On Monday, the Penny Arcade Report published a feature called “The incredible disappearing multiplayer: features are disappearing, and no one seems to care”. The article is built around a graph from EEDAR, which compares the percentage of new releases on PS3 and 360 that featured multiplayer against those which didn't for each year from 2006 to 2012.
According to the data, the percentage of games with no multiplayer component whatsoever has been steadily rising since 2007, meaning the percentage of games with online or offline multiplayer has been on a decline.
Of course, the graph is a little deceptive. We were taught in Statistics class that you should always start your graph at 0, or in cases where that would just look silly at least make it obvious that you're not. Here, the graph starts at 20% and tops out at 80%, so the image is distorted to look more dramatic than it really is.
That said, a rise from 24% of PS3 and 360 games featuring no multiplayer (in 2007) to 41% (in 2012) is still noteworthy. But while the Penny Arcade Report seems to suggest that developers and publishers are just coming to their senses in leaving out this unnecessary, expensive feature, there's surely more to the story than that.
For example, one phenomenon that has been on the rise over roughly the same time period is that of indie games, and a lot of those tend to be single-player affairs. People on Twitter have also pointed out that there was probably a lot of buzz around the online capabilities of the Xbox 360 when it first launched (in late 2005) and that has inevitably faded.
Have you got another explanation for the trend? What do you think the next generation will look like as far as multiplayer is concerned?
