Gearbox CEO Criticizes Industry's Focus On Multiplayer

Randy Pitchford is no stranger to criticizing aspects of the industry that he doesn't like (not to mention chastising dirty, low-down cheaters). And usually he has a valid point, as evidenced by his latest complaint: games with tacked-on multiplayer modes.

Speaking with Edge, Pitchford criticized publishers for forcing superfluous features into games that weren't designed for them. “Let’s forget about what the actual promise of a game is and whether it’s suited to a narrative or competitive experience. Take that off the table for a minute and just think about the concept-free feature list: campaign, co-op, how many players? How many guns? How long is the campaign? When you boil it down to that, you take the ability to make good decisions out of the picture."

Pitchford cited Dead Space 2 as an example of the practice, and suggested that instead of shoehorning in more features to appeal to a wider audience, publishers should focus on making the vital features of the game as good as possible. Looking at the success of Borderlands, it's easy to agree -- although it doesn't help when a core feature of your game is a bajillion guns...