GTL: Twitch's Power Means Game Over for Single Player Titles
By Twin Galaxies Editorial Staff ·
Developers claim that Twitch is killing their single player games. With titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 removing their single player campaign and Fallout 76 bringing multiplayer to the series, streaming services are showing their powerful influence on game development. It's clear that "Games as a Service" is not just a lucrative opportunity for publishers but also a strategy to keep games relevant and trending on Twitch.
With multiplayer titles and live streaming as entertainment at the height of their popularity in today's video game industry, many have begun to question whether or not streaming culture and its tendency to lean towards multiplayer games as its focus is killing the single player experience. Mandie Roman discusses this and other issues regarding the world of streaming and multiplayer titles on Game Talk Live with help from an expert panel of guests including Producer Khail Anonymous and Malika Lim of Hyper RPG.
With the world of live streaming as a form of entertainment in the video game industry for fans, many have looked at the culture of streaming as possibly a major factor in the decline of single player experiences being developed, as the replayability of multiplayer games lends itself better to streamers and viewers who stream and tune in on a daily basis. Each panelists discusses how recent trends of multiplayer focus have made their way into even the most popular single player franchises in history, such as Fallout 76 for Bethesda's single player Fallout franchise.
While multiplayer titles have seen a great deal of success by being promoted through the streaming world, the Game Talk Live panel explains how single player titles are still able to find great deals of success on the likes of Twitch, especially triple A titles in the form of the recent God War. The panel also discusses the allure of multiplayer titles being proftable over a large amount of time for studios and how a development of a completely finished single player product is not necessarily a negative thing.
"I don’t think it’s bad to be done with a game! I have movies that I love and finish watching at the theater, and maybe I might see them again!" -@hello_malika of @Hyper_RPG
— GameTalkLive (@GameTalkLive) June 22, 2018
Watch: https://t.co/vDD67TRHJh#gamergirl #GamersUnite pic.twitter.com/vYzZkphvQk
The guests then move onto discussing whether or not triple A studios are moving towards not developing single player titles or aspects of franchises at all. Both panelists explain how the lack of a single player campaign for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is not very surprising considering the majority of players for that franchise only partake in the multiplayer aspect, but that the industry still sees that there is still a massive interest in single player games and would be unwise to abandoned that.
Game Talk Live then moves onto the discussing the appeal that multiplayer and single player games bring to both the older and younger generations and the challenges that aspiring streamers face in being noticed on the huge platform of Twitch and tips they can utilize to do so when there has never been as much competition as there is now, as even popular streamers like Tyler "Ninja" Belvins and Dr DisRespect took years to get to the height of popularity that they are not now.
"I think it’s so important to build a #positive space and #community on the internet…that means people will come back over and over again." -@hello_malika of @Hyper_RPG
— GameTalkLive (@GameTalkLive) June 22, 2018
Watch Live: https://t.co/vDD67TRHJh#positivity #PositiveVibes #streaming #StreamerNetwork #streamers pic.twitter.com/9zoZMlcKKg
This episode of Game Talk Live has ended, but you can check out the full episode in the embedded video above. Be sure to check out the previous episode as well in which guests discuss the unique and controversial decision by Riot Games to award Echo Fox a victory after a game crash in the middle of a NA LCS match.