The demise of Visceral has prompted speculation that the AAA vein of linear single-player games could disappear, but one of the studio's former staffers has dismissed this notion.
Zach Wilson, who served as senior level designer and worked on Battlefield Hardline, disagrees with the plethora of 'death of single-player' articles that have spread throughout the games media since Visceral's shock closure last week.
"The assertion that single-player linear games are going to disappear is totally absurd," he says. "EA might not be the company that carries that torch, but there are so many groups out there that are passionate about this kind of game that they won't go away. Personally I'd like to see fewer games with higher quality across the board, which is probably what will happen.
"There's also the case that 'single-player linear' is a term without a concrete definition. Everyone agrees that The Last of Us is SPL, but what about Bioshock? What about Dishonored? Where does the line blur between SPL and 'immersive sim' and 'open world'? It's a gradient of possibilities, not just one type of thing.
"We're also going to continue to see developments in production pipelines that will dramatically reduce the cost of asset generation, which will benefit everyone. There's no one single narrative that can be derived from this event other than games are incredibly difficult to make, and the fact that any game or movie gets made at all is a cause for celebration."
It's also worth noting that publishers such as Bethesda believe in the commercial potential of single-player titles, with Wolfenstein: The New Colossus eschewing a multiplayer mode for fear of "diluting" the single-player experience.
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Ex-Visceral dev calls death of single-player fears "totally absurd"
