Stellar Blade Director Emphasises Importance of ‘Single-Player Games with an Ending’

The video game landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade or so, with live, online, evolving experiences becoming more and more commonplace. While there are still plenty of meaty single-player titles being conjured up for players each year, there’s definitely been an industry-wide pull, rightly or wrongly, towards recapturing the lightning in a bottle that is Fortnite. What’s important, though, is a variety of experiences — so says the director of PS5 exclusive Stellar Blade, Kim Hyung Tae.

Speaking in a Korean interview (translated by Genki), he talks about the value that single-player titles bring to the market. “Sales success has become a severe issue in recent years due to the rising costs of development,” he says. “To be honest, I often hear advice from people around me that it would be better to make games that have higher profit margins. But what our industry needs more than anything is variety, isn’t it?”

Hyung Tae says “single-player games with an ending” have a “very important value” in the grand scheme of things, making the gaming market “healthier” overall. He says developer Shift Up “will continue to take on the challenge of console games in the future”, saying the team has a “strong desire to continue to create games that allow many gamers to enjoy to the end and return to reality feeling good”.

Sony as a publisher primarily deals in big budget single-player experiences, and Stellar Blade will soon be the latest title in this mould. However, it’s impossible to ignore just how successful Helldivers 2 has been — an online co-op shooter fuelled by an evolving live service. We suspect Hyung Tae is right in saying variety is key; if every game was Apex Legends, or if they were all Uncharted, it wouldn’t be all that interesting.

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