Cliffy B: Japanese devs need to tack on multiplayer

In the latest episode of “shit Cliffy says”, Gears of War head honcho Cliff Bleszinski has spoken out how it’s a “crime” that Japanese developers don’t seem to be bothered by multiplayer.
Citing the likes of Vanquish and Shadows of the Damned, Cliffy B thinks more Japanese devs should be tacking on multiplayer.
“If you’re going to make a third-person shooter… the fact that Vanquish didn’t have a multiplayer suite was a crime,” says Cliffy.
“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.”
However, apparently he doesn’t want Japanese devs to “tack multiplayer onto every game,” instead he seems to be aiming his comments at shooters. Or, at least, games with guns.
Here’s the thing, though, some games don’t need the multiplayer element and adding it would only take time away from developing an outstanding single player game. Sure, you can bring in another studio to craft the multiplayer, but then it really does feel tacked on.
Games shouldn’t need to tick all the boxes, they should be a creation that stands by the merits and ideals that it was built upon. Unfortunately, we’re of a videogame age that seems to dictate that if a game doesn’t have multiplayer it’s somehow less valuable to both publisher and player.
Frankly, that’s bullshit.
Image above taken from Vanquish.
Source (quotes): Gamasutra