Single-Player Stories Can Be Great and Linear
In case you haven’t heard, Visceral Games, the studio behind the Dead Space series, was recently shut down by EA. They were working on the new single-player Star Wars game. According to the statement by EA, the shutdown was due in part to their crafting a linear game experience. But Sony’s Cory Barlog defended linear games in the wake of this decision.
Cory Barlog is the director/captain manning the helm of God of War 4. Obviously, he has extensive experience when it comes to linear games, which is why he wholly disagrees with EA’s outlook. In fact, he took to Twitter and contested the implication that linear games are bad in any way.
I love linear single player games. Saddens me when the word linear is considered a bad thing. You can have agency in a linear story game.
— Cory Barlog (@corybarlog) October 18, 2017
With Visceral Games out of the picture, the content of the next Star Wars project is up for speculation. The same is true of Amy Hennig. As the former head of the studio, and with her experience in the Uncharted series, her talent gave the game so much potential. Hopefully, she’ll find another studio equipped to deliver the project she’s capable of delivering.
Likewise, we hope Cory Barlog is on the path to delivering the best God of War game yet, despite the supposed detriments of being linear.
Your studio made amazing games that helped to elevate what we do. Thank you.
— Cory Barlog (@corybarlog) October 19, 2017