Metro: Last Light goes single-player only

Tense post-apocalyptic first-person shooter Metro: Last Light will be a single-player only game, developer 4A Games has announced.

Publisher THQ announced a multiplayer component at E3 in June, but this has now been ditched.

In a blog post on the Metro website, the development team explained that reaction to the E3 demo helped convince it to shove all resources into making the single-player shine.

"Throughout the development of Metro: Last light a small, dedicated team had been working on a number of multiplayer prototypes," 4A Games said.

"After E3, we decided to fold this multiplayer team back into the main group and focus 100 per cent 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."

4A said it may return to Metro multiplayer after Last Light releases, and for that reason it won't talk about what it was going to involve.

So, why commit to a multiplayer mode in the first place?

"We are gamers at the studio and really wanted to bring the world of Metro to life in a multiplayer environment," the developer explained. "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!"

4A said it didn't get to the point of full production on the multiplayer, so the single-player has not suffered. The game is still on course for release early 2013.