Last year saw a decided trend as shooters in particular dropped campaigns, deciding to go multiplayer only. Even as gamers criticized massive titles like Battlefront and Rainbow Six: Siege in the run up to their releases, developers didn’t bat an eye. And Cliff Bleszinski has chimed in as to why.
Promoting his own multiplayer only game, LawBreakers, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski spoke with PC Gamer saying, “Campaigns cost the most money. And its usually 75% of the budget, and you burn through the campaign in a weekend, and then [players] go to multiplayer.”
When put as bluntly as that, it’s hard to argue with the desire to move away from campaigns. Bleszinski continued even further though. “A traditional shooter campaign is the very linear, oh scripted sequence, helicopter crash, I got knocked out. Blurry, blurry, wake up, new scenario with tinnitus in my ears. Look, everyone gets it. You’re either doing that two day campaign or you’re doing, you know, Assassin’s Creed or Skyrim or Fallout… that takes forever to make and a ton of money.”
Its all about what it takes to keep players engaged with a game. In the end, developers are moving towards multiplayer only to “avoid the trade-in mentality of the $60 disc based game.”
Instead of that being the only option, Bleszinski offered, “What I would like to see, you know every game is unique and different for whatever platform you’re developing for, however what I love is these traditional campaigns that have at least two-player co-op.”
What do you think? Would you be less likely to trade-in a game if it had campaign co-op? Let us know in the comments.
Cliff Bleszinski departed Epic Games and started a new studio, Boss Key Productions, in 2014. The studio’s first game, LawBreakers, is an “R-rated charter shooter,” and is a free-to-play first person shooter. Though there is no release window just yet, Bleszinski teased players should start looking for the first chances to play it “when the weather gets warm.”