Electronic Arts Only Publishing Games With Multiplayer

Posted September 5, 2012 by Esteban Cuevas in News

Electronic Arts’ games label head Frank Gibeau has revealed that he has not approved of any exclusively single-player games and has essentially required that all titles published by the company include an online multiplayer component. In a pamphlet for an upcoming conference regarding Cloud Gaming prospects, the EA executive is quoted in talking about the company’s new policies.

“We are very proud of the way EA evolved with consumers,” stated Gibeau. “I have not green lit one game to be developed as a singleplayer experience. Today, all of our games include online applications and digital services that make them live 24/7/365. One of our biggest growth opportunities is Play4Free titles that allow customers to play at no cost and make purchases via microtransactions. We see this as a huge opportunity, and one that’s powered by our hybrid cloud model.”

EA’s upcoming Dead Space 3 features a co-op campaign playable online and some form of multiplayer is rumored to be coming to Dragon Age 3. The idea of a solo-only title like BioShock and Deus Ex: Human Revolution seems to be frowned upon over at the second biggest publisher in the industry.

It’s been a subject of debate for the past several years with the popularity of titles like Call of Duty and Battlefield that the industry should shift its focus to multiplayer experiences since it keeps players from trading in their game after completing the single player mode. Although no company has seemingly made the effort to actually make this so, multiplayer modes in recent titles have increased. With EA now seemingly making multiplayer essential in any title, this can only put unnecessary pressure on developers under EA’s umbrella. Limitations of any kind, even those designed to give consumers more value for their dollar, are prohibitive and only serves to stifle creativity. Other than financial, I can’t see this helping EA in the long run but I suppose that’s what they’re going for. Leave your own take on this revelation in the comments below.

EA, EA games, Electronic Arts, Frank Gibeau, multiplayer, multiplayer games

About the Author

Esteban Cuevas

Hey! I'm Esteban, my gamer handle is Colorwind, and I'm a video game blogger. As such, here's some gamer facts about me. The first game I ever played was Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The first console I ever owned was the NES. My favorite genre of games are action adventure games with fighting games being a close second. My favorite console is the Sony PlayStation. I currently own a Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, N64, Genesis and NES. My favorite console this generation is the Xbox 360. My favorite Mortal Kombat character is Scorpion with Ermac, Baraka, and Mileena being close runner-ups. I LOVE SNK fighters like Samurai Shodown, Art of Fighting 3 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves. My favorite Street Fighter title is Street Fighter Alpha 3 with Street Fighter III: Third Strike being a close second. The most obvious thing in the world is that Sonic is my favorite video game character.