preorder to cancelled.
I tried the open beta. Felt like any other Battlefield game.
Yeah after Visceral closed I’m done with EA
@Mp57navy saying that game felt like any other Battlefield game would be giving it undeserved praise. It was much more shallow and the progression system is nuts.
Lol it played like I expected... just dry all graphics no gameplay.
Multiplayer is overrated to those of us who need to pause regularly.
Is that a Kirby Yahtzee?
I can't pause the game mom it's online
Or those of us who enjoy games for the story.
Our those of us who enjoy pacing.
"Year of the Lootbox" Sounds like the name of a horror movie
Ben To think this is also year of multiplayer,now even worse since it year of lootboxes aswell.
Ben Or the world's worst porn.
What I learned from this video is that Jim 'members. Jim always 'members.
Stop looking at his crotch.
RippahRooJizah Why would you ever willingly choose to look anywhere BUT Jimbo's crotch?
Because that's objectification. He's a man of many talents and I think it's a disservice to not stare at his cro- DAMNIT!
I member
Oh course elephants never forget. Yes that was a fat joke. Thank god for Jim and his big fat elephant member.
Jim, I used to love the show, but lately it's just too linear, maybe next time you could implement some alternative endings or perhaps even some multiplayer?
Gorgeous Leave a mean comment before the videl has started to unlock an alternate ending where you are personally eviscerated by Boglins.
Maybe add a option to get different filters or you wear a different suit or something, it is only cosmetical so I'd pay for that.
Don't forget to add some loot boxes. We all know people want loot boxes
Right here, the comment section, there's your multiplayer.
What about the Achievements? You can't forget about the Achievements!
Do they completely forget how many introverts enjoy video games? Multiplayer does not make games more fun for us! It makes them a stressful ordeal! I play WoW like a single player game as much as I can. I play HotS against bots. Blizzard’s new “appear offline” mode is a godsend.
superchief86 a godsend? More like "This shit is decades overdue". If it's a godsend, god apparently sent a stillborn child to deliver it to us from heaven.
Look at how many times we've been sold skyrim and then tell me single player is Dead
Look at how many times we've been sold a Bethesda game (not... recent additions) and tell me nobody wants single-player
1. Games development is geting cheaper
2.more people are able to make good games
3.the value of games are going down despite price increases
4.Publishers are becoming less relevant/necessary
5.The successes like Cuphead and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice show that people don't care if a game is AAA, AA, or indie, as long they get their money's worth.
Ezio Auditore Thanks for the correction.
Number 1 isn’t true. The cost of creating a AAA game is going up.
? the Platypus dont believe what they tell you..... use your own mind and dont eat their bull.
the only cost going up is advertisement because the AAA industry is so horrendously obsessed with banking on the success of a single huge game for the entire year rather than make a series of less, but consistently successful games
"I just don't think consumers want to be playing games that don't have some kind of network connectivity to them..."
I was playing Skyrim when that quote popped up. Got a smarmy giggle out of me.
Emi it's like how juicers should require internet connection, like the juicero.... oh, wait
Emi
Skrim ftw!
It's like he forgot the last 10 years of the industry
More like he doesn't know the industry he's working in at all.
I've always preferred a single player game, a good one doesn't rely on gimmicks to keep you coming back.
I remember when, back in 2014, Peter Molyneux said that "the Indie industry is going to go away in five years", explaining his reasoning on why. That was the first time I got genuinely angry at the man, and so I wrote about it in a gaming website I worked for. It was a nice text about the indie industry and how, as long as there exists even one dreamer working behind the keyboard, that part of the industry would never die.
Time keeps proving me right, and I am damn glad for it.
MegaDimension oh boy does he ever wish it'd go away. No luck, petey
The indie industry will never die for games, just like it will never die for movies or books or music and on and on, because frankly, they are the lifeblood of what made these industries in the first place. It sounds like Molyneux has it backwards. If anything is in threat of dying, it's the industrialized nature of any of these things. The spirited indie aspects will live on as long as the concepts behind them exist and our culture puts importance on creativity.
The big business aspect, on the other hand, is always in danger of dying because the people can no longer afford to pay for the product. Its health is inexorably tied to the health of the surrounding economy. And that's what these DRM exec derptowns don't seem to understand. People who pirate games are, by and large, honest people who just can't afford to shell hundreds of dollars for entertainment every year. It's why youtube is an unprecedented success and continues to be an unfailing, endlessly growing platform, despite its enormous and seemingly endless shortcomings in the way it communicates with its creators.
Without paywalls to hold audiences back, and with global reach, the audience gets expanded in an enormous way.
TransparentLabyrinth heroes never die
MegaDimension In molyneux's defense, he's a lying idiot.
I think it's growing and in some respects threatening to bigger game development in a way that Peter Molyneux's completly overexaggerated knowledge of the industry couldn't concieve of and as you say, we're all very happy about that
why oh why EA do you want to be like Activision so bad.. not every game series can take off like cod and not every studio needs to become the next blizzard...
natty_the_great Try telling EA that :^)
Activision makes more money in 3 months than EA does in a year by releasing far less games that's why.
