There is currently a lively discussion about the future of purely single-player games, from which more and more publishers are apparently turning away, most recently Electronic Arts, who with the Star Wars game by Visceral Games They have scrapped an extremely ambitious project.
According to EA, open-world games and multiplayer titles are simply more profitable these days, which may be true, but would also exclude a large target audience. So, should we expect that there will be no more single-player or story-driven games in the future? Microsoft clearly says no, but admits that financing such games has become difficult.
Microsoft's Xbox boss, Shannon Loftis, At least, that's what he believes. The fact that there will always be games like this, because players want exciting and thrilling stories. And there are plenty of examples where these games are very successful, such as Fallout 4 or Sony's Horizon Zero Dawn.
To finance projects of this scale, a significant amount of money is needed, as every project still represents a risk for a studio. Nevertheless, Microsoft doesn't deny that the number of these games seems to be decreasing, which is why they are looking for ways to finance them sustainably. One example they cite is their Game Pass subscription service, which they believe could help with this.
