Atari (Infogrames) distance themselves from Single Player Games in Future
A change of leadership leads to a change in direction, Phil Harrison’s belief in Social Gaming now evident in Atari.
by XboxOZ360
©2008 Grant Smythe.
“`With Phil Harrison now at the helm as President of Atari (Infogrames) Europe, it seems his pet love of games being a “Social Online Gaming” that he pushed for so long at Sony, he now has the ability to direct a company that will follow his guide.
“`While at Sony, Phil Harrison pleaded with Sony many times to make their games more online social in context, but this was often put down as not “being a viable business model for Japan”. Even when Microsoft’s Xbox came onto the scene, he pushed to make the Playstation just as viable on line as the Xbox was/is.
He met solid walls at times, with Sony’s Japanese background stating that “there’s no future in online gaming, Japan is not a social place in that fashion” . . How wrong they were. Phil Harrison almost pleaded with them early in the piece to make the Playstation as efficient as the 1st-Gen Xbox with regards to On-line gaming, otherwise they could “miss the boat” . . . But Sony thought otherwise, believing, arrogantly as it was, that they knew best, and that no Gaijin would know what was good for a Japanese company. Which by the way, this has been one of the biggest points holding Sony back over the past several years.
Well things are definitely about to change. In his new position as President of Atari (Infrogrames) he is directing the company to leave the Single Player gaming field, and focus on Multiplayer Online Gaming Networked games
Alone In The Dark: Near Death Investigation could well be their last major Single Player game coming out of their studios as both Publishers and Developers. Here’s a in-depth Q&A with Phil Harrison regarding his thoughts on where Atari needs to be going around the Online Gaming scene.
“`An interesting side point to this is the recent formation of SGN (Social Gaming Network) which has had some significant funding of late and showing a new direction for many areas of Social Online Gaming through various medium.
“`So, could the change to mostly Online Gaming be coming far sooner than many of us expected, or is this something that may meet resistance from the “real-world-shopper” in us all. Especially those of us that do like our Single Player games. While XboxLive stats might seem staggering, the fact is, more people that own a Xbox360 actually do NOT play online, and therefore, many games that feature purely online gameplay are missed by a huge percentage of active gamers out there.
Is the the right move to make, it might be in time, but is it needed now. Some seem to think it is, with a $US15 million investment in some areas of Social Online Gaming taking place mid last week from investors such as Greylock Partners, the Founders Fund, Columbia Partners, and Novak Biddle Venture Partners and $10 million of investment from venture capitalists including Union Square Ventures.
Dave McClure author of social media blog 500 Hats and one of the lead organizers of the Web 2.0 conferences. commented, “There’s significant recognition that social-gaming applications, at least on Facebook, are displaying high engagement and virality (rates)”
So what is your take ion the situation. . ? Personally I hope Single Player games are around for a Long long time, as my preference is for private games at my leisure without the need to deal with whinny and complaining teens across the world pretending to be the biggest ‘hood’ there is or the latest ‘ganstar’ . . .
©2008 Grant Smythe.
Filed under: Console gaming, New Game Information, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | Alone in the Dark, Atari, Atari Games, Infogrames, Phil Harrison
I love my SP games. In saying that though once i do finish and play the SP to death and get bored of it, MP does add another layer to the game to keep me into it.
I hope SP stays for a long long time as there is nothing better then kicking back and enjoying the story mode, doing things your way and such.
yeah im primarily a SP gamer, with the occasional game of MP.
I cant wait for NG2 look forward to reviewing it!
I’m much the same, I prefer my games Solo, much like a fine restaurant dinner compared to say Macers on Sat night . . I know where I’d rather be . . .
Games run on the backbone of the SP experience, going strictly MP or Online Gaming would mean many developers wouldn’t need to push their boundaries with regards to innovation. It’s through the SP side of games that Innovations are made.
The MP side of games usually run around a few basic, but similar principles . . . but SP’s get dev to push themselves,find out ways to exploit the hardware and take things to the limit, which only benefits us all in the end
What I see here is a push towards a more social online gaming network being set up. Atari (Infogrames) isn’t dumb, and they can see big pots of cash at the end of the Online Social Network. One only has to look at the stats lately to see where the growth is.
SO I ‘think’ they see more growth in online gaming, as opposed to the MP side of games, so perhaps they will be pushing more social networked games as well as MP based games. They haven
t ruled out SP games altogether, but no more BIG budget ones like Alone In The Dark, as they are too risky for a company that’s on shaky ground with the share market anyway.
I still prefer SP games over MP.
SP lets me play the game how I want and when I want.
I love my MP CoD4 with Sheeky and my other friends but it’s also nice to kick back and relax by myself.
Not all of us are social butterflies!
Plus if I had to put up with Sheeky’s inane chatter every time I wanted to play a game I would go crazy