Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has promised that single-player focused games will continue to be part of his company's lineup amid concerns such titles could fade in response to current trends.
Recent years have seen a host of multiplayer adventure games come to the fore. As such, there is genuine worry that the rise could see to it that single-player adventures could get lost in time as a result.
According to Spencer, they're not going anywhere, at least where Microsoft is concerned. The company's new console, Project Scarlett, is set to launch during 2020's Holiday season, and it appears that there will be plenty of games catering to Xbox fans who aren't incredibly fond of multiplayer games.
Spencer confirmed as much in a recent post on Twitter He had been responding to a fan who wanted to know whether single-player games will continue to be released for Xbox in future.
"Yes, I can confirm," he wrote in response to the question. "With the additions to XGS we have a lot of teams that have built strong SP focused games and we want that to continue."
So, the Xbox chief has given his reassurances, also highlighting the fact that Microsoft now has multiple third-party studios under its control. Microsoft acquired quite a few developers in the year, including Ninja Theory, Playground Games, and Compulsion Games.
The concerns over the possible death of the single-player video game are understandable, but it's also hard to imagine developers moving past them completely in favor of multiplayer titles. Games such as Fortnite and Apex Legends have been considerably successful and have been making some serious money for Epic Games and Respawn Entertainment, despite the game's technically being free-to-play. Their prominence has seen a lot of the focus switch to the multiplayer arena, but single-player gameplay is still alive and well.
Xbox exclusives Halo Infinite and Gears 5 are both inbound and the latter features a single-player campaign, as has been the tradition, with a few multiplayer modes as well. As for Halo, there's not enough information available regarding what the campaign will entail and how prominent the single-player mode will be.
Halo Infinite is still over a year from launch but Gears 5 will be released on September 10th, 2019.