Few Would Play Star Wars Battlefront Single-Player Campaign, Says EA COO

[John Keefer]

Few Would Play Star Wars Battlefront Single-Player Campaign, Says EA COO

At this past E3 in June, Star Wars: Battlefront generated quite a bit of buzz [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/conferences/e3-2015/14194-Best-of-Show-E3-2015]. The original game was quite popular, and most games in the Star Wars universe do rather well. However, one thing that caused more than a few raised eyebrows was that there would be no single-player campaign for the game.

The game, which has posed a question [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/conferences/e3-2015/14142-Star-Wars-Battlefront-Preview-E3-2015] from GameSpot about how games with a single-player campaign traditionally sell better, Moore agreed but with a caveat.

"So, there's two phenomena with that statement," Moore said. "The first is that yes, you might be right. The second is that very few people actually play the single-player on these kinds of games. That's what the data points to."

Moore did not offer the data of which he spoke, but he said the decision, which was made when the game was first given the go ahead a few years ago, was also based on what the gaming landscape would look like at release.

"You make a decision, years out, and you plan for what the world looks like when a game ships in two or three years," he said. "That's about the intuitiveness about the executive producer, and his or her vision for the game."

[poll=39753]

He cited the revamp of Star Wars: The Old Republic from a subscription model, which the game had when development started, to a free-to-play model, which the landscape apparently called when the game was finally ready for release.

Granted, Battlefront will have an offline solo play experience against bots, but being a fan of single-player, I find lack of a campaign a bit short-sighted. I really wanted to play Titanfall, but avoided it because I did not want a purely multiplayer experience. It looks like I will be doing the same with Battlefront.

Be sure to answer the poll that is part of this article, and tell us what you think of EA's decision in the comments below.

Source: GameSpot [http://www.gamespot.com/articles/eas-new-empire-an-interview-with-peter-moore/1100-6429703/]




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[Dalek Caan]

Only if EA could make a good Single Player campaign. Not just something tacked on as an afterthought.

Really though while I've never looked into the Extended Star Wars Universe I imagine there is a lot of stuff you could do with it if you had an imagination.

 

[RJ 17]

Wow, between this and the "On Disc DLC isn't content blocked by an arbitrary paywall!" statements, this guy really is on a mission to piss in everyone's face and tell them it's raining.

Interviewer: "Fact: Games with a single player campaign sell better."
Moore:

 

[DEAD34345]

I really liked the single-player campaign in Battlefront 2, so I voted yes. Honestly though, I have so many reservations about this game that I probably wouldn't have gone for it either way. Besides, if they had made a campaign, it'd probably have turned out like the campaigns in the recent Battlefield games, in which case nothing of value has been lost.

 

[Fox12]

EA is basically a multi-player team sport video game publisher now. All of their major releases reflect this, and it's only going to get worse from here. If you like single player or story driven games, then you are not part of this companies target demographic. They don't make games for you anymore. It's time to move on. EA has.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Wow, between this and the "On Dis DLC isn't content blocked by an arbitrary paywall!" statements, this guy really is on mission to piss in everyone's face and tell them it's raining.

Interviewer: "Fact: Games with a single player campaign sell better."
Moore: "I reject your reality and substitute my own."

Beat me to it.
It's as if this guy is a saboteur sent by another company just to make everyone dislike EA more, and to make their games suck.

I think I'll just stick to playing good games made by people that know what gamers actually want.
Anyone wanna go play Windward? No on-disc DLC or lack of singleplayer.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Well they sure won't when you show that little faith in it.

Self-fulfilling prophecies? It's the EA way!

 

[laggyteabag]

I for one am actually glad that they are scrapping the inevitably shitty campaign and focusing on the multiplayer, because it is, y'know, something that I will actually play more than once [small](unless the multiplayer is shit, which wont exactly surprise me)[/small].

I for one actually hope that they do the same with the next Battlefield title. Shoehorning in a singleplayer mode is just as bad as shoehorning in a multiplayer mode.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Hello Mr Moore, we meet again. Do you play games? Or do you get paid to deflect journalists? Something is telling me the latter, can't quite put my chubby finger on it. Too greasy. Though, thinking of battlefield campaigns...i am unsure whether it is even worth them trying. Well, not "trying." More like begrudgingly fulfilling target quotas. That battlefield 4 campaign was cut severly short. Let's not pretend it wasn't. Alas, deadlines be deadlines. Dems da rules etc.

 

[RJ 17]

Please disregard this post, accidentally clicked "quote" on someone's post when I meant to edit my own to fix a spelling mistake.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Oops sorry, phone like to double post

 

[Demagogue]

oh hey... I was waiting for a reason to not buy Battlefront... thanks EA!

 

[Shiftygiant]

Okay, so something is seriously wrong with the Single Player campaign on a fundamental level. I mean, why else would they come out and say this?

 

[Frankster]

My answer on behalf of those "very few people" is the following Mr Moore: screw you+bird flip.

It's the same dude who was talking BS about not seeing what the problem with on disc dlc is?
Well remind me never to buy a used car from this guy, I'd probably be left with just a steering wheel. That explodes.

Edit: Just to specify... Easily 80-90% of my time playing battlefront 2 has been in either campaign or galactic conquest. I played a lot of co-op, more so then I did multi.

 

[Elfgore]

Sixty bucks the next Battlefield comes with a shitty story. A story that would have been way better put to use in a Star Wars universe. In summary, Fuck you EA... again. You're ruining this game and spitting on the previous two.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Jeez, thank God.

It was looking like Komani was going to rule unabated for stupidest decisions of the year. EA took its time, and unleashed Moore unto the world. It's a bold strategy, Cotton.

Diablo 3 Offline desire [https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Diablo+3+offline+mode]

Starcraft 2 Offline requests [https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=starcraft+2+offline+mode]

Titanfall offline mode hopes [https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=titanfall+offline+mode]

I don't want to hear crap about an increasingly online world. I don't want to post to my friends about this killer frag I got. And I know I'm not alone. I actually came with Data, Moore. You gave us rhetoric.

But I'm not going to say you didn't do any research. I know the research you did. You got together people who primarily played online and asked if they liked it. They said yes, and you had the response you wanted to go through with your desired decision.

Here's another research point you can look to if you want. The Amount of people who hate playing multiplayer games [https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=I+hate+playing+games+online] and how most people think Multiplayer games breed horrible communities that turns a good deal off from the game [https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=multiplayer+games+bad+communities].

Perhaps I don't care about other people. Perhaps I want to play the game at my own pace. Why are developers insisting that... no, I must be the only one who feels that way? That we all want to compete with people who don't matter to us and we're really asking for it?

 

[RonHiler]

And.....I just lost any interest I might have had in this game.

 

[BabySinclair]

EA's wrong again

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Show of hands: how many people complaining about BF not having a single-player campaign play TF2, an online team based shooter with no single player content other than playing against bots?

Getting somewhat weary with people complaining about EA doing something and getting slammed for it because EA, rather than what they are actually doing. And people wonder why companies tend to shut out a good portion of communication with "gamers".

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"Would you play a single-player campaign"

WOW! That is one HUGELY misleading question/answer spectrum!!!
It should be "Would you mind it if the game had no SP?" or "Would you rather buy this game with it including a SP mode, or knowing they focused 100% of effort on MP?".

THEN you could see what people really think... Because SP in THESE games is just a training for the MP. You finish the SP and then spen d about 10+ times that much hours in the MP!