The difference between EA and Blizzard for me is that Blizzard at least still makes games and characters I care about. I love games like Diablo, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft. Blizzard is at least still capable of crafting interesting stories. :)
EA and Activision are fighting for the priveliege being the biggest fuckwits in gaming history.
EA killed off far more studios than Activision.
Yet, I'll never forgive Activision for destroying the greatness of both Infinity Ward and Raven Software. I still love both developers' products but I painfully acknowledge that their days of zenith are long gone.
Man, Singularity and Wolfenstein from RavenSoft were so criminally underrated. Now all Raven does is help on Call of Duty 😢 I miss their old IPs 😭😭
+Player Slot Available I will fully admit that I bought loot boxes in Overwatch for certain skins. As a result I have decided not to do so going forward in any game that costs $60. I don't mind some microtransactions in free to play games like Marvel Heroes or WarThunder. But I think things are getting out of hand. If they are going to put cosmetic microtransactions in the game? I'd actually prefer if you could buy the shit you really wanted up front without being at the mercy of an RNG system.
Not sure what to make of Moira. Don't really care for her design. I do like the way Blizzard has expanded the lore and stories of the characters with the various animated videos and comics.
I cant be the only person who still only ever plays single player games... I'm not anti-social, I just like a narrative driven game.
J Roscoe your not, I don't do multiplayer games they are useless neverending grindfests.
J Roscoe it's okay to be both
Narrative-driven single player games are the only kind I've ever bought for myself, and they're most of what I inherited from my older brother.
About the only multiplayer games I have eyes for right now are Splatoon 2 and Dragon Ball Fighter Z, the latter of which I'm going to wait until the inevitable $40 Ultimate edition re-release a year after launch.
Probably 95% of the games I play are single player. There are some multi-player games I enjoy but it's rare.
Remember when Molyneux said indies had their days counted?
Yeah
Peter Molyneux lies and cries his away again into another multi-million dollar project.
Even if single player dies (it never will), i don't have to buy any new games at all. Plenty of old games ive yet to play, that i can go back to if they stop making them, i don't play multiplayer games at all.
8:45 So.. Everything is "The Future", and also everything "is dead".
Therefore, "The Future is Dead".
Sounds alright.
Sounds like a song name.
Is it bad that I didn’t even notice he was wearing lobster claws until he pointed it out...?
japansace I didn't notice it either :P
What do you mean? Those are his real hands
No, after you become mentally accustomed to something, the mind begins to blurs the details. The majority of the time we don't see Jim wearing red gloves but we see red things in place of his hands so as long as he has something red over each hand, you'll assume he's wearing his usual red gloves.
It is. It is bad, and you should feel bad.
fucker walks around with a dildo baseball bat like no body's business, of course you're not gonna notice those damn things, he is Jim Fucking Sterling Son
Inb4 Nintendo Copyright claims this video for the 10 seconds of mario present.
they prob did but it wont matter as everyone else also claimed it so it stays up due to everyone trying to monetize it
danmiy12 need more chain of love!
DemonGrenade274 Probably on purpose to do his multiple claims no one gets money
Copyright deadlock says no.
JimQ plays no ads. Can they even claim it?
Don't by microtransactions, buy pizza instead.
Amen to that
Until they tie MX to your pizza (see totinos pizza rolls brand deal).
Oh, wait, you're from back when the world was a little more sane.
Yes please, with pineapple on top!
(TWIMC:)Also nobody gives a shit if you hate Hawaiian, bite me.
Pizzas have microtransactions.......extra cheese, stuffed crust, extra toppings....... xD
*buy
That Oh Ubisoft bit at the end, the ironic part about their DRM fuckery is that the new South Park was cracked the next day after release! So not only is DRM not effective, at least not any more, but a cracked version does not appear to have any performance issues, and we don't have to deal with Ubi's shitty version of Steam, nor their micro-transaction bullshit. Great job on promoting piracy Ubisoft!
LOL it's like Assasins creed 4!!! Yo Ho, Pirates!!!
How to 'pivot' like EA
1) Pivot staff by sacking them.
2) Pivot game by cancelling it
3) Pivot all games with microtransactions
4) Sit upon EA's middle finger and pivot.
ARX78 Underrated comment
EA will Pivot me right round baby right round! Like a record baby right round, they want yer cash, ahhhh ahhh aaaaaahh
EA's stock is actually incredibly stagnant and hasn't been super good for awhile now.
They and Activision had huge surges a couple years back, but their growth has all but died. So while the consumer contempt towards them isn't causing them to lose money... it sure as hell is causing them to stagnate.
Well I'm happy, I love single player games. They will never die!!!!
ChadOfStats
I prefer single player games, and tend to avoid the social aspects of games. I avoid the multiplayer side of every game which has included the ability to play with others in an otherwise single player game. I have no interest in playing games with people other than my husband, our children, a select group of friends, and a few family members. When Cyberpunk 2077 is out I will play that by myself, and even when the next Dragon Age is out I will only play the single player aspects of the game. I have been hearing about single player games dying for so long that I no longer believe it.
