One of the trends we’ve been seeing in recent years is that of online-connected single-player games. It’s not often you see a single-player game that has no online functionality whatsoever, and it sounds as if you’ll definitely not be seeing anything like from Electronic Arts in the future. EA Games president Frank Gibeau said in an interview that he believes the model of “fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours-and you’re out” is “finished.”
Speaking with Develop, Gibeau called online “the place to be” and suggested that it’s critical that games have some sort of connectivity in order to be blockbusters. “[EA’s studio heads are] very comfortable moving the discussion towards how we make connected gameplay — be it co-operative or multiplayer or online services — as opposed to fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours-and you’re out. I think that model is finished,” he said. “Online is where the innovation, and the action, is at.”
Gibeau also recently spoke about how he felt the movie-game business is falling apart, at which point he also mentioned that one of Mirror’s Edge‘s major deficiencies was its lack of online support.
