Atari ditching single-player games

President of Atari parent Infogrames Phil Harrison has suggested that Alone In The Dark will be the publisher’s last ever single-player game.

Harrison and Infogrames CEO David Gardner have both previously made allusions to a future based on ‘social’ gaming – and of Atari becoming leaders in the online gaming space.

In an interview with Gamasutra, Harrison was asked:

‘Based on statements you’ve made, I get the impression this might be the type of title you’re going to be angling away from – this large-budget, core title. You’ve spoken about a desire to do more social kind of gaming. Does Alone in the Dark represent a sort of swansong for that kind of thing at Infogrames/Atari?’

He replied:

Swansong is probably not the right word, but I think Atari is part of an industry in some transition from pure packaged media to an online business model and social communication and community model. If we are part of that transition, perhaps we are going to take a slightly aggressive, leading-edge role in that transition.

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I don’t see that we’re going to be making huge-budget, single-player games in the future. Now, that doesn’t mean that we won’t have ambition to do really incredible games that have high quality, high execution, and high innovation, but they won’t be one-player, narrative-driven, start-middle-end games."

Atari’s Alone In The Dark is due for release on June 20th on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC and PS2.