Starbreeze Studios, the Swedish developer behind such titles as Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and Payday, recently stated they will be focusing their efforts on co-op and multiplayer titles in the future, due to their longer monetizing lifespan than single-player games.
“You need to find the thing that makes it replayable,” stated Almir Listo, Global Brand Director at Starbreeze Studios speaking at the Reboot Develop conference. “One of the problems that Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons had for sure was that it’s not replayable. It’s a beautiful story, but it ends.”
“Payday, however, because the game is replayable like few other games…it allowed us to continue pushing out content for the game, which allowed us to keep monetizing the players who were interested in the game.”
Starbreeze is not completely out of the single-player game business however, though such titles may perhaps be sidelined to its publishing partners.
“We’re great at doing co-op games and multiplayer games. That’s why The Walking Dead game we’re making is a co-op game, that’s why the Crossfire game we’re making is a co-op game.”
It may not be unreasonable to consider that other developers perhaps share similar feelings with Starbreeze Studios, which could foresee a continual increase in the amount of online multiplayer, as we’ve witnessed with such titles as Star Wars Battlefront and the Uncharted series. For trophy hunters, this could mean more online Trophies to unlock.