I agree 100% present to you singler player games are amazing and there never die
I think the whole deal of singleplayer vs. multiplayer is that when people claim stuff like "multiplayer is the future/superior option", they do so because they are extroverts; being around a bunch of random people gives them energy, while for an introvert, whatever their preferences, being around a bunch of random people takes energy away and requires periods of seclusion for a "recharge" to happen. And even an extrovert might still like to play a game on their own for a bit, if it happens to be a good enough game, as many narrative-driven experiences are... but it does seem likely that these two types of people, in general, tend to like the kind of game that best caters to their overall preference/need.
Declaring the type of game enjoyed by presumably about 50% of the global population to be "dead" because it is not something one personally enjoys... is dumb. :P
They'll never die, even if they want to!
"the rumors of single-players demise... Are greatly exaggerated"
Thank you Jim, that's what I've been telling people
Jim, you are a beacon of hope in an otherwise disgusting world of AAA Gaming. There will always be a market for single-player campaign games, no matter what AAA Publishers want to tell their stockholders with dollar signs for eyeballs.
and a lot of stockholders can see through the BS.
Please excuse me while I go grab my second helping of breakfast now lol
I hope so, Pepper.... but at the same time they flock nonsensically to where the money is and the major success that has been Lootboxes. As much as I can't stand them, if they weren't making them ungodly amounts of money, they wouldn't be in the game in the first place, so lots of people are buying into them unfortunately. I weep for the industry going in this direction. Hopefully the pendulum swings back to a normal reality soon.
Smash JT AAA is obsolete
True. I mean hell, CRPG's are doing fine. Many of them have co-op like divinity, but fuck. People are STILL crowdfunding games like wasteland 2. Singleplayer, story driven games. The rare games that I am willing to shell money at.
TRIPLEY AYY has no interest in that and that's fine by me. The less interested they are in those kinds of games, the less I have to worry about them shitting all over those games.
So far as I can tell, anything marketed "as service" is guaranteed to be the exact opposite. It basically means that somebody else owns it and whatever you get to do with it is a gift. A gift you have to keep paying for, over and over again.
What games do I always regret buying?
>>multiplayer only
The only multiplayer only game I've ever bought is The Elder Scrolls Online, and I bought that as an Elder Scrolls game, not an MMO.
Jim: "As far back as 2008"
Me: "HAH what a funny, that was only..."
Me: *Pauses and thinks*
Me: "10 YEARS AGO??? Wow that is a long time I feel old"
I... i was 8
I feel as if Hacktivision should be thrown some shade for this, because they basically have turned online multiplayer from a fun novelty to a psychological money farm.
I'd throw all the shade in the world at them for what they did to the Tony Hawk games.
A moment of silence for Tony Hawk games...
Eville Caston *Fucktivision. Or fucked vision, if you will.
I love how these companies call people like Jim nothing more than a doom singer, while they themselves sing about the doom of game genre's.
DroehnIng Ya I can see why it comes off like that, but I honestly think it's more to communicate the fact that he's not following some corporate opinion, while also having some ridiculous fun with his videos. If anything it also keeps them from feeling stale and repetitive, you never know what he'll do in the next one.
DroehnIng People who think that you can't be both silly and serious at the same time make me sad.
Ryan Dean I'm pretty sure that's what base of most comedy. Being making the serious seem silly.
DroehnIng I can't tell if you are joking or not.
What the heck do lobster claws have to do with being a doom singer??
shupasopni Apparently:
Lobster Claws = Weird
Weird = Crazy
Crazy = Has no idea what he's talking
Jim = Crazy
Jim pointing out company bullshit = Singing the end of gaming (Even though he's the one trying to give alternatives to how "TRIPLE A" is doing it)
Therefore he is a crazy doom singer and has no meaning behind what he's saying. (Despite the enormous amount of evidence and proof he's given, and the number of predictions he has given that came true in some form or way.)
At least that's what most (ignorant) gamers think about him. (Consider with a grain or two of salt)
"Free to Start" remember when we just called that a "demo"?
This even applies to indie games:
Doki Doki Literature Club: Single player narrative driven experience, one of the most discussed and memed games I've ever seen
Stardew Valley: Single player experience, sold millions of copies, unprecedented for an indie game like it
Cuphead: technically co-op but most people I know myself included play it alone. It's more of a skill test than a co-op game.
Owlboy: fucking guess what it is
PUBG: The only thing I ever see being discussed about this game is how much time is spent looting as opposed to shooting things, probably because people are too busy looting in the game to discuss it. Also, how the lobbies give you cancer.
2:07 Mouth of Sauron is a completely correct representation of EA's PR department.
