EA's label president say offline games are "finished"

Frank Gibeau

EA Games Label President Frank Gibeau has spoken out to say that games without online components are done for, describing the "fire and forget" 25 hour single player model as "finished".

Speaking to Develop , Gibeau said “I volunteer you to speak to EA's studio heads, they'll tell you the same thing,” he said. “They're very comfortable moving the discussion towards how we make connected gameplay – be it co-operative or multiplayer or online services – as opposed to fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours-and you're out. I think that model is finished," adding that “online is where the innovation, and the action, is at.”

"It's not only about multiplayer, it's about being connected. I firmly believe that the way the products we have are going they, need to be connected online. Multiplayer is one form of that." Gibeau also recently spoke out about Mirror's Edge , saying that the title fell short thanks in part to a lack of multiplayer. What do you think, are offline single player games dead?

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.