Wolfenstein 2 Designer Explains Why The Single-Player FPS Is Dying

You cant add item shops in single player games.......wait....damn.

Fact #1: Single-player FPSs are declining because of IAPs.
Fact #2: Half-Life 1 and 2 were single-player FPSs.
Fact #3: Valve now makes more money with cards than they made by selling videogames.

Hypothesis: Valve saw this shift coming. The Steam Cards metagame is actually Half-Life 3.

I don't think it is a dying genre but it did suffer from market saturation first and now from the hype of multiplayer only games.

The problem, I think, is not so much people wanting multiplayer games but the AAA industry moving more and more towards games being an exclusively online service. This way publishers have complete control over the product and the opportunity to milk customers for all they are worth, at least while the popularity of the game lasts.

I think this new trend in AAA business model will go through some rough times in the near future but independent gaming has never been this healthy so I'm optimistic :)

Yet MP-only shooters like Titanfall 1 or SW Battlefront 2015 just couldn't come up with even more ways to advertise that their sequels had single-player campaigns as well, to make up for the dreadful sales and lifespan of the MP-focused games.

I am actually hoping for a comeback of single player FPS, and other SP games in general. Honestly the market for PVP FPS games is off the charts right now in terms of saturation, which can be seen widely in how the community of these games don't seem to be too adept at surviving. Often it's many of these competitive games feel like a copy paste of most other's in it's genre. Some are touched up a bit, others may introduce an interesting twist or two, but most behave pretty much the same, that once a new 'version' comes out, the old is quickly abandoned by all but the most hardcore fans. To me, series like Call of Duty are trying to off set this by coming out with a game yearly, so that the hype of a new game will help offset the fact that people stop coming back. A single player game doesn't need to be bought and played as soon as it comes out like most multiplayer centered games.

Single preferably. And sometimes co-op, like Borderlands.

SP all the way. People on the Internet are dicks.

So what does it say will it die before PC gaming or after it?

didnt bother to read what the designer said - ive learned not to really trust what people working in the industry have to say about things, since its usually bullshit, but as far as im concerned the real reason theyre dying is because publishers are finding it much harder to add microtransactions to single player experiences than they do multiplayer ones.

Hate multiplayer games.

I'm really not that worried, to be honest. It's not like we haven't heard this tale of doom and gloom before, after all. RPGs are going to die! Adventure games are going to die! Heck, PC gaming is going to die! Everything in gaming is cyclical, so I don't see single-player FPS going away.

I don't like online multiplayer competitive games, there's too much competition and no fun at all for me. Plus, I've had bad experiences with other people online, so I try to avoid toxic communities.
I like fps games like Bioshock, Metro and Doom, old Call of Duty games (have played CoD 2, World at War, and first Black Ops and liked them a lot) which have a good, quite long campaign. But I enjoy even more games that offer a little bit of freedom during a longer campaign, like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Multiplayer sucks, single-player rocks!

This is one of those reasons why I switched to indie titles because they don't have to follow what the publishers want, but what WE and the devs want. Look at "SuperHot" for example.

Sure, AAA studios can create great FPS games like DOOM 2016 or recent Wolfenstein games, but how long are they allowed to make these types of games? That depends on the publisher but if those studios become independent, they can make games that satisfy both the devs and gamers. Look at "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice" from Ninja Theory for example (I know, it's not an FPS, but what better example I can show?)

good old singleplayer, no issues with internet or other people. just the ai to destroy me nonstop.

there will always be room for single player games, but right now multiplayer is where the big bucks are. And publishers/developers will always chase the big bucks. Likewise, if the perception is that the market isn't there, then neither is the budget

Agreed. I really hope developers don't abandon single player FPS games as well, but for two reasons. First off being that online sucks, after a long day and wanting to relax with some nice video games, the last thing I want to do is deal with ragers or squeakers. Second, the games value is tied in with how many people are playing it at the moment. For example, I loved playing Titanfall (with all of its little quirks notwithstanding). It was just good fun to jump into a giant mech and go to town on the enemy team. The problem with it was as the player base died, you either had to deal with playing with the same people over and over again or just drop the game entirely.

Then I guess I'd finish playing those that already exist and find another thing to do.

Single player in 99,9% of all games i ever played... 0,01% is Battlefield series and the only other multiplayer game i ever played - Ghost Recon Online.

When it comes to FPS, MP all the way with the exception of Fallout & Far Cry.

Single player fps will die about as much as point and click adventures, rts or crpg were supposed to be a thing of the past a couple of years ago.

None of those genres have a ROI or will generate a huge media hype that is enough for the big publishers but there are plenty of smaller dev teams that will gladly fill the void if the EA's or Ubisofts aren't willing to make games in those genres.

I am single player only but i know i am the minority since i have some friends who once they buy a new fps like call of duty they dive into multiplayer and never touch the single player and i feel like most players do that

I only buy SP games...MP is a trainwreck.

Single player fps dying.... FFS, it's the same arguments with the PC gaming is dying.... nothing more than corporate bullshit to try and sell more multiplayer FPS games
how many FPS games where made lately to supply the demand? how many copies the new doom/Wolfenstein sold?
they were saying RPGs are dying till the Kickstarter for wasteland 2 and pillars of eternity were made...point and click are dying till telltale made the walking dead and the wolf among us....seriously there is a demand for those games and the companies are not supplying it

I really liked what Bethesda did with Wolfenstein and Doom. Personally I think that the whole multiplayer aspect is quite overrated, but it already started with Unreal Tournament and Quake III. We can only hope that single player FPS will be a 'niche' that still gets a good amount of releases each year.