Cliff Bleszinski, design director at Epic Games thinks that From Software’s multiplayer efforts with Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls will influence developers for years to come. However, he thinks that Japanese developers need to do more in general with regard to online multiplayer.
“My advice to Japan is that in a disc-based market right now, you cannot [ignore multiplayer],” he says, adding, “I’m not saying tack multiplayer onto every game.”
Shadows of the Damned was a game in particular he picked out, and one that Bleszinski liked a lot. ” . . .The dialogue had me laughing out loud, just even the key-door systems in there; it was a beautifully crazy game with really fun gameplay, but no multiplayer co-op experience in there,” he said. “I’m not saying tack on versus; there’s a billion different ways you can do some sort of ‘players interacting with other players.'”
“And if you’re going to make a third-person shooter… the fact that Vanquish didn’t have a multiplayer suite was a crime,” he says. The shooter, developed by Platinum Games under director Shinji Mikami, also failed to find a significant audience,” he continued. “That IP, it was pretty good as far as being Western, but the gameplay was great, the vibe . . . and I’ve often said on record that if Gears is the kind of Wild, Wild West coal train chugging along, that Vanquish is the Japanese bullet train, with style and everything. And there is absolutely no reason I shouldn’t have been zipping around, doing the mega slides, diving up in the air in an arena with other players.”
Source: Gamasutra
