3 Reasons Why 2019 Will Be a Big Year For Single Player Games

So we are finally into 2019, and the huge lineup of games seems a little less far now.

Some believe 2018 was a great year for video games, but with the types of games I prefer to play, and many of you can relate, I felt they were severely lacking.

Sure we got big hitters like God Of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, Spiderman, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but other than that 2018 was yet another year for mindless multiplayer service games which unfortunately also included titles from previously good quality single player franchises like Fallout 76.

That is going to change in 2019. People are finally starting to realise that single player games are not dead, which last year's God Of War proved very well.

So in 2019, here are 3 reasons why it's going to be a treat for all the single player game fans.

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#1. Sequels to big old franchises

Devil May Cry 5

2019 will be a nostalgia ride for many of us gamers because our favourite franchises which we grew up playing are returning with full-blown sequels with next-generation visuals.

Games like Devil May Cry 5, Resident Evil 2, Gears 5, Crackdown 3, Kingdom Hearts 3, Animal Crossing, Shenmue 3 and even The Last Of Us Part 2 are all coming this year, and yes, they are all big single player games, with addition to a multiplayer mode in some. Add some good quality remakes to the list such as MediEvil and Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled and we have a huge lineup of games with an even bigger audience just dying to get their hands on these titles.

This is important because many of us feared that just like EA, most of the developers had started to prioritise multiplayer mode first and single player campaign later, but fortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. Single player games are well and alive and 2019's upcoming lineup shows just that.

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#2. Indie Games

Concrete Genie

2018 was huge for indie games. Titles such as Celeste, Dead Cells, and Subnautica blew us away with innovative takes on gameplay, art design, and storytelling.

With Celeste and Dead Cells being nominated for numerous Game of the Year Awards this year, its no doubt that these ambitious little companies will continue to make their mark in 2019 as well their creative single player games.

This year will be a host to numerous indie titles, such as the sequel to Ubisoft's 2015 breathtakingly beautiful adventure platformer Ori and the Blind Forest, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, as well as titles such as Sea of Solitude, Life is Strange Season 2 Episodes 2-4, Ooblets, Media Molecule's Dream, Psychonauts 2, Concrete Genie and many more.

As the toxic work environment in the video game industry grows, more and more gaming veterans decides to go independent and form their own studios to make the game they want to make.

The latest example is the game from the Assasin's Creed creator who started his own studio to work on an ambitious new game called Ancestors: The Human Kind Odyssey, which is being published by Take Two's Private Division label.

Another industry veteran going their own way is Amy Henning, who is most notably known as the creator of the blockbuster Uncharted trilogy, in which she also worked as the Creative Director of the games. She further went on to work in Visceral Game's single player Star Wars project that ultimately got cancelled, thanks to EA.

She is now working on opening her own studio to make Virtual Reality games.

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#3. The Next Generation of Console reveals along with first-party announcements

Horizon Zero Dawn

It's no doubt that the next PlayStation and the Xbox are on their way. It's not confirmed yet, but it's most probably by the fall of this year or early next year.

Whenever that is, Sony and Microsoft will definitely be gracing the stage to reveal their shiny new products, but that's not it.

Both the companies won't shy away from revealing their big AAA first party exclusives for the upcoming generation, which, let me tell you, will comprise of a lot of good quality single player games.

Sony has consistently supported single player games and they will continue to do so in the future. As of now, Death Stranding, The Last Of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, as well as Days Gone are scheduled to release exclusively on the PS4 though the first three also might be cross-generation titles.

Along with them, Sony is sure to reveal games such as Horizon Zero Dawn 2, the next game from Quantic Dream which they just recently teased, The Order: 1886 Part 2, or the next game from Ready At Dawn Studios, the sequel to 2018's God Of War and many more.

Microsoft, after seeing Sony's first titles flourish, admitted their mistakes and purchased a number of studios to develop their own huge first-party line-up for next generation. This includes games from studios such as Ninja Theory, Obsidian Entertainment, Turn 10 Studios, which are rumoured to be working on a new single player Fable game, and many more.

We might again be seeing CyberPunk 2077 at Microsoft's E3 conference this year.

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