I doubt they care if I keep going back to their single player game over and over. Through the years, I've gone back many times and racked up countless playthroughs of Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie, Final Fantasy IX+X, Metal Gear Solid 1-3, Jak and Daxter trilogy, Super Mario World, Sonic 2, DooM, Dragon's Dogma, the Hitman series, the Oddworld series, Tomb Raider series...The list goes on. There are games I go back to pretty much once a year every year because I enjoyed them so much that I simply want to do so.
But it doesn't matter how many times I play though those games because I've given them their £50 and that's that, the cash flow stopped as soon as I left the store...But force them to become a multiplayer game and shove microtransactions down your throat and the wallet (theoretically) never closes.
Single player isn't dying, the AAA publishers just wish it would so we'll no longer be able to simply just spend £50 on a product...And I'll continue to ignore those games, no matter whether it's a franchise I love or whether the devs/pubs insist the microtransactions "aren't intrusive, we promise!". They exist, that's enough intrusion to dismiss my purchase. I would rather see a franchise I hold close to my heart die than contribute to this friggin' tumour of gaming.
Single Player Games: "I'm not dead yet! I'm getting better!"
Game Execs: "No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment."
KhymChanur I singleplayer knight will prevent you stoning single campaign by buying more single player games
If you float in water your a witch & made of wood, if you sink your a single player game EA told me.
Here's a challenge: do your best to imagine the witcher 3 but multiplayer mode only. Now open your eyes and embrace in the fact that it's a single player game and go back to playing it.
Keep speaking the truth Jim... don't let them silence you...
Terry Wilson lol
Jim is the biggest guru of the game industry
Jim is a delusional, whiny boi like the rest of his audience. He is attacking publishers because they make more ez money than he could ever make begging on Patreon
Terry Wilson
if Jim was defending good games, he would make them. If he cant make them, he has nothing to complain.
Actions speak louder than words and unfortunately Jim is just a whiny nobody doing nothing except begging on Patreon
You want a car that works and doesn't break down all the time and doesn't kill you in a crash? Ok, go make one. You can't? Well, tough shit stop complaining. Your sofa is not comfy? Go make your own. Oh, you cant do that either? Oh well, what a shame, stop complaining. Games are made to be consumed. If people were forced to make their own games then what is the point in the game industry.. Though I legit think you're being a troll.
Anime fans have this great single player game called "Prom night"
Tommy Padfield I hear it's the Dark Souls of Life.
Booooo
Tommy Padfield The problem is that they only get to play it once a year. It also seems to involve quite a bit of crying according to developer Deep Silver. I'm sure they would rather play Persona 5 instead.
The prom night goof isn't gonna die down in the Jim Sterling community is it?
I hear that game is very emotional
"Bethesda, for all it's faults, remains committed to single-player"
Wait a minute.... that sentence occurs at 12:31 - 12:40..... 60 seconds in a minute, 12 minutes, equals 720... plus 40 seconds.... equals 760.... divided by 10 is 76.... And this video was released on November... the same month as Fallout 76! JIM PREDICTED FALLOUT 76 GUYS
"Everybody's dead Dave" YES! The world needs more offhand Red Dwarf references. Carry on.
Single-player is as dead as Survival Horror. Which is to say, literally never dead except to blind executives.
is this reply memes
If you want call of duty money sure, survival horror is a product that will not make you billions but it will make you a good income and earn you a very loyal supporter base.
Publisher executives are those guys in horror movies who keep denouncing the single-player creatures saying "Impossible! This cannot exist!" until they burst into his office and tear him apart to feed on his refusal to believe.
well as Jim also mentioned many times before :
they were not a commercial success because big ass mainstream gazillion dollar budgets were thrown at a game genre that had always been a bit of a niche thing, and was never going to be a blockbuster type of game.
i actaully do believe these games can be profitable if developers/publishers think smaller,
He has this old episode called "perfect pasta sauce", where he breaks it down pretty well with an analogy of 1/3th of the people liking it chunky,
the episode itself was about single player vs multiplayer games and how bethesda kept scooping up bits of money on single player experiences other publishers weren't making, but i think it holds up in this context too.
Look at Demon's Souls. Uncompromisingly difficult 3rd person action RPG with a dark fantasy motif made on a tight budget with stellar art design. Sold 1.7m copies. Throughout its life span. From release to 2015. That's almost nothing as far as sales go. Like, on par with some 3DS games (excluding the juggernaut that is Pokemon). Despite that, it was profitable enough to not only spawn an entire franchise (Dark Souls, Bloodborne) but a *genre* of games (Nioh, Lords of the Fallen, countless Indie titles), with greater (but still reasonable budgets) and reasonable sales projections.
All it takes for niche titles to be profitable is to be developed by sane and rational human beings, instead of lunatic executives and money-snorting, cocaine-addled marketing directors.
And I can confirm, as someone who completed The New Colossus recently, that devoting those resources to single-player was a spot-on decision. Going on Do or Die difficulty for a nasty, merciless challenge that, because of the awesome story (no spoilers here) made you WANT to keep going, made you WANT to push through those hordes of Nazis even as they teared you to shreds.
