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Valve's not "giving up on single-player at all," plans to add more social features to titles

Valve has clarified a comment made a couple of weeks ago regarding whether or not Portal 2 was "probably" the firm's "last game with an isolated single-player experience."

The worry that washed over the Internet regarding this quote came from a Portal 2 feature that Geoff Keighley released as an app.

However, Valve head Gabe Newell, speaking in an interview with a high school student going by the YouTube user name theythatare, said reassuringly that Valve is not "giving up on single-player at all," but plans to add more social components into its games from here on out.

“I think what we’re trying to talk about is the fact that, not that we’re not doing single-player games," said Newell. "Portal 2 was a pretty good example of what we’ve learned over the years in terms of how to create those experiences. It’s more that we think we have to work harder in the future, that entertainment is inherently increased in value by having it be social, by letting you play with your friends, by recognizing that you’re connected with other people.

“That’s the thing that we’re trying to say, is that, single-player is great but we also have to recognize that you have friends, and we wanna have that connected as well. So, it’s not about giving up on single-player at all, it’s like saying, we actually think that there’s a bunch of features and capabilities that we need to add into our single-player games to recognize the socially connected gamer.”

Basically, single-player with some sort of social component, and not necessarily multiplayer - something Valve has said in the past not "every game needs."

Thanks, Ripten.

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Stephany Nunneley-Jackson

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Stephany is VG247’s News Editor, with 22 years experience (with 15 of them at VG247). With a brain that lacks adhesive ducks, the ill-tempered, chaotic neutral fembot does her best to bring you the most interesting gaming news. She is also unofficially the site’s Lord of the Rings/Elder Scrolls Editor.

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