Video game that permits only one player
A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player 🛡 is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. A single-player game is usually a game that can only be 🛡 played by one person, while "single-player mode" is usually a game mode designed to be played by a single player, 🛡 though the game also contains multi-player modes.[1]
Most modern console games and arcade games are designed so that they can be 🛡 played by a single player; although many of these games have modes that allow two or more players to play 🛡 (not necessarily simultaneously), very few actually require more than one player for the game to be played. The Unreal Tournament 🛡 series is one example of such.[2]
History [ edit ]
The earliest video games, such as Tennis for Two (1958), Spacewar! (1962), 🛡 and Pong (1972), were symmetrical games designed to be played by two players. Single-player games gained popularity only after this, 🛡 with early titles such as Speed Race (1974)[3] and Space Invaders (1978).
The reason for this, according to Raph Koster, is 🛡 down to a combination of several factors: increasingly sophisticated computers and interfaces that enabled asymmetric gameplay, cooperative gameplay and story 🛡 delivery within a gaming framework, coupled with the fact that the majority of early games players had introverted personality types 🛡 (according to the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator).[4]
Although most modern games incorporate a single-player element either as the core or as 🛡 one of several game modes, single-player gaming is currently viewed by the video game industry as peripheral to the future 🛡 of gaming, with Electronic Arts vice president Frank Gibeau stating in 2012 that he had not approved one game to 🛡 be developed as a single-player experience.[5]
The question of the financial viability of single-player AAA games was raised following the closure 🛡 of Visceral Games by Electronic Arts (EA) in October 2024. Visceral had been a studio that established itself on a 🛡 strong narrative single-player focus with Dead Space, and had been working on a single-player, linear narrative Star Wars game at 🛡 the time of the closure; EA announced following this that they would be taking the game in a different direction, 🛡 specifically "a broader experience that allows for more variety and player agency".[6] Many commentators felt that EA made the change 🛡 as they did not have confidence that a studio with an AAA-scale budget could produce a viable single-player game based 🛡 on the popular Star Wars franchise. Alongside this, as well as relatively poor sales of games in the year prior 🛡 that were principally AAA single-player games (Resident Evil 7, Prey, Dishonored 2, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided) against financially successful 🛡 multiplayer games and those offer a games-as-a-service model (Overwatch, Destiny 2, and Star Wars Battlefront 2), were indicators to many 🛡 that the single-player model for AAA was waning.[7][8][9][10] Manveer Heir, who had left EA after finishing his gameplay design work 🛡 for Mass Effect Andromeda, acknowledged that the culture within EA was against the development of single-player games, and with Visceral's 🛡 closure, "that the linear single-player triple-A game at EA is dead for the time being".[11] Bethesda on December 7, 2024, 🛡 decided to collaborate with Lynda Carter to launch a Public Safety Announcement to save single-player gaming.[12]
A few years later in 🛡 2024, EA was reported to have revived interest in single-player games, following the successful launch of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen 🛡 Order in 2024. The company still planned on releasing live service games with multiplayer components, but began evaluating its IP 🛡 catalog for more single-player titles to revive, such as a remake of the Dead Space franchise.[13] Around the same time, 🛡 head of Xbox Game Studios Phil Spencer said that they still see a place for narrative-driven single-player games even though 🛡 the financial drivers of the market tended to be live service games. Spencer said that developing such games with AAA-scale 🛡 budgets can be risky, but with availability of services like cloud gaming and subscription services, they can gauge audience reaction 🛡 to these games early on and reduce the risk involved before releases.[14]
Game elements [ edit ]
As the narrative and conflict 🛡 in single-player gameplay is created by a computer rather than a human opponent, single-player games are able to deliver certain 🛡 gaming experiences that are typically absent—or de-emphasised—in multiplayer games.[15]
Story [ edit ]
Single-player games rely more heavily on compelling stories to 🛡 draw the player into the experience and to create a sense of investment. Humans are unpredictable, so human players - 🛡 allies or enemies - cannot be relied upon to carry a narrative in a particular direction, and so multiplayer games 🛡 tend not to focus heavily on a linear narrative. By contrast, many single-player games are built around a compelling story.[16]
Characters 🛡 [ edit ]
While a multi-player game relies upon human-human interaction for its conflict, and often for its sense of camaraderie, 🛡 a single-player game must build these things artificially. As such, single-player games require deeper characterisation of their non-player characters in 🛡 order to create connections between the player and the sympathetic characters and to develop deeper antipathy towards the game's antagonists. 🛡 This is typically true of role-playing games (RPGs), such as Dragon Quest and the Final Fantasy, which are primarily character-driven 🛡 and have a different setting.
Exceptions [ edit ]
These game elements are not firm, fixed rules; single-player puzzle games such as 🛡 Tetris or racing games focus squarely on gameplay.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
