Since Bioware is releasing their Star Wars MMO shortly after SWG shuts down, LucasArts would want this old abomination out-of-the-way before that one releases. I don't blame them. There have been few MMOs that have gathered such hatred and discourse as SWG did after a complete game architecture "patch" mid-stride.

That isn't the reason the product has performed underwhelmingly. Here are the reality-check reasons: - Price point is still high - Screen is smaller than the previously newly-released DSi XL - No backward compatibility with previous DS games. - For an additional $100 and beyond you can get yourself a tablet or pad that plays games AND computes, browses the web, has useful applications, and extensive other capabilities. My prediction is that the portable game player market is on the decline and will only bottom out when portable tablets and pads take over the industry. Consumers want choices and they just don't get that anymore with dedicated portable game consoles. Honestly speaking, Apple's iPad has made the PSP and DS obsolete. The iPad revolutionized the portable device capabilities and drove an innovative industry to create other tablets and devices and applications that are light-years ahead of the capabilities of Sony and Nintendo handhelds.

I do agree with pretty much everything you said. I too am a mainly single-player gamer with not much attention spent on multiplayer (with very few exceptions). However, over the last decade there has been a downward trend in single player campaigns becoming shorter and shorter and streamlined to the point where you feel pushed along with no decision-making required.

Honestly? I cannot think of very many games that I've played in the last few years whose single player campaigns would have been worth $30. Maybe Mass Effect I.

You are 100% correct, however, in that companies today are bolting on cookie cutter multiplayer games to watered-down single player games and we somehow arrive at the same $59.99 the industry commands for titles.

It would be very interesting to see companies begin to separate the two and sell them as completely different SKUs on the market. I, for one, would be picking up the single player discs happily without ever touching the digital download of multiplayer on most of the titles I play.

I am a game renter through Gamefly. Why? Because I was tired of shelling out $59.99 for crappy games. I was tired of reading the paid-for over-inflating reviews of titles, only to get it home and discover that they were not worth their production costs. I was tired of an industry that had moved towards a "no demo before release" standard where I had to roll the dice on knowing what was behind the wrapper before dropping $60. And I was tired of spending $59.99 on a title to have it be beaten in 10 hours of game time and in less than a week's time take it to Game Stop and get $20 for it (and for them to resell it for $55). So now Gamefly buys all of my games for me. I rent them from Gamefly. And if I really love the game, I have the option to buy it -- which I've done a couple of times now.

Every single one of those titles are RPGs and/or have extensive online play. i.e. they have significant replay value. Try any first person shooter title that has come out in the last decade that isn't an RPG. And btw, the main storyline in Fallout 3 was fairly short, especially in light of it being an "open-ended RPG" title. Sure you could run around the world and explore, without walking into the last room, but the game lost it allure when you know the main storyline has ended. And, yeah, you cannot play your character once you walk into that room and finish the main storyline. But wait! They plan on releasing for-purchase content to continue the story...Honestly, I loved Fallout and the quality was high. But I feel like I'm paying more and getting substantially less in the way of playable content these days.