Preserving games and the return of the single-player: an alternative path for developers revealed by new research

With the high cost of games as a service and online games, single-player titles and retrogaming may be a safer bet for small developers

• Preference for single-player games: Studies by MIDIA Research show that, despite the rise of online and as-a-service games, many players still prefer the single-player experience.
• Online and games as a service (GaaS): requires a high investment in servers and infrastructure, which grows with the success of the game.
• Risks and challenges of the GaaS model: Although there are success stories, most games as a service face difficulties in obtaining a return on investment, making it a risky market, especially for smaller studios.
• Opportunities in the retrogaming market: The interest in old games and the nostalgia of older gamers opens up space for the emulation and remastering market of classic titles.
• Nostalgia and game preservation: The preservation of classic games and the demand for legally adequate emulation can be valuable strategies for attracting an audience willing to revisit experiences from the past.

A recent study by MIDIA Research shows, in one of its conclusions, that a large part of the gaming consumer market prefers, oddly enough, single-player games.

It sounds like a contradiction in terms, given that in recent years we've seen an upward curve in interest in and production of games as a service and/or online games. But what doesn't factor in is the cost of each of these models.

Of course, even single player games from major studios and rated AAA games consume considerable financial resources nowadays, as the consumer public's demand for quality is ever greater given the dizzying advance of game production and development tools.

But we need to remember that we live in the age of the attention economy and that games as a service and online games demand time from the player and constant investment from the developer to keep their servers running and able to scale with the success of the game. The greater the success, the greater the cost.

Everyone will remember the famous Palword, which was launched in January 2024 and enjoyed meteoric success. The CEO of Pocketpair himself revealed his concern about, literally, the cost of success. To illustrate, in February of the same year the cost reached 475 thousand dollars.

Palworld reveals enormous dedicated server costs — $6 million annual fees could bankrupt the studio, CEO quips and it will go higher

Navigating this costly ocean with its ever-increasing competition, hype and uncertainty about success is dangerous because nothing guarantees a return on investment. Some experts say that gaming as a service is dying because of this, but that's not a firm conclusion. There are success stories, but they are few and far between.

Live-Service Games That Shut Down Quickly

A quick cross-check of figures from the MIDIA Research survey and data collected by STATISTA, specifically in the United States, shows that while much of the industry still wants to find the golden goose in online games, the opportunity for profit and the potential market still exist in single player games. According to MIDIA's report, from the age of 25, the largest proportion of gamers prefer to play alone, and this number increases with age. The STATISTA figures, in parallel, show that most video game players are in the older age groups.

Distribution of video game users in the United States as of June 2024, by age group

Another factor that might play a part in this is the preservation of electronic games from the past. Emulation is increasingly under siege from big players like Nintendo and many old games will cease to exist over time.

Nintendo Kills Another Switch Emulator: Ryujinx's creator pulled the plug at the Mario maker's request

You don't have to do a lot of math to understand that bringing back games from the past, in the so-called retro market, can be a good business since it attacks on two fronts, the preservation of the history of games in a legal way and appealing to the nostalgia of a considerable slice of the consumer market that is willing to have fun alone in front of their device without demanding miraculous online solutions or dedicating a lot of time to something that, for their age group, is almost impossible.

Perhaps following this trend, and what the data apparently points to, is a way out for a large part of the games industry which, as well as being made up of a small number of large studios that manage to hold on in the face of such a difficult market, is also made up of a multitude of small and medium-sized studios that are always very vulnerable and sensitive to any changes and problems with the consumer market.

An interesting curiosity. The issue of online mode, in particular, has become a demand of all gamers, it seems to me, much more because of the hype than the desire to play online. I've seen with my own eyes players demanding online mode and, after the launch, seeing the online game servers practically empty.

Another interesting piece of news, and also an encouragement, is that in Brazil we already have studios with a firm foothold on the issue of their own solutions for emulating old games on modern platforms and with an eye on the retrogaming market for a long time, such as QUByte Interactive with its proprietary emulation engines and an interesting track record of releasing titles from the past for modern consoles.

A short summary of some insights from the MIDIA Research survey can be found here: https://www.midiaresearch.com/blog/most-gamers-prefer-single-player-games

On the subject of preserving the history of electronic games you can read here: https://www.theverge.com/23850347/video-game-preservation

What about you? Do you also like single-player games? Or do you have plenty of time to devote to online games?