Bethesda has pledged to “save the single-player gamer” in the midst of the ongoing EA controversy, with the company staging a big sale of its single-player games along with investing in the future of game development.
Bethesda debuted a new trailer at tonight’s The Game Awards, with Wonder Woman and Fallout 4 actress Lynda Carter discussing “the need to save single-player gamers.” The trailer is an unsubtle nod to the debate surrounding EA’s closure of Visceral Games, the studio put in charge of developing a single-player Star Wars game, which saw the company release a statement suggesting that they were shifting focus towards games that were in line with “fundamental shifts in the marketplace,” i.e. those with a multiplayer focus.
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Bethesda has always been a top-tier creator of single-player games, with them responsible for publishing the likes of Fallout 4, Skyrim and Dishonored 2, so the continued success of non-multiplayer games is essential to their business. While them essentially publicly calling out EA is a surprising move, it serves to build excitement around their latest sale and drives up increased interest in their games by way of capitalizing upon the growing frustrations of those tired of the “games as a service” model.
Below is Bethesda’s press statement regarding the trailer:
“While Bethesda and its family of studios produce and publish a wide array of games (including some of the pioneering games in the multiplayer and esports space), single-player games are a big part of the Company’s DNA and will continue to be as they work to develop and publish narrative-driven single-player games in the future. To celebrate the single-player gamer, Bethesda is running a sale this weekend across its current catalog of single-player games with prices up to 50% off digitally, as well as at select retailers.
And in an effort to support future game development, Bethesda will also be making a donation of $100,000 to the Entertainment Software Association Foundation, an organization that provides scholarships to the next generation of industry innovators. Perhaps one of these future developers will make a single-player game that you’ll love too.”
Watch the trailer below:
