Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick recently shared his opinion in regards to single player games.
In the past, some game companies have been critical about making single player games and praising multiplayer games as the “future of gaming”. Some gamers also thought that was the case, thinking single-player gameplay is the old way and the new one is all about online multiplayer, live-service, and the like. Thankfully, there was some pushback with big game companies saying the opposite.
Today, one of those bigger companies still believe in single player games. Zelnick recently shared his opinions during Take Two Interactive’s quarterly financial earnings call and here is what he had to say via mp1st:
There was a time when a couple of our competitors were taking the position that single player was dead. We never took that position. We know that there’s a role for a single player. I believe there will be a role going forward. Then there are certain games that are meant to be only multiplayer experiences.
Rockstar is known for storytelling, and yes, Rockstar is also known for these fantastic open world experiences. They clearly do both really well. And the contract shows, as you just said that, consumers are really excited about Rockstar storytelling ability, and at the same time, we had a great quarter with Grand Theft Auto Online. So there’s a lot of excitement there. So the answer is sort of all of the above.
This is not surprising at all since Rockstar Games’ titles are mostly comprised of single-player with a mix on the side, online multiplayer. Their main focus though is all about single-player campaign, the story, and the content players can enjoy playing alone. Good examples are the ones he mentioned, which are Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto series.
Definitely, single-player gaming is still not dead and many game companies think alike.
