For the quickest way to join, simply enter your email below and get access. We will send a confirmation and sign you up to our newsletter to keep you updated on all your gaming news.
Baldur's Gate 3 marketing lead hands Sony some advice after its live-service fails, saying "pretty much every game" is effectively multiplayer now: "Every experience is a shared experience"
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Join the club
Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Reacting to Sony's floundering push into making live-service games, Larian Studios and Baldur's Gate 3's director of publishing Michael 'Cromwelp' Douse argues that the gap between single-player and multiplayer games has never been smaller, so maybe these companies don't need to make an always-online game to have an online hit.
For context, this week Sony shut down Bluepoint Games, the PlayStation first-party studio behind the gorgeous Demon's Souls PS5 remake and Shadow of the Colossus' PS4 revival. The subsidiary had previously been working on a God of War live service game that eventually went nowhere, which is a trend often repeated elsewhere in the PlayStation Studios roster during its PS5 generation.
"Theory: because of how connected everyone is, pretty much every game and every experience is a shared experience," Douse tweets in response to Sony's multiple live service blunders during the PS5 generation, Concord included. "In other words, the distance between single and multiplayer games is actually shrinking rather than growing. Social resonance doesn't require a game to be MP."
Article continues below
After one commenter points out that big publishers can't monetize single-player games with endless cosmetics, Douse replies that it's "demonstrably true that you can monetize a game by, you know, making sure it's good." Look no further than Baldur's Gate 3, I guess. Though, he also says "nearly 100% of the time," he sees executives wrongly believing that no game can be "objectively good."
Bluepoint Games made a name for itself with a string of quality remasters, remakes, and repackages for classic games. The Texas-based studio was then acquired by Sony in 2021 before helping develop God of War Ragnarok alongside Sony Santa Monica, at which point it was then apparently handed a multiplayer God of War game, a project well outside of its wheelhouse. Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reports the team spent the last year pitching other projects.
Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
Join The Community
