3 Reasons.

Reason 1. Halo on Xbox and X360 lit up the Online World

1	Halo 3	X360	2007	Shooter	Microsoft Game Studios	7.74	2.64	0.13	1.28	11.79
2	Halo: Reach	X360	2010	Shooter	Microsoft Game Studios	6.72	1.39	0.08	1.27	9.45
3	Halo 2	XB	2004	Shooter	Microsoft Game Studios	6.82	1.53	0.05	0.08	8.49
4	Halo 4	X360	2012	Shooter	Microsoft Game Studios	5.78	1.88	0.04	0.78	8.48
5	Halo: Combat Evolved	XB	2001	Shooter	Microsoft Game Studios	4.98	1.30	0.08	0.07	6.43
6	Halo 3: ODST	X360	2009	Shooter	Microsoft Game Studios	4.21	1.26	0.06	0.64	6.17

Reason 2.  Call of Duty becomes the quickest selling franchise of all time during the online generation

1	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3	X360	2011	Shooter	Activision	9.29	4.15	0.13	1.44	15.01
2	Call of Duty: Black Ops	X360	2010	Shooter	Activision	9.13	1.86	0.11	2.91	14.01
3	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2	X360	2009	Shooter	Activision	8.30	3.28	0.08	1.41	13.07
4	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3	PS3	2011	Shooter	Activision	5.50	4.80	0.48	2.05	12.84
5	Call of Duty: Black Ops II	X360	2012	Shooter	Activision	7.73	3.67	0.04	1.23	12.68
6	Call of Duty: Black Ops	PS3	2010	Shooter	Activision	5.71	2.01	0.48	3.82	12.02
7	Call of Duty: Black Ops II	PS3	2012	Shooter	Activision	4.48	4.02	0.49	1.71	10.69
8	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2	PS3	2009	Shooter	Activision	4.87	3.30	0.38	1.65	10.19
9	Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare	X360	2007	Shooter	Activision	5.65	2.18	0.13	0.97	8.92
10	Call of Duty: World at War	X360	2008	Shooter	Activision	4.52	1.70	0.00	0.75	6.97
11	Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare	PS3	2007	Shooter	Activision	2.94	2.04	0.28	1.07	6.34
12	Call of Duty: World at War	PS3	2008	Shooter	Activision	2.53	1.63	0.00	0.87	5.03

3. Sports Games Benifits from Online during the Online generation (Notice 4 of the top 5 are on the Online Gen consoles even though PS2 is the most sold console of all time)

1	FIFA Soccer 13	PS3	2012	Action	Electronic Arts	0.95	4.26	0.11	1.50	6.82
2	FIFA Soccer 12	PS3	2011	Sports	Electronic Arts	0.79	3.25	0.11	2.26	6.41
3	FIFA Soccer 11	PS3	2010	Sports	Electronic Arts	0.58	1.95	0.06	2.34	4.93
4	FIFA Soccer 13	X360	2012	Action	Electronic Arts	0.98	3.31	0.02	0.62	4.93
5	FIFA Soccer 06	PS2	2005	Sports	Electronic Arts	0.78	2.55	0.04	0.84	4.21

In the end some people like multiplayer and some dont.  Dont complain because others like something different than you do though. People enjoy the social and competitive experience would be the main reason.  I love something, but I love it more if i can share the things i love with other people who loves the same thing.

Torillian said: binary solo said: If you look at the biggest selling MP game (on consoles) it seems MP only matters to about 17% of the console gaming market at most. That's a sizable chunk of the market to be sure, but still only a small minority of gamers. MP certainly doesn't matter to me. An immersive SP>>>>MP any day. Apparently a lot of people that I argue with about math and stats and whatnot aren't serious about the complete BS math reasoning they use so I want to check before I ask this.  Are you series about the first paragraph?  If so I'd like to debate you on it.   k.....bye

Serious perhaps?

I must admit I was thinking mostly about FPS online muiltiplayer, which is only part of the MP story. But still, on consoles FPS multiplayer is the biggest online MP out of all the online MP genres. But that said online MP only matters to some people that play online MP. I play online MP in genres other than FPS occasionally, but it doesn't matter to me. For most people who bought UC2 and 3, for example, online MP is an add on, to them the thing that matters most is the SP content, UC2 and 3 probably would have sold pretty close to the same amount had it been SP only like UC:DF. Same with masny otyher games with an online MP component. It matters to maybe slightly over 17% but not more that 25% of the market. So it matters to the publishers because 17-25% of the market is a good segment of the market to try to sell to, probably the biggest single market segment across all genres, which is why we've had an asploshun of online MP games this cycles (better internets and improved online service from Sony has helped).

There's no math reasoning in my estimate, how can there be? You'd need to do gamer surveys to get much more detailed data than what's available on this site.

