Over the course of the past week or so, I've had the opportunity to tackle three PS3 exclusives; Uncharted 2, Naughty Dog's follow up to their prolific 2007 action adventure title, Demon's Souls, a tough-as-nails niche action RPG, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, a new take on Ryu Hayabusa's previously 360 exclusive outing.  As it sounds, these games are all quite different from each other, yet they all propagate the same reoccurring issue that has taken the HD generation of consoles by storm, specifically the PS3.  Each one of these games has some sort of co-operative element to them, allowing you to take up arms with players from all four corners of the world!  Well, except for the sucker sitting next to you in your own living room. 

As with every new generation of consoles, developers have been quick to embrace new technological advances, most clearly seen in graphics department, though it isn't just limited to that, either.  In the 32-bit era, CDs brought more storage space, allowing for developers to pack there games with expansive FMVs and audio tracks.  During this HD generation, online multiplayer has rapidly become the new modus operandi, with publishers making multiplayer an almost mandatory bullet point on the back of every game's box.  This encourages players to keep their copies of games, preventing them from being sold into the second hand market, from which publishers see no money.      

The problem comes when this is coupled with the massive graphical leap this generation has made.  At this point in the current generation's life time, games are now pushing the graphic capabilities to their respective consoles max.  Thus, they simply don't have the resources to easily allow for a second(or third, or fourth) player.  Instead of downgrading their graphics or refining their code, developers simply make their games multiplayer online only.  The PS3 has fallen especially victim to this.  PS3 developers often claim their games can run 'only on the PS3'.  Games like MGS4, Killzone 2, Uncharted, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 and a bevy of others all have online play, but no local multiplayer to support it.