The Divergence of RPGs

Eurogamer had the chance to talk with NCsoft community manager Stephen Reid about the RPG genre and where it's going in the future. In it, they talk about both single player RPGs and MMORPGs, as you'll see below:
Q: There seems to be an abundance of MMORPGs in development, whereas single-player RPGs are quite rare. With the increasing demand of multiplayer games, will single-player RPGs eventually disappear?

A: MMORPGs are definitely enjoying a renaissance with many publishers taking notice of the prolonged success of titles such as Lineage II. However, single-player RPGs will continue to have an audience as not all gamers play to be sociable, there are still lots of players that like to play solo; although most MMOs do cater to that sector.

In future, it's likely that the in-depth, story-led experience of traditional RPGs will increasingly become part of the multiplayer experience. This is something that ArenaNet has strived to push forward in Guild Wars, which contains a strong storyline as well as excellent PvP elements. So perhaps the single-player RPG developers will just team up with the MMO developers.