Tim Sweeney: Solution to declining singleplayer game sales is getting it more socially and economically connected to interoperable metaverse ecosystem

anyasok

anyasok

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Please kill me. This is dystopian as hell and will make me quit gaming

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Epic's Tim Sweeney: "We can build an economy that's bigger and better than the one in Roblox"

Epic Games boss on Roblox, monetization for Fortnite creators, training AI without permission and taking on Steam
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At GDC, one developer joked that the biggest enemy to all video games was Fortnite.



He was talking generally about how the big live-service games are dominating so much player time, that it leaves little room for everyone else. So I asked Sweeney, considering Epic is all about supporting developers, doesn't Fortnite's continued success conflict with that?



"Every game developer's mission is to make the most fun game possible," he says. "And the development of Fortnite since it launched in 2017 has been in the pursuit of fun.



"To some extent that's causing players to switch from other games into Fortnite because there's just so much cool stuff there. But on the other hand, we're creating opportunity for all developers to actually move their business into this interconnected world of Fortnite and pursue new revenue streams.



"People have often found that this is very complimentary. Like when the Borderlands game launched a couple of years ago, we had an entire Fortnite point of interest dedicated to Borderlands. And people who had come of age as gamers playing Fortnite, suddenly learned about Borderlands and they could go and buy Borderlands. And Borderland players are going 'oh there's a Borderlands area in Fortnite, let's go check it out'. A lot of the things we do with our partners are highly complementary. God of war characters coming into Fortnite, Halo characters coming into Fortnite… all these cross-over events are really cross-promoting and enabling everybody to benefit from the rising tide that lifts all ship."



But it comes back to Epic's core metaverse vision, where games are all connected together and gamers have a single online identity that stays the same no matter where or what they're playing. This, Sweeney believes, will encourage players to jump around between different games.



"There are technical barriers to that right now. But those are all solvable problems that a multiplatform developer like us can solve."
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This metaverse vision could also halt the decline of single-player games, too, Sweeney says.

"Because we're seeing players increasingly drawn towards social experiences, that's causing a rise in games like Fortnite and Roblox, but a decline in single player games and a decline in smaller multiplayer games as well," he explains.

"That's a real challenge that the industry's facing. And there's no solution to that other than getting every standalone game much more socially connected, and economically connected, to an interoperable metaverse ecosystem."
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Epic didn't used to be all about Fortnite. From Unreal Tournament to Rock Band, Gears of War to Rocket League, Epic and its studios have made plenty of popular standalone titles. Yet most of Epic's teams today are focused on Fortnite, whether that's the Battle Royale mode or creating entirely different experiences within the Fortnite world.

Does that mean Epic has stopped making non-Fortnite games? Well, sort-of.

"We have somewhat of a challenge, because when you think of Fortnite, you think of the Fortnite characters and battle royale," Sweeney says.

"But what we're building is actually something quite a bit larger than Fortnite. It's a tool set and an ecosystem in which any content can exist, including photorealistic content, or totally differently stylized content than Fortnite itself. You have the ability for developers in the ecosystem to build content that looks nothing like Fortnite. And yet it's called Fortnite. And so what we're really thinking about is how do we either redefine Fortnite, or how do we redefine the place where Fortnite lives, to create a much greater realization that there's many different kinds of games that can exist here. And Fortnite is not just battle royale anymore.

"The future of Epic is in developing a huge variety of awesome games in different genres. Everything we develop in the future is going to be centrally and economically interconnected to this thing we have here, which is the app currently known as Fortnite."

Again, it's back to the metaverse vision. This idea of a single thing with a number of separate but interconnected experiences, one of which is the Fortnite Battle Royale.

"That's the future that Epic's really signed up for," Sweeney concludes. "I wouldn't say it's making Fortnite forever, but it's building out this connected gaming world."
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Metaverse?

Star Trek GIF
 
He's not wrong, but he is ignoring the crucial first step. You need Fortnite. Or GTA Online. Or something like that. Something that is hugely and enormously popular that you can expand on, with the goal of retaining players. You can't just build this from the jump. We've also talked endlessly about how difficult it is to do that.

Like if I was EA I would not make Titanfall 3, I would build a Titanfall 3 game into Apex. But if I don't have Apex, that's not an option.
 
As if Epic could make anything other than Fortnite skins and adding bloat to their engine these days. And he talks about Epic making games. Lol. Lmao, even.
 
Only decline is mostly just western single-player game(not European games but American made games), Japanese games seem to be doing just fine. Perhaps western developers need some self reflection on why their games aren't selling.

P.S. Before anyone says "What about Final Fantasy 16's poor sales? Aren't they Japanese?". Sure it's Japanese, but it was made trying to be a Western game. I'd sum Final Fantasy 16 up as what a western game studio exec thinks a Japanese RPGs looks like and plays like should be. Then given to a Japanese team and say: Make it exactly like in this documentation.
 
