4A Games’ Metro series has made a name for itself as one of the few remaining narrative-driven single player franchises in the first person shooter space since its inception in 2010, and each new instalment in the series has doubled down on that. However, as was recently revealed when 4A Games were acquired by THQ Nordic’s holding company Embracer Group, the studio is also currently working on a multiplayer experience in the series.
As talented as 4A Games obviously are, there is always a bit of skepticism when single player-centric franchises try and explore multiplayer opportunities, and with Metro, there are some who could be a bit worried that it’ll just feel like a forced, generic online component in a first person shooter. That, however, is something that the developer is intent on avoiding.
Speaking recently in an interview with VGC, 4A Games executive producer Jon Bloch said that a multiplayer Metro experience is something 4A Games have been prototyping for a while, and that they want to make sure that it’s done right and doesn’t feel tacked on.
“We’ve dabbled in these thoughts in the past,” he said. “Prototypes were made but never really got anywhere. We wouldn’t want to just make a generic multiplayer for the sake of doing it. And we wouldn’t want something to feel tacked on just to tick a box.
“Additionally, we appreciate that having a multiplayer mode takes an entire team the same size as the single player experience, and just as much time. Doing both at the same time would require some significant changes, and most importantly we would not want to sacrifice the quality, scope, or experience of the single player experience of Metro for something like this. If we did explore this further, it would need to be done right.”
Meanwhile, the next mainline entry in the Metro series is also currently in development. Read more on that through here.
