Single-Player is Thriving, Says Sony in Leaked PlayStation Document - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 May 2021 / 2,157 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment in a leaked internal document distributed to developers in 2019 obtained by Vice says that "single-player is thriving."
This has proven true with the success of the PlayStation 4 and some of the best-selling first-party games are single-player focused. Some of the best-selling first-party single-layer games on the PS4 include Marvel's Spider-Man, Uncharted 4, A Thief's End, God of War, The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, and many more.
Sony in the document does say players have stated some problems with single-player games and lists four key problems:
- "No idea how long I might need, don't play unless I have 2+ free hours"
- "Takes a lot of time to scan through long help videos when stuck"
- "How to engage socially without risk of spoilers"
- "Forgot what I was doing in this game last time, hard to get back in"
Sony in one survey spoke with around 3,000 players. "In an ideal world, every player has the time to spend hours per day, every day, playing games," reads one slide. "In reality, most people have jobs. Or kids. Or school. Or all of the above. Often, free time comes wedged between other obligations. An hour before bed. A 30-minute break between homework assignments. A few minutes before your online MP [multiplayer] match."
The PlayStation 5 Activities feature was designed to remove the barriers faced with playing single-player games. It helps players jump straight into specific levels or challenges in a game, as well as offering hints when a player gets stuck.
Looking at the first-party lineup for the PS5 shows that Sony isn't moving away from single-player games. The console launched with Spider-Man: Miles Morales and a remake of Demon's Souls, and next year will see the release of a God of War Sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Focus on your strengths Sony. 1st Party ambitious single player games is the blood of PlayStation
they're def thriving but I just wish there was more variety for people who want other genre's like there used to be. with the ps3 you could get these amazing story games alongside other things like fat princess, modnation racers, etc, some really creative shit. it was like a perfect balance to offer something for everyone but then with the ps4 most of their first party devs sort of transitioned into the same direction. ps5 at least has 2 great platformers at launch and then a destruction derby game later so that's a better start.
i'm still hyped for horizon 2 and god of war, but the best analogy I can come up for it is ice cream. ice cream will always be good, and if you eat it 10 days in a row it will still be just as good but eventually you'll want something different just for a change
^ This. And it's not that I think they should do any less SP than they are doing, although perhaps a bit more variety in genre within that can't hurt. They are more successful than ever with COVID prompted gaming, so I hope they plow that into going new places including multiplayer. PS4 era did really focus down on one approach, and there is much more than that. Seems pretty clear that they will be doing more in PC space, from time delayed PC releases to Epic shareholding, whose sales should support producing even more games, but I think that needs to include more than their SP showcases even though those are perhaps 1st to come to mind now based on PS4 era.
It'd be nice if they didn't delay PC releases and forming Epic exclusivity crap. They could do with taking the page from MS when it comes to PC support and release to more than just a single store and not delaying the PC version, while charging high prices for games that are 2-3 years old.
The sales data shows it too apparently. They mentioned this on neogaf, that apparently alot of single player games, sell like 3-4 times the amount of xbox sales (even though theres not 3-4 times as many PS4s out in the wild)
"Forgot what I was doing in this game last time, hard to get back in"
This... a million times. It boggles my mind that games have not univerally incorporated a feature that reminds you of the last few things you've done when you start back up. That's a feature that has been in game's sporadically for nearly 20 years. Dunno why more haven't done it.
yup. I ruined FFXV for myself because I went away from it for a few months and when I tried to get back into it it just wasn't the same because I couldn't remember any of what I had last done so I never bothered to continue playing ;_;
Good. They make the best single-player games as well. There really isn't any competition that even plays in the same league.
All of the key problems are not something I've ever had an issue with except the last one. In fact I love single player games cause I can just hop in quickly and leave immediately. 2+ hours is what I need if I want to do multiplayer.
The fourth problem is often suffered by the same people who complain that there's not enough hard drive space on the console. They have too much shit going on at once. Cramming 10 games on there at the same time and trying to keep up with what's happening in each one, no wonder they get confused. People, just FOCUS on the one game that you are playing, IMMERSE yourself in the story and finish it before moving on to something else. It will be a much better experience. You wouldn't leave a good movie hanging and start another one and then hop between the two movies, now would you? I know it's a tough ask with the attention span that people are sporting nowadays, but just saying.
try telling this to EA
People are having trouble remembering what they did last, because so many in the world are laden down with jobs and responsibilities. The whole world needs better labor laws, and affordable access to childcare.
‘Help videos’ are for the weak though.
They are thriving and i exclusively play single player games.
My main issue was always forgetting the controls for a specific game after i stopped playing for a period of time and re-learn them all over again to continue and at times forgetting some tricks from my previous play through completely!
Both SP and MP games are striving, offering both would be even better. Not all gamers are just into SP games and not all MP gamers are into MP games.
They are, but not with the variety I was used to seeing 10 years back. I'd love to see more third parties making more SP games like action based or ARPG titles, instead of turn based/tactics based SP titles out the wazoo.
