Atari Shifting Away from Single Player

Under the leadership of Phil Harrison, Atari(and Infogrames) looks like they will be shifting away from big budget single player games. Harrison has always championed social online gaming, and it appears his new job at Atari is allowing him to pursue this goal. Harrison has stated in a recent interview that the upcoming Alone in the Dark(for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, Wii, and PS3) could be the last of Atari's "huge-budget, single-player games."

I think this is a mistake. More and more companies are trying to shift to the multiplayer at the expense of the single player. Now I may just be an old gamer and I understand that gaming is more socially accepted these days, but most of the "great games" in my experience are single player games.

Now, I love playing online with my friends. I've had great times with Halo 3, GTA IV, COD4, etc. online. But my friends have lives. They're not always available for gaming. And I've had some horrible times playing online with strangers. Many of the people online are social miscreants who apparently have no friends and take it out on the others they play with. I hate when a game forces me to play with strangers.