Pete Hines on the Decision to Make Wolfenstein Youngblood Co-op

During Bethesda’s E3 2018 showcase, MachineGames revealed Wolfenstein: Youngblood, a cooperative adventure starring BJ Blazkowicz’ twin daughters. This decision to make it a co-op game may mystify fans, but, according to Bethesda’s Senior Vice President of Global Marketing, Pete Hines, co-op seemed a perfect fit.

During a QuakeCon 2018 interview with VG247, Hines explained the reasoning behind Wolfenstein: Youngblood’s co-op feature.

We’re going to continue to do a variety of different things, and it’s all going to be based on what our devs want to do. In the case of Wolfenstein, it was: ‘Well, we want to do this thing where you get to play as one of BJ’s twin daughters’. We were like, ‘What’s the other one doing?’ They were like, ‘Nothing, or maybe they can be an AI companion.’ ‘Well, if she’s an AI companion, could you let somebody else play the other one?’

It’s co-op, but it’s kind of the same game, because if somebody’s not playing with you it doesn’t feel dramatically different. She’s still there, whether it’s an AI or a person. It doesn’t change the experience wholesale. It’s not like it’s Skyrim and all of a sudden some dude turns up. Ultimately, as with all things, we’re interested in what our devs think.

Following Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus’ Fall 2017 launch, additional content was pretty much expected. After all, MachineGames’ first entry in the franchise, Wolfenstein: The New Order, spawned The New Blood expansion. Yet, no one could have anticipated the Swedish studio following Wolfenstein II with a co-op adventure.

This announcement, alongside multiplayer DLC for Prey and Fallout 76 being online-only, incited worry. It seemed the publisher best known for single-player experiences was taking story-driven series and tacking on multiplayer to adapt to gaming’s ever-changing landscape. Nothing so nefarious is in the works, as Bethesda bosses have confirmed single-player remains integral to what they do.

Hines reiterated Bethesda’s commitment to story-driven games. However, he did note that single-player and multiplayer experiences can co-exist for the publisher.

We still support single-player stuff as well, or better, than pretty much anybody else out there… we weren’t’ trying to say that we only want to make single-player. That’s not what our devs want to do, it’s not what we want to do–we want to do a lot of things, including single-player.

[Source: VG247]