Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke pushes back against claims that single-player games are “dead.” He emphasizes that good single-player games thrive with industry support from developers like David Goldfarb.
According to Vincke, single-player games aren’t slowly dying, as some studio executives claim. Instead, for a single-player game to succeed, it first needs to be good. If there’s any proof that single-player games are alive and well, it’s Baldur’s Gate 3. Since its release, it has won Game of the Year and maintained a strong, dedicated player base that remains highly active even two years later. As of this report, Baldur’s Gate 3 had 36,000 concurrent players on Steam, with a 24-hour peak of 68,000 on Valve’s platform.
It seems that not only gamers share Vincke’s perspective on single-player games, but also some industry developers. David Goldfarb, known for his work on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and PayDay 2, responded to Vincke’s post with the comment:
“Can I take you to all my meetings, Swen? Damn, you’re exhausted.”
Other indicators that single-player games are far from dead include upcoming titles like Black Myth: Wukong, God of War: Ragnarok, STALKER 2, and the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6, set to release later this year.
Single-player games aren’t dying—bad games are, regardless of genre.
