Here’s some news that will be sure to ruffle a few feathers – EA’s chief operating officer Peter Moore has gone on record to say that Star Wars Battlefront will not include a single-player campaign as “very few people actually play the single-player” in shooters.
Moore’s comments were made during an interview with Gamespot, with him adding that “the data points to” there being a smaller number of people who play games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield who also dive into their single-player components. While it is likely true that this is the case, Moore appears to be overlooking the argument that the reasoning behind few jump into their campaign modes is due to them typically not being very good. Call of Duty reached its peak with the first Modern Warfare‘s story and has been struggling to reach that level ever since, whereas Battlefield has consistently featured dour, forgettable single-player campaigns that aren’t really worthy of anyone’s time. The reasoning behind people not playing these single-player campaigns isn’t due to them not being interested in single-player experiences, but because they’re known for being mediocre in comparison with their multiplayer offering.
Rather than even attempt to buck this trend, developers DICE have instead decided to do away with the game’s single-player altogether. Now, considering that DICE have been responsible for the woeful campaigns in the Battlefield series this may be a blessing in disguise, as we wouldn’t want to play through a sub-par story set within the Star Wars universe. However, the Star Wars license is rife with opportunity for crafting a great Battlefront single-player mode, and while the majority were certainly more interested in playing the game’s multiplayer, it’s a shame that no effort has been made on DICE and EA’s behalf to craft an original campaign.
With many fans of the Battlefront series growing increasingly suspicious of the upcoming game and its removal of a variety of the features the franchise has become known for, the absence of single-player has certainly not gone down well, and Peter Moore’s comments will likely stoke the fires of that unfortunate flame even more. Hopefully EA has some great plans to up Star Wars Battlefront‘s level of replayability, because as we’ve seen from the likes of Titanfall, even excellent multiplayer-only shooters can die out quicker than expected if there isn’t enough to do in them.
