Certain games may require you connect online in order to play, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the idea will be embraced with open arms. The upcoming Titanfall is set to be an online experience, but one of it developers feels that "always-online" shouldn’t be forced on anyone, and that there’s still enough space for traditional single-player titles to flourish.
Speaking to XB1 in a recent interview, developer and community manager Abbie Heppe talked about the game and stated how she feels about developing companies forcing players to choose an always-online setting.
Discussing about the future of gaming and speaking about Respawn’s decision to go for an online-only multiplayer shooter, Heppe stated: “The plan was always online for us, so it was an easy answer for us when people say ‘well how do you feel about that’, well we were always an online only multiplayer game anyway. It doesn’t have the same impact on us as necessarily would have on somebody else.”
“It’s such a weird one, I think about the way I play games now, even when I’m playing single players game I’m ‘always online’. I’m always seeing that this person popped up on my friends list, it’s this very social and online even when I’m playing by myself. Unless you turn off all notifications and ignore the world,” she added.
Using herself as an example, Heppe explained how she herself always stays online when she’s on her phone and that she tends to “play a ton on mobile devices.”
She stated: “It very much is [always online] even when you’re not playing a multiplayer game, because we’ve made the social experience so much of what gaming is now. I get very frustrated when online features aren’t up to speed, I think it’s really just expected. But we have the easy bullet dodging, ‘we’re an online only game’ but I do think there is room for the a single player experience, and for stuff that isn’t necessarily online.”
“I think you’re going to see more of it [multiplayer]. Even when they’re a single player game, they want to have a multiplayer component, which is sort of silly because I think developers should do what they are best at, and I hate the idea of somebody being forced into adding something into their game that they don’t want to do.”
“I think there is a lot the future generation is going to be able to do in terms of matchmaking, in terms of connecting gamers that’s going to make that social experience not feel forced,” Heppe concluded.
Titanfall is currently scheduled for releases on Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC on March 11, 2014 in North America and March 13, 2014 in Europe.
