Since our E3 demo back in June, many of you have been asking about the multiplayer component of Metro: Last Light. We wanted to share some information with you, the Metro community, first.
Throughout the development of Metro: Last light a small, dedicated team had been working on a number of multiplayer prototypes. After E3, we decided to fold this multiplayer team back into the main group and focus 100% of the studio’s resources on the single player campaign. As a result, Metro: Last Light will not ship with a multiplayer component.
Your response to our E3 demo made it very clear that although there was a lot of interest and intrigue around Metro’s multiplayer, the single player campaign is what the fanbase cares about the most.
We feel this is the right decision for the game and have put together a brief Q&A with a few more details below, hopefully they answer many of your questions. Thank you for being a part of our community and as always, we’d love to hear your comments!
Q: You said Metro will not ship with multiplayer. Does that mean we might see Metro MP as DLC or a standalone release at a later date?
A: Right now we’re 100% focused on the single player campaign and not thinking beyond that. We don’t like throwing away work though, it’s a project we could potentially return to after Metro: Last Light ships.
Q: Can you tell us what the multiplayer mode was going to be like?
A: For the reasons above, we’re going to keep that under wraps for now!
Q: Why did you commit to a multiplayer mode in the first place?
A: We are gamers at the studio and really wanted to bring the world of Metro to life in a multiplayer environment. It was a decision made by us at 4A from the outset and THQ have since been supportive every step of the way, including our decision to put multiplayer on hold. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake to announce it when we did, but we’re an enthusiastic team and wanted to be open about what we were making!
Q: How much better would the single player campaign have been if you’d just focused on that right from the start?
A: Fortunately, we never dedicated too many resources to the MP component beyond prototyping – it never entered full production. By making the decision when we did, we think the single player campaign will benefit as a result.
Q: Does this decision change Metro’s release date in any way?
A: No. Metro is still on target for release in early 2013
http://www.enterthemetro.com/uk/news/game_information_uk/multiplayer_announcement_uk/
But it will still look gorgeous.