Thursday, October 3rd 2024
Single-Player Games Lose to PVP in Younger Audiences Despite Recent Hits
It looks like Epic Games's Tim Sweeney was onto something earlier this week when he claimed that the gaming landscape is changing. According to new research by MIDiA Research, online PVP and couch co-op games are more popular than single-player games in audiences aged 16-24, with older audiences overwhelmingly preferring single-player games.
The researchers surveyed 9,000 gamers in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, South Korea, and Brazil, giving the study a pretty diverse sample, in terms of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Regardless of age group, single-player and PVP games were always the most popular genres, although a solid 53% of the participants in the study said that single-player games were their preference.
Single-player gaming seems to be experiencing something of a renaissance in recent years, after the mid 2010 PVP and MMO boom, with games like Black Myth: Wukong, Cyberpunk 2077, and Elden Ring—three AAA, narrative-driven, primarily single-player titles—garnering second, seventh, and eighth place in SteamDB's all-time peak player count charts. It's also worth observing that players seem to be growing increasingly frustrated with live-service and online games, most of which rely on PVP or PVE elements for success.
The low popularity of couch co-op games in audiences 35-years old and older is also peculiar, since those are exactly the types of gamers who likely grew up playing couch co-op games with friends and family on consoles.
Sources:
MIDiA Research, SteamDB
The researchers surveyed 9,000 gamers in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, South Korea, and Brazil, giving the study a pretty diverse sample, in terms of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Regardless of age group, single-player and PVP games were always the most popular genres, although a solid 53% of the participants in the study said that single-player games were their preference.
The low popularity of couch co-op games in audiences 35-years old and older is also peculiar, since those are exactly the types of gamers who likely grew up playing couch co-op games with friends and family on consoles.
117 Comments on Single-Player Games Lose to PVP in Younger Audiences Despite Recent Hits
Multiplayer gets in the way of that
or some brain wasters like bejewelled or tower defence
Unreal Tournament was a huge series, a solid competition to the Quake. Such a miserable demise. It was a driver for UE. Now, the icon of Epic Games is a Fortnite, just due to demand of, Ten.. "shareholders". You dug your own success, and legacy. Such a shame.
But, personally- Co-op, PVE, or no go. Sorry, this is my thought.
As it has been already mentioned, the SP games, can be too hard, dull/uninteresting. People have to invest a lot of time into tough challenges, that are yet to be beaten and the success can't be shared with others. So people choose to rather abandon the countless tries and play something, that is fast, that brings fun and enjoyment here and there, and has the interaction with real people, to share this fun with, instead of expressing it alone.
This is the catch, and the main reason people go PVP. As no AI, will ever become a solid substitute to the human player. Even if the majority of the player base in any MP game is flooded with utter douch*bags.
But the biggest problem with PVP, is that a lot side stuff comes into play (no pun intended). This is competition with uneven conditions. The lag, the different HW, distance, ISP and it's connection... all this can hamper the result, so peole can loose, despite putting enormous amount of efforts. This is unfair challenge.
There are great games, that have same conditionsvand rules for everyone, and lack the MTX/pay-to-win garbage. But they still depend on the HW and connection. So this ends up as a moot effort.
This is why Co-op is more fun, and it is more forgiving, to the HW/connection difference. Yes, it still requires a responsibility that falls on shoulders of team-mates, as everyone has to rely on each other.
Im definitely playing Halo Infinite, Remnant II, and Space Marine (Next). With friends because they have coop - they are great games in their own rights, but the coop really sells it. Would be playing Doom Eternal instead but they never actually rolled out the campaign coop.
Of course the advent of 3D means today that there are some Games that will blow you away that you may never have heard of. Everyone gushed about BG3 but only ardent 40k fans knew that Rogue Trader has just as much content and plays more like Xcom. If you spent hours mastering the tracks in Fzero, Redout 2 is pure unabshed Arcade action. Once you get the controls side thrusting around corners are kinetic. There are also some Games like Just Cause 3, Sleeping Dogs or Amulaur that have Devil May Cry like control response. Racing Sims are so good now that whatever you pick will be good but people act like if you get LMU you should not have AMS2 or Forza, when each of those Sims have their good quality. In LMU it is right now the Hypercars you can drive. In AMS2 it is the mod support and Forza is from MS so they have money to throw at refinements. If you had Forza 7 Ultimate you would lament the slight improvement in control with a huge reduction in content. That is what happens in the age of DLC though.
We should get an Aliens Fire Team droup going (TPU). Nothing serious just a certain time once a week and let's do a Mission. Each mission is like 20 to 30 minutes long so you get a full session.
What's this belonging together thing? Why can't we keep belonging to the player base of last year's game instead of this year's? I still see it as spending money on things you already have. :confused:
It's a mode that wouldn't fundamentally change the single player experience, but would add the ability to share that experience with others.It's Co-op, but also SP, to my point above.
Oblivion and Skyrim were essentially quintessential Single player games. Modders were able to add decent coop to them with no support from bethesda... it's not some unfathomable amount of work.
If a SP comes out without it it's always in the top 5 feature requests...
Think about if any of these had it:
Mass Effect,
Witcher,
Cyberpunk,
Kingdom Come,
.. etc etc,
I cant think of one example of SP needs to be SP.
But over and above that, there are so many games that fall into more than one category, I strongly doubt this "study" is worth the paper to print it on.
If you want the best of both worlds, there's Space Marine 2. You can play the story on your own, or with 2 friends, but there's also a secondary missions mode that you can play in co-op.
Space Marine is a perfect example - it is the best of both worlds.