The player experience debate seems to be the topic that divides co-op fans the most. Is the story experience so important in some games that a complete absence of co-op is acceptable...or even a necessity? In the case of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Naughty Dog thinks so.
Director Justin Richmond told Joystiq recently that adding a sidekick (or two) to the single player campaign would be adverse to the experience that they are creating for series fans.
"That's just not something we want to do. As a company, it's kind of something where we've said that's not the kind of story we're trying to tell. When you put a second player in the game with you, it changes your feel of the game -- it's not you experiencing it, it's you with somebody else."
To those who place production value below co-op on the priority list, this is disappointing. Especially given that the campaign will include at least one AI-controlled character that accompanies Nathan during gameplay.
"Allow me to assist you. My name is Mist. Mist Opportunity."
However, Naughty Dog has shown strong commitment to the gamer populace in the past, both with the three-player standalone cooperative mode in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and also with their ongoing support of the competitive multiplayer modes. According to Mr. Richmond, story-based DLC is not something that the studio is heavily considering -
"If we felt like it was financially correct and we felt it was right to do, we would totally do a story-based extension. But usually, what ends up happening is that the story is really tight, and adding in extra levels and stuff messes with the flow."
- which leads us to speculate that any post-release downloadable content has a good chance of enhancing the multiplayer modes. Including co-op.