I don't see the appeal of online MP, either. Once the SP experience is over, just move on to something else, there's tons of good games to play. For me, it's the story that counts. Online MP has no story, at least not a proper one. It's just numeric values of who beat who and how many times, that seems pointless to me. I get no pleasure from gunning down some unknown dude 67 times just for the heck of it, but it seems many people enjoy it. Good for them, as long as they don't take it too seriously and act like jerks because that's the only part of their lives that makes them feel worth something. It's not worth anything, it's just a game. No need to spout profanities, or go over to somebody's house and get violent over the damn thing.

ToraReaper said: richardhutnik said: ToraReaper said: Halo doesn't have bots, this is pretty much my reason for online MP. Companies got rid of bots, and split screen, under the belief they would get enough interest to play with online multiplayer, and they focused there.  End result was loss of features, due to online multiplayer. It's really unfortunate too, bots are the best, they play fair and never call me racial or homophobic slurs for doing poorly :(

With bots, you could adjust the difficulty on them, and set up whenever.  You also don't need to worry if a game gets popular or not, so you always have competition.  What I see as socializing is supposed to do, is call people on bad manners and make them better people.  You learn, as you get blocked, things you are and are not supposed to do.  What I see is, rather than this, what they will do is come up with some solution by which people remain the same and they make sure everyone on a personal level gets what they want.  This way they can maximize the amount of money earned from everyone.  At that point, might as well turn people into disembodied brains in tanks, and we don't even have to learn how to care.  We can give everyone their own matrix type world.  Zinyak wins, not by breaking people down, but entrapping them in their own version of paradise.

noname2200 said: To answer the OP's question, it's because the hardcore don't really have "friends," but they still get very lonely...

It is a sad state of affairs when playing disembodied voices online counts as a suitable answer for addressing loneliness.

binary solo said: Torillian said: binary solo said: If you look at the biggest selling MP game (on consoles) it seems MP only matters to about 17% of the console gaming market at most. That's a sizable chunk of the market to be sure, but still only a small minority of gamers. MP certainly doesn't matter to me. An immersive SP>>>>MP any day. Apparently a lot of people that I argue with about math and stats and whatnot aren't serious about the complete BS math reasoning they use so I want to check before I ask this.  Are you series about the first paragraph?  If so I'd like to debate you on it.   k.....bye Serious perhaps? I must admit I was thinking mostly about FPS online muiltiplayer, which is only part of the MP story. But still, on consoles FPS multiplayer is the biggest online MP out of all the online MP genres. But that said online MP only matters to some people that play online MP. I play online MP in genres other than FPS occasionally, but it doesn't matter to me. For most people who bought UC2 and 3, for example, online MP is an add on, to them the thing that matters most is the SP content, UC2 and 3 probably would have sold pretty close to the same amount had it been SP only like UC:DF. Same with masny otyher games with an online MP component. It matters to maybe slightly over 17% but not more that 25% of the market. So it matters to the publishers because 17-25% of the market is a good segment of the market to try to sell to, probably the biggest single market segment across all genres, which is why we've had an asploshun of online MP games this cycles (better internets and improved online service from Sony has helped). There's no math reasoning in my estimate, how can there be? You'd need to do gamer surveys to get much more detailed data than what's available on this site.

But you can't just take a single multiplayer focused game and call that the entirety of the userbase that cares about Multiplayer.  If I did that I could say that the highest selling singleplayer game on Xbox360 is Kinect Adventures at 20m and that's the segment of the market that cares about single player.  So 15m/80m care about multiplayer, 20m/80, care about single player and then I have 45m that aren't accounted for in any way and according to your theory they're just watching netflix.

Online Multiplayer is an enhancing factor to quite a few games.  Just about any game with competitive multiplayer greatly benefits from it while cooperative multiplayer benefits as well to a lesser extent.  Demon's Souls wouldn't be the game it is without online elements, Forza would get boring if all you could do was race against the robots, LittleBigPlanet would be a shell of itself.  

Basically you can't just look at a single game's sales and call that everyone who online multiplayer matters to, same way you can't do the same for single player focused games.  It just doesn't make any sense.  