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"we're seeing […] a decline in single player games […] and there's no solution to that other than getting every standalone game much more […] economically connected to an interoperable metaverse ecosystem."
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source.gif
 
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Ive met Tim a number of times and this is something he has said for a long long time. He is a nice person but clearly some form of autistic and has very warped perspective of how he believes social advances in entertainment and business should proceed.
Just look at how Fortnite is being marketed as a full metaverse. They want it to be a hub for everything.

Just vote with your wallet and eventually it will sort itself out.
 
diffusionx said:
He's not wrong, but he is ignoring the crucial first step. You need Fortnite. Or GTA Online. Or something like that. Something that is hugely and enormously popular that you can expand on, with the goal of retaining players. You can't just build this from the jump. We've also talked endlessly about how difficult it is to do that.

Like if I was EA I would not make Titanfall 3, I would build a Titanfall 3 game into Apex. But if I don't have Apex, that's not an option.
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Exactly this.

It's easy to dismiss this without thinking, but he's not wrong. He's using a lot of annoying buzzwords, but he's right.
 
Sounds like the equivalent of putting Borderlands toys in a Happy Meal.

(And then letting you use your McD app login for any other gaming and shopping experience. )
 
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diffusionx said:
He's not wrong, but he is ignoring the crucial first step. You need Fortnite. Or GTA Online.
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You're missing the subtext.
He's not saying "build on 'a' Fortnite". He means that everyone should build on THE Fortnite - making Epic the epicenter of all gaming, everywhere.
 
Fafalada said:
You're missing the subtext.
He's not saying "build on 'a' Fortnite". He means that everyone should build on THE Fortnite - making Epic the epicenter of all gaming, everywhere.
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Well obviously he is offering that but even then I think the success in Fortnite been very mixed. Does anyone give a shit about that Minecraft, or racing, or music game they built into it? It seems like it has found its success as a shitty RPO virtual world.

GTA Online has been much more successful in this regard.
 
Wait...

"Declining Single Player Game Sales..."

Errr...

- Horizon: Forbidden West - 8.2 million lifetime sales
- God of War: Ragnarok - 15 million lifetime sales
- Spiderman 2 - 11+ million lifetime sales
- The Last of Us Part 2 - 10+ million lifetime sales
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 32.81+ million lifetime sales
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 21.73+ million lifetime sales

Oh and...

- Genshin Impact - $6.7+ billion lifetime revenue
- Honkai: Star Rail - $2+ billion lifetime revenue
- ZZZ - $1+ billion lifetime revenue

Where's the fucking decline here Tim...???




The solution to Single Player Games sales is... MAKE MORE TOP TIER SINGLE PLAYER GAMES.
 
I dont even know what those words mean individually, and you join them together, i get more lost.

I think games should go back to costing $49. The prices now are just too much for impulse buys
 
The solution is more games like Elden Ring. Solid mechanics, quality music/setting/atmosphere, top tier boss designs, rewarding exploration,huge build variety etc etc. Quality,innovative,thats whats needed for single player games.
 
diffusionx said:
He's not wrong, but he is ignoring the crucial first step. You need Fortnite. Or GTA Online. Or something like that. Something that is hugely and enormously popular that you can expand on, with the goal of retaining players. You can't just build this from the jump. We've also talked endlessly about how difficult it is to do that.

Like if I was EA I would not make Titanfall 3, I would build a Titanfall 3 game into Apex. But if I don't have Apex, that's not an option.
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I think GTA VI online is going to take it to the next level. Live Concerts, Sporting events, etc. People buying tickets to attend live performances in the virtual world with their own custom avatars. Maybe even some betting on live sports (that's only good for in-game currency of course).
 
Brainless comment. Singleplayer titles are only a problem when made by talentless creatures, polluted with DEI, have zero depth to them (oversimplified for the lowest common denominator), short and have no interesting side content. Those games die quick, but so what? This was already the case before GaaS was even thing.

You release a game with depth, quality and quantity like Elden Ring, and it will sell every single time. And another positive is that the dev behind the game doesn't become a slave of said game, supporting it for the next 5+ years instead of creating other titles.
 
what time is it? metaverse? : ))
hey, single player still alive and kicking, there are still so much good single player sales.
not all game need to be fortnite, there still gamers who loves singleplayer as well.
and the numbers are not small as well.
 
Tencent Timmy's telling us what he wants vs. what things actually are.

Everything's a live service! Everything has potential for add-on sales!

If it weren't for Fortnite, Timmy would be retired by now, using his dirty money for day trading. He's not a particularly smart man, nor is he an authority on anything.
 

declining singleplayer game sales


???? Didn't we just saw recently how well Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sold and last time I checked that game was SP game.
 
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