Ken Levine "Not Convinced" About BioShock Infinite Multiplayer

[Not G. Ivingname]

So, 2K is admitting that adding multiplayer to Bioshock 2 was a monumentally stupid idea?

I'm pretty sure that Bioshock 2 and this Bioshock Infinite are developed by two different guys. He's not from 2K.

Actually, the guys behind Bioshock Uno (2K or Irriational Games) are also behind Bioshock Infinite. Bioshock 2 was developed by 2K Marin, only having the original team submit artwork.

I think that pretty much explains every single problem that Bioshock 2 had.

 

[theSovietConnection]

The first Bioshock managed to be my Game of the Year twice, so I'll trust Ken Levine with this.

 

[Monshroud]

AMEN! Ask people what is great about Bioshock and they don't go "OMG The Multiplayer is EPIC!" They talk about the story, the mood, the atmosphere. The MP in BS2 was tacked on, and I would have preferred a longer and more in depth single player campaign than the ability to run around and have multiplayer...

There is no law that states that every FPS has to have MP. Seeing how big Bioshock was without MP, they proved it was not necessary.

 

[Twilight.falls]

This further expands my interest in Bioshock Infinite, as well as my faith in the makers.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

I hope the Bioshock Infinite team sticks to it's guns and does not include multiplayer. There is no point in diverting valuable manpower and resources into a portion of a game no one will actually end up caring about. People who bought Bioshock bought it for the single player experience, so all effort should be focused on making that experience as good as possible in Infinite.

As the great Adam Sessler put it: "Keep it single, stupid!" [http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/693184/sesslers-soapbox-keep-it-single-stupid.html]

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

That's good. I mean, it's not like it actually needs multiplayer, but if it gets it anyway, it's nice to know it won't be a pointless add-on.

 

[SalamanderJoe]

No. Multiplayer. Needed. If Bioshock 2 hadn't had multiplayer they could have polished the single player more. I'm loving what I'm hearing from Infinite so far.

 

[cerebus23]

one thing these game could do would be to add co op play in the single player campaign, just add some more spawns give the boss fights more hp and damage. boom you got an epic co op game, and some people would like to play good single player games with a friend.

good multiplayer games are almost always focused on mp with the single player as a afterthought, see cod, where you can sneeze and miss the sp game.

there is nothing wrong with making a sp game and focusing only on the sp, instead of diving your time to create maps balance out the weapons etc you need to do for mp, since in a sp game weapons are anything but balanced, they are designed to have a upward curve of damage and utility, shoehorning them into a mp component just does not work without a ton of tweaking.

 

[silver wolf009]

I actually think that Bioshock 2 multiplayer nailed the formula. Really though, they dont have to be convinced that it will match the single player, they just have to make us think that.

Wouldnt care either way though.

 

[Bantis]

I also agree, as others have stated, that this is the right approach to take. I don't think that its always the case the MP dev time takes to much away from SP dev time (remember Bioshock 2 MP wasn't developed by the same team responsibe for the SP portion). What I do think is that "forcing" MP to have it as an ad bullet point doesn't make much sense as the people who specificlly look for that (imo) end up being a small % of the number of people who end up actually considering and then buying a game like this.

I bet a fair amount of the folks who bought Bioshock 2 for some MP did so more for MP play specically in the environment of Rapture rather than for the notion that it would provide some kind of new spin on FPS MP... and as I said I think this group was a minor percentage of the overall number of people who bought the game... Just a theory...

 

[jamesworkshop]

thats fine i've finished bioshock 2 about 4-5 times now and haven't even touched the multiplayer.

Any deathmatch style online FPS a waste of time if it isn't Unreal tournament

 

[katsabas]

What is this? Arkham City is said to have multiplayer (WTF?) and now Bioshock is probably not going to feature it? What kind of sense of balance does the universe sport these days? Why can't both of them not have mp? It is simple, just do not make it!

 

[Optimystic]

Well thats nice to hear. At least someone realizes that not every game needs multiplayer.

Did we read the same article?

He's just setting us up for "this is the real deal: we're totally convinced!" when they unveil the multiplayer they've been working on or add it via DLC. You heard it here first!

 

[Penitent]

Dibs on Ken Levine's babies.