And before I forget, there's also the wonderful weapons to use, the awesome mechanics involved, and game-play suitable for any "Guns Akimbo" or "Tactical Soldier" type out there.
Fuck, versions of Solitaire, Mahjong and casual Match-3 games can still exist on PC, tablets and elsewhere... And for some, most likely cheaper and worth more value too. :p
Yeah but Cuphead's co-op isn't really the same kind of "multiplayer experience" in the same vein as Call of Duty or Star Wars Battlefront.
Yea, it's actual couch co-op returning, which we have seem way too few of these days. I hate when games should have a couch coop but they only offer online. Cuphead did good there, not forcing your buddy to get another console and another copy of the game, plus console online subscription, just to play with you lol.
Since you mentioned it, I did notice that the Jimquisition is significantly longer these days.
Thank you, Jim. You are truly a benevolent dictator.
1:37 i have a computer gaming world magazine from 1999 that talks about single player being dead do to multiplayer being so huge at the time.
Rotten Egg Creations I suppose it will be a continuous trend until they all understand we are not zombies to multiplayer content.
Thanks for confirming what I was thinking when he said "all the way back to 2008". I was like "I remember reading about the death of singleplayer in the late 90s early 2000s".
Greedy people have been trying to force that narrative to become reality for decades now, lol.
single player will always survive because there will always be introverts who don't feel like dealing people all the fucking time. and there will always be people that enjoy a good story, ether crafted for them or by them, which multiplayer simply can't do.
you can't make a stealth game like dishonored for multiple players, you can do an overpowered 2d brawler like dust an elysian tail with huge servers. you can't make a rogue like like FTL without making players hating each other. you can't make a tactical game like Xcom with a campaign multiplayer. fighting the legions of hell in doom wouldn't work as well in co op.
really when looking at it there are only a couple of game types that can even work with multiple players, and most of those still suffer in places.
Vinx .909 also the fact that a single player game always Outlast a multiplayer game. As soon as that game like League of Legends stops making money for a company for example they'll just pull the servers turn off the game and if it's an online only game that game is Dead while the single-player will always survive they can't turn off service to that unless it's on PC and there's DRM
Yeah. I'm one of them. I mostly play single-player games or, rarely, co-op with IRL friends. I haven't played a random online match in any game other than Hearthstone since the late 2000s. I don't care for the culture of CoD, Battlefield, Overwatch, or even MMO's like WoW anymore.
Vinx .909 Alot of people play games to escape other people, i agree.
I really hope single player games stick around. I don't play video games online, and I have -3,000 interest in doing so. The day single player games die is the day I stop playing new video games.
I'm quite sad that Jim didn't mention Divinity: Original Sin 2. That game is fucking amazing.
Saltheili up vote for mentioning that great game. I originally didn't know anything about that game, pirated it, and it was so good that I finally buy it legally with the soundtrack
Yeah but any game that lets you play as a skelegirl is awesome
*standing ovation*
Speaking as someone who just plain prefers single-player story based experiences in his video games... this was just amazing to watch.
Agreed!
As a fellow enthusiast for single player games, I can say we have nothing to worry about. I'm already looking to indies when I want a new game since AAA already forced me to look elsewhere and it's been great. Playing Divinity 2 and Stardew Valley right now on PC and Switch respectively and life is good.
You are not alone, my friend.
I love when Jim says "triple-A"
TRIIIPLE AAAY!
TRIPLE AYYYYY
luciddre4m treeple aheye
Don't forget Yakuza Kiwami and Persona 5 for Sega as well. I guess that you can argue that Persona had some Online Multiplayer functionality, but that's only tangential at best.
Ah, I caught the Red Dwarf reference! "They're dead, Dave, everybody's dead. Everybody's dead, Dave."
Our Jim,
Who art on Patreon
Hallowed be thy Name
Thy ego come
Thy wrath be done
On CZcams as it is on Steam.
Give us this, our weekly Jimquisition.
And curse Electronic Arts, as we curse asset flippers.
Lead us not into memes, but deliver onto us your glory.
For Thine is The Jimquisition,
the Jimpressions,
and the Commentocracy,
for ever and ever.
FucKonami
Fucking Glorious
Thank God for Jim
Thank God for Jim "fucking" Sterling, son.
And the choir said in unison “FUCKONAMI”
Melinda Louise amen
Mario Odyssey, Cuphead, Persona 5, Nier Automata, Sonic Mania, Breath Of The Wild, Resident Evil and many more. This year alone had some great player games, despite a few disappointments like Mass Effect and Yooka Laylee...
>Persona 5
>good game
hahaha good jokes
Wario64I What is your opinion on Persona 5? Why do you dislike it?
Wario64I trolls gunna troll
There's a starman waiting in the sky Mario Odyssey is also co-op. That was a very happy surprise for me!!
@Wario64l
Point still stands, you still have 6+ titles to go.
Oh, look at Jim celebrate Bethesda and their commitment to single player games. Yeah, those were the days.
