Speaking to website Develop, EA Games label president Frank Gibeau has suggested that the self-contained gaming experiences are no longer relevant in the industry, and that titles need to embrace online to keep pace with the current market.
As part of the interview, entitled 'EA's Leap of Faith' Gibeau fields a hypothetical question: what if Dead Space developer Visceral Games said its sequel didn't need a multiplayer?
"it's about being connected," Gibeau responds. "I firmly believe that the way the products we have are going they, need to be connected online. Multiplayer is one form of that...I don't go up to every game team and ask - 'what is your deathmatch mode?' I look at how to make games a broader idea with online services."
When pressed about the necessity of online, he continued: "I volunteer you to speak to EA's studio heads; they'll tell you the same thing. They're very comfortable moving the discussion towards how we make connected gameplay - be it co-operative or multiplayer or online services - as opposed to fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours-and you're out. I think that model is finished.
Online is where the innovation, and the action, is at."