Baldur’s Gate 3 director says single player games are not “dead”, they just “have to be good” 

Larian Studios founder and Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke has popped up to discuss the so-called death of single-player games. 

With Larian now working hard on its next game that won’t release for many years, Vincke’s team is likely working on yet another massive single-player RPG for players to enjoy. But with the constant claims that single-player games just aren’t popular enough, the iconic game director has something to say. 

Baldur’s Gate 3 director on the death of single-player 

Talking to fans on Twitter, Vincke explained that single-player  games aren’t dying the death executives claim they are. While major AAA releases continue to focus on live-service titles to soak up post-launch sales, Larian is staying firm in its market for great single-player titles. 

“That time of the year again when big single player games are declared dead,” the Baldur’s Gate 3 director said on Twitter. “Use your imagination. They’re not. They just have to be good.”

If any game is proof that great single-player games are alive and well, it’s Larian’s latest RPG. While the game does have online multiplayer and even cross-play with the release of Patch 8, the majority of fans play the title in a purely single-player form.

At the time of writing, BG3 has over 31,000 players with a 24-hour peak of 67,000. More than a year after release with no battle pass schlock or live-service pandering, Larian has proven that single-player games can be massive successes in their own right. 

Vincke’s words not only ring true with gamers, but also other game developers. David Goldfarb, the man behind Battlefield: Bad Company and Payday 2 commented on the Larian CEO’s post saying: “Can I bring you to all my meetings, Swen? F**king exhausted.”

Baldur’s Gate 3 is far from the only evidence that single-player games are alive and thriving. In the last year, Stalker 2 broke records as a single-player only game. Monster Hunter Wilds, a game most people play as a single-player game, is continuing to storm Steam Charts. Hell, even Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 was a massive success. 

It’s just as Vincke says: single-player games aren’t dead, but crap single-player games are. But guess what? Crap multiplayer games are also dead, isn’t that right, Concord? Womp, womp.