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With technological advances all across the board, connecting with friends from far away is becoming easier. A few years ago, the concept of online multiplayer was still fairly new, and campaigns were still the more prominent part of the gaming world. This year we've seen titles that were once single-player only games turning into multiplayer titles as well. BioShock 2 started this trend, implementing a multiplayer feature into their game. With mixed results, it seemed to be enough for developers to do the same. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the third game in the Assassin's Creed series, was the first to feature multiplayer with fairly pleasing results. Dead Space 2 will be continuing this trend, implementing a multiplayer mode in addition to its story-mode, which was the entire foundation of the first. Even Mass Effect, a massive singe-player title, is rumored to have a multiplayer mode in its next installment.

The titles above have all previously been single-player only titles. We're not talking little, side of the road titles, either; but big, well-known titles that did perfectly fine without multiplayer in the past. Are single-player titles dead? Certainly not. After all, they started gaming. However, single-player only experiences are on their way out, and perhaps for good reason.

Epic Game's Director Cliff Bleszinski explained exactly why so many developers are endorsing the shift from single-player based experiences to more multiplayer based ones: “The biggest mistake that you can make as a developer right now would be to make a game that is like a 6 hour experience that has no multiplayer, because what happens is gamers will be like 'I’ll rent it' or 'I’ll just buy it used.'”

“You don’t want gamers to date your game, you want them to marry your game,” added Cliff, upholding his known casual personality.

We have to think of this from the developers perspective. It is easier than ever in modern day for gamers to rent a title for a week, complete it, and return it for less than $10. What motivation would gamers have to purchase a game for $60 or so when they could rent it, beat it, and return it for 1/6th of that? That's what developers are taking into account. Slapping the multiplayer mode on it will give more incentive to own the title, which seems like a necessary strategy for developers at this point in time. Alan Wake is a perfect example of this: It was a widely popular title, but it got underwhelming sales figures. That's a sign that the "single-player only" market is no longer a prospering one. Multiplayer is the natural step for developers who want to make money will go.

It's not that single-player experiences are no longer popular, but merely that, especially in a time when the American economy is less than thrilling, people are looking to get more for their buck. If they can get the same thing for less, you better believe they'll do it. Multiplayer experiences add endless amount of hours to a game, allowing a player to enjoy it until he / she cannot stand it anymore.

Will this method work? Well, the answer to that question lies on an individual basis. Some developers will do great jobs with multiplayer additions, while others will probably crash and burn in the process. Nonetheless, any game developer that is looking to make some decent money will be investing their time in adding a multiplayer mode.

Things will only become a problem when single-player experiences begin to be replaced by multiplayer ones. If we can have a great Assassins's Creed plot alongside a decent multiplayer, you'll see a smile on my face. If we get an Assassins's Creed with a less than pleasing plot and a good multiplayer, we might have a problem on our hands.

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Depends on the game, for instance multiplayer for dead space and resi evil are just tacked on, but say COD/BF/MOH have better multiplayer than single.

When Assassin's Creed 2 came out I played that game over and over again, I just loved playing the single player again and again because it had such a great experience and story line. With Brotherhood it was another great story and I enjoy playing it too, but with the Multiplayer it gives the game a whole other side to it and it makes me want to continue playing the game when I get tired of the campaign.

I enjoy multiplayers, A LOT, but if a game has a great single player with a pretty good multiplayer (like Brotherhood) it makes the game much more better. Sometimes you just need a game with a great campaign.

Maybe if you could complete the Call Of Duty game's Campaigns with 10 other people at the same time, campaign wouldn't be dead:dingding: at all, especially if it gave you experience.

I do think the single player experience IS dying. I personally don't buy games that don't have an online multiplayer. Just me tho.