Ubisoft Toronto boss Jade Raymond has predicted that multiplayer as a game's default mode will be more common in the future.
She said, “Let’s say a game where instead of having crowds where there are a hundred of them, what if there are 1,000 in the street, and you really feel that, and they’re acting intelligently. To me, it’s all about the gameplay experience and how there’s stuff we’re doing in terms of investment and performance that isn’t just about cinematics and cutscenes.
“It’s how that performance that makes sense and enriches the experience in a multiplayer context, where you’re not even watching a cinematic, but it’s performance of your character and the other characters being played by people, right?
“I think the key is how do we make those games appeal to a broader audience. I think a lot of them are intimidating to people, unless you’re an amazing first-person shooter player, you probably don’t want to go online for most of those games and even try them.
“Maybe that’s not something that a lot of people are thinking about, but to me, if all these games are online now by default or that’s the primary mode, then how do we make sure they’re still enjoyable for different people?”
I think while mutliplayer is a lot of fun, a lot of people still enjoy a good offline, single-player experience, and that taking every game in the direction of online-only is not a good idea.
What do you think? Is multiplayer as default a good or bad direction for gaming?