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If there is one thing that gaming executives love to tell us, it is that the era of single-player games is over. And if there is one thing that players keep telling them, it is that they are incredibly wrong on that assumption. Single-player games have been the foundation of gaming for decades, and, as we kick off Future Fest and ponder what the coming years hold, I’m more certain than ever that isn’t going to change anytime soon.

It is a story that pops up every few years, like when an EA executive said in an interview that the single-player game model was “finished” back in 2010. And, from their business model, maybe it seems that way. After all, it is tough to make more money off a game when it is over as soon as it is shipped. How do you add microtransactions to a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 or transform Persona 5 into a live-service game? 
This kind of thinking is the same thing that drove Warner Bros. to shoehorn live-service mechanics into otherwise fine games like Mortal Kombat 1 and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and what kept Dragon Age: Veilguard in development for years beyond what it should have been. Somewhere, deep down, gaming companies believe they can tweak a game into being more profitable without players noticing, and they keep being proven wrong.

My big problem with this sentiment isn’t even how callous or hollow it makes these companies seem when they try to squeeze more money out of their customers even after a game has been released. It isn’t how it often results in games getting shut down and scrapped just weeks after they launch. It isn’t even that it ignores the fact that many of the biggest games of recent years – Baldur’s Gate 3, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Elden Ring – are single-player experiences that don’t include microtransactions or any purchases after you’ve bought the base game. 

My issue with the idea that single-player games are going to die out is that it ignores a basic fact about humanity – we like to be entertained, whether that is through stories or games or TV. Sounding the death knell of single-player games just because multiplayer games exist or are more profitable for companies is like saying that scripted television should have died when reality TV burst onto the scene, when history has shown that simply isn’t the case. The two different forms of entertainment can exist side-by-side because people like different things.

Gaming has become more social over the years, so much so that Nintendo built a game chat into their newest console and marketed a webcam alongside it at launch, but there is still something exciting about consuming a story or playing through a unique experience like The Blue Prince and talking about it with others afterward the same way we can’t stop talking about our favorite scenes in a movie. Stories like this tap into something fundamental to humanity. Something that fulfils an almost primal need to share our experiences with each other. It isn’t even solely about the story – Balatro was one of the most talked about games of 2024 and has no narrative to speak of, yet it was everywhere on social media for months after its release.

As the head of Larian Studios said earlier this year, single-player games aren’t dead. They just need to be good enough to capture our imagination. While the market for multiplayer games is growing every year, the unique narrative experience of a single-player game will continue to form the backbone of gaming for the foreseeable future, no matter what anyone in a suit tries to tell us. The only real question is how much money companies like EA are going to waste before they figure that out.

The gaming industry has come a long way since Pong blew all our minds in the 70s. We've got everything you need to know about the next big thing in games. Of course, Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be the big game of 2026, but there are plenty of other games coming out between now and then. Here is our starter guide for every gamer:

• All upcoming games in 2025 and beyond
• Gamify My Life, our weekly gaming column designed
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And be sure to check Popverse regularly for the latest gaming news.