Torillian said: binary solo said: Torillian said: binary solo said: If you look at the biggest selling MP game (on consoles) it seems MP only matters to about 17% of the console gaming market at most. That's a sizable chunk of the market to be sure, but still only a small minority of gamers. MP certainly doesn't matter to me. An immersive SP>>>>MP any day. Apparently a lot of people that I argue with about math and stats and whatnot aren't serious about the complete BS math reasoning they use so I want to check before I ask this.  Are you series about the first paragraph?  If so I'd like to debate you on it.   k.....bye Serious perhaps? I must admit I was thinking mostly about FPS online muiltiplayer, which is only part of the MP story. But still, on consoles FPS multiplayer is the biggest online MP out of all the online MP genres. But that said online MP only matters to some people that play online MP. I play online MP in genres other than FPS occasionally, but it doesn't matter to me. For most people who bought UC2 and 3, for example, online MP is an add on, to them the thing that matters most is the SP content, UC2 and 3 probably would have sold pretty close to the same amount had it been SP only like UC:DF. Same with masny otyher games with an online MP component. It matters to maybe slightly over 17% but not more that 25% of the market. So it matters to the publishers because 17-25% of the market is a good segment of the market to try to sell to, probably the biggest single market segment across all genres, which is why we've had an asploshun of online MP games this cycles (better internets and improved online service from Sony has helped). There's no math reasoning in my estimate, how can there be? You'd need to do gamer surveys to get much more detailed data than what's available on this site. But you can't just take a single multiplayer focused game and call that the entirety of the userbase that cares about Multiplayer.  If I did that I could say that the highest selling singleplayer game on Xbox360 is Kinect Adventures at 20m and that's the segment of the market that cares about single player.  So 15m/80m care about multiplayer, 20m/80, care about single player and then I have 45m that aren't accounted for in any way and according to your theory they're just watching netflix. Online Multiplayer is an enhancing factor to quite a few games.  Just about any game with competitive multiplayer greatly benefits from it while cooperative multiplayer benefits as well to a lesser extent.  Demon's Souls wouldn't be the game it is without online elements, Forza would get boring if all you could do was race against the robots, LittleBigPlanet would be a shell of itself.   Basically you can't just look at a single game's sales and call that everyone who online multiplayer matters to, same way you can't do the same for single player focused games.  It just doesn't make any sense.

Is Demon's Souls an online multiplayer game?  I don't see it as that, but as a single player game with user generated activity, that changes the single player experience, that is facilitated with the user of Internet.  Maybe I am wrong here regarding this, as maybe Demon's Souls allows people to play online together.  I say this, because XBox Live supports the likes of leaderboards, for example, with the Silver account.  That is not online.

richardhutnik said: Is Demon's Souls an online multiplayer game?  I don't see it as that, but as a single player game with user generated activity, that changes the single player experience, that is facilitated with the user of Internet.  Maybe I am wrong here regarding this, as maybe Demon's Souls allows people to play online together.  I say this, because XBox Live supports the likes of leaderboards, for example, with the Silver account.  That is not online.

Oh Demon's Souls totally lets people play together competitively and cooperatively and that's a big part of the game's longevity for the fans, but even ignoring that part online is a huge part of what makes that game great.  Seeing how other players died, hints written on the floor for better or for worse, and catching little glimpses of other players while they play through the same levels you do changes this game from a fun single player RPG to a truly immersive and unique experience.  I don't think you can discount those experiences as being based around online and multiplayer.  

Torillian said: richardhutnik said: Is Demon's Souls an online multiplayer game?  I don't see it as that, but as a single player game with user generated activity, that changes the single player experience, that is facilitated with the user of Internet.  Maybe I am wrong here regarding this, as maybe Demon's Souls allows people to play online together.  I say this, because XBox Live supports the likes of leaderboards, for example, with the Silver account.  That is not online. Oh Demon's Souls totally lets people play together competitively and cooperatively and that's a big part of the game's longevity for the fans, but even ignoring that part online is a huge part of what makes that game great.  Seeing how other players died, hints written on the floor for better or for worse, and catching little glimpses of other players while they play through the same levels you do changes this game from a fun single player RPG to a truly immersive and unique experience.  I don't think you can discount those experiences as being based around online and multiplayer.

Then I would have to take my venting against synchronous online multiplayer, games which call for players to directly interact with each other at the same time.  What you spoke of here doesn't related to that, so I will adjust what I say a bit.  I will add though, that such isn't quite really social though, but shows that an experience played single player can be improved by input to other players.  I see it collaborative of sorts, a bit the way Spore works.  The experience does seem primarily one played single player, not multiplayer cooperative or competitively.

richardhutnik said: Jay520 said: Is it just me, or does the OP ask questions with the most obvious answers? What's this guy's problem? I do question the obvious, particularly when large numbers seem to mindlessly going somewhere on what looks like to me as mindlessly assuming things.  For me, I have yet to find online multiplayer mattering to me.  I am also highly aware of how online fails to really meet the social needs of people in a meaninful way.  What I do see it is serves a use as a providing humans instead of bots.  However, if you do have friends, it is an alternative way to play, particularly if not local.  BUT, it gets spun as a MUST HAVE, as I saw in a recent Bonus Round video where one of the media types was bashing Nintendo for being so far behind Sony and Microsoft on things.  It is presumptively pushed as the killer and essential feature, and I question that.  You see cases, like with Spec Ops: The Line, where online multiplayer was ramrodded through. How about having more aysnchronous online multiplayer and playing for points and leaderboards?  What I saw is this feature had been taken out of games, and it was a feature important to me trying to run events.  How about something pretty much different?

Like I said, it subjective. Some people value the prospect of playing against people not in their living room (even if they're strangers). Some people don't. Nothing about it is inherently valuable or not valuable. The reason is gets spun as a must-have is the same reason other subjective features get spun as a must-have - because a lot of people want it. Businesses and media outlets usually try to appeal to as many people as possible. This leads to them placing value on what the majority of people find valuable, even if you disagree with the majority. It's not difficult.