To co-op, or not to co-op: that is the question. Developers have recently acknowledged that gamers actually like to play together, but often miss a valuable point. Many co-op modes are simply that: modes within an otherwise single-player game. Brink developer Edward Stern gets passionate about his co-op, wondering why we can't have the best of all worlds more often!
"It's just inane. You get games shipping with separate executables, a completely different experience, sometimes a different control scheme. Why would you ever do that? It's crazy now. There's no reason to do that.
It seems ludicrous that we've got this notion of completely separate online, offline, single-player, multiplayer. That's in the past. There's no reason to put up with that anymore."
Splash Damage seems to have the right idea; It's great to play a game alone - But, it's also nice to have co-op in the same story context, as well! Co-op and single player really should be interchangeable, giving gamers the best possible experience in whichever situation tickles their fancy most.
Source: Gamasutra.com