Thank you for adding that segment at the end about Ubisoft's DRM practices. I am currently running a thread on AC: Origin's Steam discussion page that has gained some traction and raised awareness about these issues. I added this video in a response to it as well. Thanks Jim for fighting the good fight.
Can you PLEASE make a video where your voice is synced up to the super mario odyssey parrot?
I can't get enough of the parrot.
You mean it's not synced? I feel like it is.
Actually, yeah you may be right.
And he's so funny.
SmugLookingBarrel He has a name! His name is Talkatoo.
Games wouldn't be so expensive to make if AAA developers didn't insist on photo-realistic motion capture starring Kit Harrington and Kevin Spacey. Skyrim and Fallout have absolutely jank facial animations, but facial animations and cutscenes aren't what people care about in video games.
Hell, Dark Souls and Bloodborne have literally NO facial animations, and yet Bloodborne continues to be a driving force behind selling PS4s.
But People will whine and cry about it, like shall we say Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Some things (Like people bitching about Gramphics) will never change.
Eddie Serrano Let's face it, Andromeda was just shit in general. Becauss they ruined an excellent franchise.
They blow a large portion of it on marketing though. And the marketing is aimed at those that aren't here right now watching this video, therefore guaranteeing the money comes rolling in from those who get suckered in because they don't know any better - they're impressed by graphics and just want to join in with the latest big thing their friends keep talking about (also brainwashed by marketing).
The witcher 3 had shit tonnes of motion capture but they know how to budget their game development.
It bothers me how exceedingly obvious it is that Bioware is next on the chopping block. Not only did ME:A not live up expectations, EA keeps rushing their games out, the original and lead staff keeps leaving, and their last attempt at online multiplayer (DAI's multiplayer mode) was dead before it even got off the ground.
It looks like their only chance is to make that Destiny knock-off Anthem, and I hope its good, but its also the exact opposite of what I play Bioware games for :/
This is basically like the light bulb conspiracy , where a lot of companies are creating products that break down easier so you're forced to go buy a new product more often. These always online "live service" games will eventually shut down their servers and you wont be able to play that game anymore. So your pretty much shoehorned into buying the sequel. As opposed to just having a solid replay-able offline single player game that you can hold on to forever.
Also 7:29 - THICC
People who say single player is dead usually conveniently fail to mention all the excellent single player experiences that have come out the last few years.
Jim Stirling has the Enhanced Sexual Prowess ability because he has an unequippable Great Pecker +6 that bugs out his stamina meter at 102%, so it never goes down.
Way to cheese the game, Jim. Way to cheese the game -_-
Colonel RPG Jim's massive trouser snake is hidden behind copious amounts of fat rolls so the devs balanced perfectly (sorry Jim I had to)
Colonel RPG the stats kind of remind me of d&d. While we are on the subject of d&d whatever happened to that d&d show you were going to have Jim?
don't worry when god is added in the next update he will balance out jim's awesomeness and if not it would still be awesome to see a boss battle between them.
but here's the question who would be the boss? jim or god?
2017 National champs Yep, checks out
FUCKIN' STAMINA METERS!!!
That "'Allo, 'Allo" ending theme song...
you forgot persona 5 which had a great narrative even though it had DLC but was not required except for a few summons
"will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come" or, if you don't speak PR, "will be stupid enough to stick around and pay for whatever post-release bullshit we feel like putting out"
JolloFan619 and then shut down the servers for so you cant even play it for "years to come"
"Let's do a crappier version of this thing that a competitor has a massive success in" is the shittiest business model ever. How does EA stay in business?
Michael Lane cannibalism.
+Michael Lane By cannibalizing the consumer trust and creative energy of the subsidiary studios they acquire. Picture in your head suited executives shoveling their employees and customers into a giant furnace that belches green papery smoke.
Evil, mostly.
Michael Lane this is how Electronic Arts stays in business they don't make games anymore they buy companies that have a great track record and hope that those guys will make their Call of Duty for them but when that company is good at only real time strategy or single player games that's when Electronic Arts becomes upset and shuts them down. I heard Mirror's Edge 2 wasn't even marketed by EA just so they could prove a prophecy saying single player games don't sell.
Madden games
I liked it when the parrot would sometimes just so happen to line up with Jim's speech, made it much more fun to watch.
So Electronic Sharts isn't interested in single player games anymore, huh? Welp, say good-bye to Bioware everyone. No more Dragon Age or Mass Effect.
Jabroni Jones: it's for the better. I would rather have fond memories of the series than have these guys shit all over it.
Jabroni Jones after what EA did to Andromeda, maybe it's a good thing.
They made a statement around the launch of Dead Space 3 that basically confirmed they planned to go down this path. They said at the time they weren't going to do any more purely single player games, that everything would have at least some type of coop/multiplayer or online integration built into it. Dead Space 3 itself was practically their first example of that plan in action, taking what would have been pure single player (like Dead Space 1 and 2) and adding the coop, adding the online integration, adding the microtransactions, etc.
Deathbrewer... and after DeadSpace3 flopped they decided that this approach works and it's the developers that aren't working, so they continued going that route and killing off studios over it. Honestly, the jaw on those guys.
