Few Would Play Star Wars Battlefront Single-Player Campaign, Says EA COO
- Thread starter John Keefer
- Start date
It is obvious to me that EA's entire business model is built around online play these days. The problem they face is that the majority simply does not want to play multiplayer, they want a good singeplayer experience.
Singeplayer gamers are not what EA wants. They will only buy the base game, likely not cosmetic DLC, and may even just play a second-hand copy, returning it for store credit when they're done.
An online multiplayer player will likely gobble up all the DLC, needs his own copy to play at all, and as such they earn more money.
So how do you make sure people stop expecting singleplayer campaigns? Either mutilate them so they're worthless (COD, Battlefield) or just keep insisting "nobody plays them anyway" (Titanfall, Destiny et. al).
They hope that by not offering a real singleplayer at all, people will automatically migrate to multiplayer.
It's a gamble. If EA (and others!) succeed, they will have succesfully converted at least some people and make more money. If, as I suspect, they're wrong? Then they will see ever diminishing returns on their sales and either commit to singleplayer campaigns again... or conclude the series has 'failed', killing it.
Singeplayer gamers are not what EA wants. They will only buy the base game, likely not cosmetic DLC, and may even just play a second-hand copy, returning it for store credit when they're done.
An online multiplayer player will likely gobble up all the DLC, needs his own copy to play at all, and as such they earn more money.
So how do you make sure people stop expecting singleplayer campaigns? Either mutilate them so they're worthless (COD, Battlefield) or just keep insisting "nobody plays them anyway" (Titanfall, Destiny et. al).
They hope that by not offering a real singleplayer at all, people will automatically migrate to multiplayer.
It's a gamble. If EA (and others!) succeed, they will have succesfully converted at least some people and make more money. If, as I suspect, they're wrong? Then they will see ever diminishing returns on their sales and either commit to singleplayer campaigns again... or conclude the series has 'failed', killing it.
When I was 10 and had shitty internet, I would spend hours playing the Battlefield 1942 demo map with nothing but bots. I don't pretend that my experience is representative of the player base of the series as a whole.
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I never thought that the single player modes in Battlefront 1 and 2 were good or any special. Despite that I still found them to be lots of fun and spent several hours on them, but their single player modes never held a candle to other Star Wars games that were single player only. So while I played Battlefront primarily for the multiplayer good chunk of my enjoyment came from its single player.Gennadios said:
Same thing goes for some of those Modern Military Shooters. People panned the single player campaigns for both battlefield 3 and 4, but personally I had fun with them. Now those campaigns alone certainly weren't worth the $60 price tag, but then again I didn't buy those games primarily for the single player.
Spoken like a company that really doesn't want to go ahead with their own project.
...Or one that's royally out of touch with its target audience. (or both)
...Or one that's royally out of touch with its target audience. (or both)
I see that razor invoked so often, and I have to say I've always found it silly because it assumes that malice and stupidity are mutually exclusive.MiskWisk said:
The things is that I want a Galactic Conquest Mode. That is my most played game mode in Star Wars Battlefront by far. I've spent hundreds of hours freeing and/or conquering planets in the name of the Republic/CIS/Rebels/Empire. I really want that mode. Let me play online with friends and choose whether we play with/against each other and/or other players, and I'll be happy.
I know they said there won't be a Galactic Conquest Mode, but I can dream. I can dream.
I know they said there won't be a Galactic Conquest Mode, but I can dream. I can dream.
Personally I think the big publishers have some secret competition between themselves to see who can be on record for saying the stupidest shit.
It's the only thing that makes sense. Every other option just makes me lose any remaining faith in the future of humanity.
It's the only thing that makes sense. Every other option just makes me lose any remaining faith in the future of humanity.
This guy really doesn't know gamers or star wars fans for that matter.
Battlefield has singleplayer, COD has singleplayer.
I'm assuming Battlefront should sort of be along those lines?
If they're not going for free to play with Battlefront anyway I don't really see the point.
Battlefield has singleplayer, COD has singleplayer.
I'm assuming Battlefront should sort of be along those lines?
If they're not going for free to play with Battlefront anyway I don't really see the point.
Yeah, few people would play a single player campaign for a game based on one of the most well loved narratives in fiction. Jesus wept, put this fool, and those that inform him, in front of a TV, fire up Netflix and get them to binge watch The Clone Wars. Solid writing and voice work turned a literal army of clones into some of the best characters in family animated television. Give the players the chance to pal around with guys like Rex, Cody, Fives and Heavy and by God you'll have them by the balls.
On one hand, people think they know what they want, but on the other hand, EA is pretty bad with handling anything that requires finesse such as a single player campaign that people would actually remember playing or want to, so I would trust them with anything associated with quality as much as I would trust Freddy Krueger to safely hold a kitten for five minutes. Not helping this argument in favor of good intentions, people do tend to forget very quickly about the standards they hold themselves to, such as not continuing to buy EA games.
See: people signing to boycott games and then buying them, again and again.
