EA Games president Frank Gibeau has bragged in a promotional pamphlet for Cloud Gaming USA that he has not green lit any single player titles, and nor will he.
In the pamphlet, he states, ”I have not green lit one game to be developed as a single-player experience. Today, all of our games include online applications and digital services that make them live 24/7/365.”
He was also quoted in the pamphlet as making sure no “Gen4” (read as: PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox Infinity consoles) would have a purely single player experience. “For all the investments we’ve made in mobile and social, we never abandoned consoles. We are working closely with the console manufacturers and we are VERY excited about the Gen4 consoles that will be launched in the months and years ahead,” he wrote.
Gibeau stated that games such as FIFA 13, Mass Effect 3, SimCity, Madden NFL, Battlefield 3, and Dead Space 3 all reflect the “must have online component” policy.
It certainly speaks volumes to why SimCity is an online-only experience.
[UPDATE: Gibeau defended his statements saying that EA wasn’t “killing” single player - that gamers could play games in single player in the context of a multiplayer-option environment.
That, of course, doesn’t explain why SimCity requires an online. By that definition, playing World of Warcraft solo is a “single player experience” as well.]