I said goodbye to Bioware a long time ago.
The only games I play currently are single player games. Most multiplayer games I've played have a tendency to devolve into mindlessness if I play them for too long, and the handful of multiplayer games I do play are fun because of player interaction, and so must be on a PC.
Single player gamer for life !!
Same.
Yes, 100% agreed. I don't need to work with or against shithead kids who scream into my ears to have fun. I'd very much rather play HL2 again.
A_Lone Traveler sadly I try to tell this to kids I meet on PlayStation Network they're like what? because a lot of them were born in 2001 are 2002 so they have no idea what games were like before online multiplayer became hot. The thing that the kids born in 2001 and 2002 will control gaming's future
Echo I heard a while back they're working on a sequel ; )
As a mostly single-player... ... player and a huge fan of linearity and narrative driven experiences, 2017 was one heck of a year for me, I don't remember a year were I enjoyed so many goddamn great games. Heck, at least 3 or 4 games released this year automatically entered my list of favorite games ever, this is godamn great.
You forgot persona 5 as well as a single player game
And Tales of Berseria
Hellblade!!! I just bought a hoodie from Ninja Theory. I support awesome devs!!! And then brag about it in comment section where no one cares . . .
Didn't know they sell hoodies. Will definitely buy one ;)
Beth Lowery I care my man :) don't worry you're important:)
At least you understand no one cares
Ethan bo-bethan nah man I care like I mean I mean I really care like Scarlet Johnson caring and that says a lot my dude
I care because you're special and I love you!...I also love the talking dog in my room!..Haha this is some good shit!!
I officially relieve myself of all blame mentioned around the 6 minute mark, as I never cried for multiplayer or had any issue with linearity.
I certainly don't complain about linearity in books or movies, it can definitely work in games, and absolutely has countless times. But boy are there games that really just make you feel like you're walking down a long hallway from one cutscene to the next. I'm looking at you FFXIII.
No matter how many times I hear Jim’s “Phil Harrison voice,” it still makes me laugh. Beautiful, groundbreaking work there, Jim.
"Everybody's dead Dave"
Anyone else caught the refference?
Did we ever get an official answer on why he's going back to Drill Queen?
Enthused Norseman I think he said it was just because he felt like it
People weren't too keen on the new song so he went back to the old one. I happened to love the new song but apparently, I'm in the minority on that one.
Oh well. I like them both, so I'm fine.
yeah the new one was better IMO :( mostly because I could totally relate somehow
I liked the new song too. But if Jim wants to swap back to the old one then I worship his decision. I would follow him into hell if he said it would kill off loot-boxes!
Any day is a good day to listen to Jim ramble about something.
Sneaking in a Red Dwarf reference into your rant on "dead media devices" is why I love you Jim
"Gamers want higher fidelity and they want higher resolution graphics."
*looks at copy of PS4 version of Undertale* Ha...ha ha...ha ha ha...ha HAH...HA HA...AAAAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!
*Looks at Switch*
Nah, mate.
Am I the only one who heard that laugh with the tune of Bonetrousel?
I remember in 2008 when people were heralding the death of singleplayer. Listen, I'm an introverted shut-in. Socialise in my video games? Yeah, no thanks. If single player games exist, I will buy them and I will play them:P
To be fair, I mostly buy indie developed games nowadays anyway, either that or AA published games (opposed to AAA published). I hardly think I'm the only person. I said it back then and I'll say it again. So long there are introverts, there will be singleplayer :P
I'm an introvert to, but I don't mind playing with others.
...........But I just prefer RPGs, which are typically single player, cause I just like the genre.
Also I love the Nemesis System in Shadow of Mordor/War.
Want to see it applied to Factions in Strategy games.
I'm not very social too still that doesn't prevent me from multiplayer games, I just simply type instead of speak in the mic and use voice commands
I like strategy games and RPGs as well. My introvert rambling was kind of a self-deprecating joke, I have an odd sense of humour:P
I really wasn't joking when I said I don't like dealing with people while I'm playing video games, though. I play video games to get away from people xD
I kind of wanted to try Shadow of Mordor, but never got around to it, then the whole WB debacle happened and I kind of don't want to give that publisher my money. Shame, really.
I'm very much an introvert, but I do play some multiplayer games, such as FFXIV, WoW, and (will soon play) Destiny 2. I don't group at all if possible though, as I'd rather play alone or with specific people, even if that means a diminished experience or limiting the content I can take part in. I just feel there's enough merit for my enjoyment, despite the odds being against me.
As I play MMORPGs, as well as practically any other genre of game, I come across the sorts who think that "more variety is never bad." That's the most misguided thinking possible in this case. In a world of infinite resources and time, yeah, more is never bad. We unfortunately don't live in such a world. Dividing your limited resources and time reduces the quality of a product. Adding limitations or other "required" content to something that the devs themselves didn't want in the first place detracts from their original vision. When a single player game is forced to take into account online functionality or multiplayer modes, time and resources are logically being taken away from the quality of the single player experience. Time they could have spent adding more to it, polishing the content already there, etc.
