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If there is someone who has been an unflinching champion of single-player games, it is Swen Vincke. The founder and CEO of Larian Studios knows something about making great games – his studio’s Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to have fantastic success more than a year after it was released, after all. Now he’s pushing back against other gaming companies who don’t see the value in single-player games, saying that the solution is to just make them good.

As gaming studios continue to shut down left and right, companies are pushing for live-service games that can continue to make more money over time, which has led many executives to declare that single-player games are dead. Swen Vincke thinks differently and, without putting any individuals on blast, pushed back against the idea in a post on social media.

“That time of year again when big single player games are declared dead,” Vincke said. “Use your imagination. They’re not. They just have to be good.”

That last bit is key, as evidenced by the fact that Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to be celebrated by fans and critics, despite coming out more than a year-and-a-half ago. It is a big, expansive fantasy game based on a tabletop system that you can play on your own or in multiplayer with friends. There are no plans for DLC or any additional content from Larian, exactly the kind of thing that many game companies feel is necessary for a game to be profitable – and yet it has been the biggest hit in Larian’s history.

“This is just me trying to give counterweight,” Vincke explained in another post. “I think good single player games will continue to do as well as they have always done. They just need to be good and innovate enough.”
Make good games and they’ll sell well – what a novel concept.

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