You would have better luck barking up a different tree that actually has something resembling compassion, and enough of it to ignore the amount of money they would save from abandoning it.
See: people signing to boycott games and then buying them, again and again.
You would have better luck barking up a different tree that actually has something resembling compassion, and enough of it to ignore the amount of money they would save from abandoning it.
No space battles AND no single-player? I'm not even sure they're planning to sell us them as DLC anymore, I think they've just given up with this game.
Actually, scratch that, they'll sell us the whole game as DLC but buying the physical release will give you the right to purchase it.
Actually, scratch that, they'll sell us the whole game as DLC but buying the physical release will give you the right to purchase it.
Not only would I play a single player campaign, I won't buy the game if it doesn't have a single player campaign. There about a quadrillion online multiplayer shooters available to me and honestly, I don't think EA has the talent to outdo all of it's competitors.
It's EA; I'm not touching it anyway. So I didn't vote. Here's the thing: Remember TIE Fighter? Remember how it gave you more power, and how taking out a single ISD no longer was a multi-mission nail biter (like it was in X-Wing)? Remember how it was ultimately a better game anyway, in no small part because it placed you as even more of a single gear in a mighty machine- one that had characters in it- Thrawn and Vader and Palpatine himself? The elements that let you feel you were part of a living world, and would've made it memorable even if the game was awful? Remember how those elements only worked because we had three movies and several books to get to know them? Well, we've got more coming. Three more movies (and let's not kid ourselves, a whole bunch more after that), and possibly a whole bunch of books, too. The future, so far as THAT goes, at least, has the potential to be bright. But there's no marketing point on character (or even setting, really) development if the whole focus is multiplayer combat.
Now- remember X-Wing Vs TIE Fighter?
Now- remember X-Wing Vs TIE Fighter?
"Well dear Escapist.. so far this year has been a good one in the shitPRlympics in the game industry. While ubisoft totaly dominated last year singlehandedly it seems this year we have a head to head challange between konami and EA.
Konami showed a strong start into the season by not only canceling their latest silent hill project and pulling PT from internet shelfs but also kicking lead designer and creator Hideo Kajima from any involvment with the company and basically erased his name from company history. And latest news about their draconian and totalitarian working conditions gives them quite the advantage above all other contenders.
However EA seems to not want to be left behind this year, after having a rather weak performance in 2014 it seems the double champion of shittiness is getting in the swing of things again, warming up with two very interesting PR disasters showing once more that EA has absolutly no idea about their customer base. However will these two PR disasters be enough to get EA back as a serious contender against the titan of shittyness that konami has turned into this year?
And what about the people at team Ubisoft? After taking the title of last years championship without any real effort besides some weak resistance from team microsoft it has gone awfully quiet. However this commentator is sure that we will have a quite interesting and action laden late season after the summer pause and going into the hot holiday season.
Will konami keep its headstart? Will EA find back to its old scummy self and its disastrous and glorious PR days of days gone? Will ubisoft surprise us with more fake trailers and downgraded games?
Or will another as of yet unknown contender swing by and take the title like a 2k games presenting alien colonial marines?
One can only wait with anticipation what the great game publishers have still in store for us this year"
Also... conquest mode was awesome and i would have loved if they had put one in... screw you EA
Konami showed a strong start into the season by not only canceling their latest silent hill project and pulling PT from internet shelfs but also kicking lead designer and creator Hideo Kajima from any involvment with the company and basically erased his name from company history. And latest news about their draconian and totalitarian working conditions gives them quite the advantage above all other contenders.
However EA seems to not want to be left behind this year, after having a rather weak performance in 2014 it seems the double champion of shittiness is getting in the swing of things again, warming up with two very interesting PR disasters showing once more that EA has absolutly no idea about their customer base. However will these two PR disasters be enough to get EA back as a serious contender against the titan of shittyness that konami has turned into this year?
And what about the people at team Ubisoft? After taking the title of last years championship without any real effort besides some weak resistance from team microsoft it has gone awfully quiet. However this commentator is sure that we will have a quite interesting and action laden late season after the summer pause and going into the hot holiday season.
Will konami keep its headstart? Will EA find back to its old scummy self and its disastrous and glorious PR days of days gone? Will ubisoft surprise us with more fake trailers and downgraded games?
Or will another as of yet unknown contender swing by and take the title like a 2k games presenting alien colonial marines?
One can only wait with anticipation what the great game publishers have still in store for us this year"
Also... conquest mode was awesome and i would have loved if they had put one in... screw you EA
Of all the reasons I'm not looking forward to with this game, this is at the bottom(top?) of the list. I thought the Battlefront 2 campaign was pretty shitty, and I still played the game solo quite a bit.
That being said, I'd like offline options, and so far their's are sounding pretty awful. The lack of being able to play against AI on the normal maps is pretty disappointing.
That being said, I'd like offline options, and so far their's are sounding pretty awful. The lack of being able to play against AI on the normal maps is pretty disappointing.