I know gamers who are as extrovert as any party animal can get, but when they play games, they enjoy the well crafted, solitary single player space as well. It's just that some types of games (ie horrors and story driven) really shine on well structured narrative of single player experience.
When there are companies like CD Projekt RED that grow to AAA studio sizes while developing single-player games only (and also disregarding DRM entirely), I think the idea that single-player is dead or dying is provably wrong.
It's always funny to me that publishers are quick to blame anyone and anything but their own stupid ideas / methods when something does not go according to their plan.
Clairvoyant81 after playing Witcher 3 and the amazing blood and wine, they have EARNED my money on their next project. The only games I buy on release day are from companies that have EARNED it. Any thing from EA, Activision, or Ubisoft gets put on hold till a steam sale or bought used for console.
I think you're forgetting that CDProjektRed is a small indie studio that made le Witcherino tres on napkins and transferred them to a game through the mighty power of Geraldo de Riviera. PRAISE GERALDO!!
And it's always so "funny" to me that other gamers are so quick to defend things like microtransactions and DRM because of all the standard bullshit excuses they use to defend it. CD Projekt RED's mere existence invalidates nearly every excuse these chucklefucks have.
the_legendary_1 Praise Geraldo del Rivero!
Remember, they dont want a TON of money, they want ALL the money, and a game we only play for once, rather than a subscription plus lootboxes, plus whatever they come up next, is shit, and 'only makes pennies of revenue' in their eyes.
i love the tiny little *also has co-op in the bottom corner at 14:03
I like having a community around my games. Heck, I like having a community around most of my media experiences. But I'd rather seek out that community myself. A lively fanbase on reddit, or tumblr, or wherever, and I'm happy. I like being able to talk to people about the game, but I don't need to do it during the game.
In Jim Sterling we trust.
Thank God for Jim fucking Sterling.
*Jim Fucking Sterling Son
*thrust
thrust god for jim fucking sterling
Lets boycott big publishers they are completely obsolete
SP games are just fine, it's just the god damn "AAA" publishers wanting to make more money off of dlc and micro transactions. If you want good a SP experience take a look at the indie scene, usually what you'll find are games that have a soul, innovation, and a good price to boot.
Most of the AAA SP I've seen this year (other than Shadow of War) have no micro transactions and if there is DLC, it normally adds to an already huge and complete game. Horizon, Zelda, Odyssey, Wolfenstein, Nier, etc... are all examples of this. AAA SP games are a bit more resistant to corporate scum than you'd think... these games also have soul and some have plenty of innovation. (you can make a good SP game without innovation, look at DOOM 2016)
SP in general is pretty great, you gotta give credit where credit's due; a good SP game takes more than a few small maps and net-code to make, whether you're an indie studio or Platinum Games.
Old games, Emulation, its all there. Still for years to compensate. Don't support shitty companies with your money.
Don't be a part of the money gouging greed problem!
Or look at the Japanese market. The roles were reversed. Japanese games seemed to be in trouble for a few years. While the west made quite a few decent SP AAA games. Now that western AAA games seem to stagnate there has been a resurgence of quality games coming out of Japan this year.
Nier, Nioh, Yakuza, Persona, Evil Within 2, Zelda and few others.
Agreed Single player games aren't dying I'll never stop playing them, because online games usually are ruined by hackers, cheaters, glitches, young children, racism, trolls, sexism, idiots, morons, the list goes on.
Oh boy. Flooding the market with season pass lootbox multiplayer games. There's no possible way that could backfire.
Has anyone stopped to ask themselves about the garbage AAA focus testing jargon spouts?
"To deliver an experience that players will come back to and enjoy for a long time to come..."
Being so cared-for almost makes you fully release everything you've got into your trousers.
Let's be honest... they don't want us back. They'd like nothing sooner than us to buy their Deluxe edition, seasons pass, micro-currency to level up and sod off so they can shut the servers down and move on. They've already proved they don't make games with a long-term vision, given there's another number slapped on the year or two after launch.
Man, remember when the Jimquisition theme was Stress? I sure miss that classic theme.
Chewi
I bet you do.
And as soon as he changes it back, you'll want the current song back.
The cycle turns unabated...
Almond Joy I was joking about how Jim said he was going to replace Born Depressed with Stress, but has recently been using it as the intro for nearly every episode.
I miss the new intro song tbh, it fits the new intro perfectly. Born Depressed is great but it doesn't match the new intro at all
Chewi I think he's been using it for the more angry episodes. For example, lootbox episodes. He explained that Born Depressed is an angry theme, and Stress is more of a laid back theme.
I just like Born Depressed, it’s part of Jim’s iconic brand. (Truly iconic not Ubisoft iconic.)
Narrator: "Hellblade blows AAA games out of the bloody water!"
Shown on screen: bloody water. Literally.
I love the parrot, and how it's so well timed with Jim's voice