Support NeoGAF

[YeulEmeralda]

Its true that dev time takes a long time. However

1 there are literally hundreds of games coming out each year

2 everyone has a constantly growing backlog

So I wonder if its really such a problem that we have to wait 10 years for the next GTA?

 

[AmuroChan]

No. It's not like I'm lacking games to play. My backlog is 100+ games deep.

 

[mortal]

Games don't always need to be dozens of hours long to justify their existence for me.
Not specifically 5 hours, but I'd love to have relatively shorter, cheaper-priced games made by studios who typically make AAA experiences.
Some studios already do this to an extent with DLC games for established IP. Still, it would be a great way to test their more experimental ideas or premiere a new IP that can evolve into a bigger, more ambitious follow-up if the smaller game is well received.

No. It's not like I'm lacking games to play. My backlog is 100+ games deep.

I'd argue that games being longer is what makes backlogs pile up. Having a game you can beat in a weekend would reduce backlogs if you're the type to buy a lot of titles.

 

[ReBurn]

I'd prefer they make fewer cinematic story driven games and focus more on delivering action and gameplay.

 

[IAmRei]

Episodic nature, also prone to failed sequel or left cliffhanger once the sales are not good enough. Please no :'/

 

[MagiusNecros]

Long or short I'd just like good games please. Thus far AAA gaming has a 85% miss rate.

 

[Wildebeest]

Different short form formats are needed, but AAA isn't it. Perhaps people would play it if a big studio dropped a short playable story in something like Fortnite or Roblox. People talked about what Microsoft could have done for a fast Fallout tie in, and an obvious answer is to have Obsidian make a surprise Fallout 4 DLC.

 

[AmuroChan]

I'd argue that games being longer is what makes backlogs pile up. Having a game you can beat in a weekend would reduce backlogs if you're the type to buy a lot of titles.

I'm a JRPG guy. So I'm very much into the long games and being invested for dozens of hours.

 

[Shifty1897]

You just described the Resident Evil Remakes.

 

[Danjin44]

it can be 10 hours or 300 hours long, all I want is satisfying experience.

 

[Dorfdad]

5 hours?? No but I would be accepting of 12-15 hour games at 39.99 remove all the side filler crap and fetch quests etc for rpg’s I know people prefer beefier longer games and that’s ok but other games are full of crap to force the longevity long after the joy is gone!

 

[tmlDan]

No, i would actually hate that lol

Especially if you keep receiving an incomplete story, it reminds me of genshin where things just drag on and get annoying.

 

[Last Hearth]

with games taking now from 6 to 10 years to make would you be happy with shorter games released in episodes, like a tv show instead of a movie
like what is done with Call of duty or Fifa but for single player games

One studio gets 2 or 3 teams working on a project each with 2 or 3 years of dev time, and you get 1 game released every year

I think your question betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of how development works.

Your question is like asking if it take 24 month to build a 20 story building, would you prefer to have the first 10 story build in 12 month and another 12 month to add the other 10 ten stories on top in the next 12 month.

That’s not how construction works and not is it how software development works.

 

[mortal]

I'm a JRPG guy. So I'm very much into the long games and being invested for dozens of hours.

As am I, but that doesn't mean you have to give up enjoying those longer/larger games altogether. It doesn't have to be an either/or thing.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Vague question and bad poll. Absolute no to episodic games, we have seen these don't tend to work well - look at what happened to Telltale. I'd like shorter games, but not typically 5 hours short. 15-20 hour games are the missing middle I'd like to see more of. 10 hours if they are arcadey and very replayable.

 

[acidagfc]

If it is 5 hours of intense gameplay and it is replayable, like Returnal for example - absolutely.

5 hours of slow walking sequences? Fuck right off.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Takes me back to when GamePass started and people predicted MS would start churning out short episodic games to fill the service.

I voted no. Not no but hell no. There are places in the industry for great short games like Hellblade 2, great games of longer length like Zelda games on Switch, and a place for longer slog games with endless busywork like Valhalla.

Also pubs would just abuse this for money. Why release, say, Elder Scrolls VI as a full length game for $70 if you can release smaller chunks over the course of a generation at $50-70 a pop? Actually just look at the FF7 remake. One game broken down into three parts at full price each instead of one cohesive experience.

 

[AmuroChan]

As am I, but that doesn't mean you have to give up enjoying those longer/larger games altogether. It doesn't have to be an either/or thing.

I won't be giving them up. I will still just play the games I want to play. This is a hypothetical question and I answered it based on my own preference.

 

[TheUsual]

This was already tried with the Half Life 2 Episodes. It didn't turn out the way it was pitched.

 

[Bernoulli]

I think your question betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of how development works.

Your question is like asking if it take 24 month to build a 20 story building, would you prefer to have the first 10 story build in 12 month and another 12 month to add the other 10 ten stories on top in the next 12 month.

That’s not how construction works and not is it how software development works.

Like call of duty does, they have 3 teams working on each game and it takes them 3 years each
But having 3 teams you can release a game each year

 

[mortal]

I won't be giving them up. I will still just play the games I want to play. This is a hypothetical question and I answered it based on my own preference.

I was just addressing your point about backlogs. Shorter/smaller games would alleviate 100+ backlogs, not add to them, that's all.

 

[Švejk]

Yes, because games have become too bloated of late. Want a decent experience but want to move onto other games. Have this little thing called a backlog that's growing bigger at an alarming rate.

 

[Spyxos]

Yeah, why not if the quality is there and not like in Telltale or Dark Pictures.

 

[Fbh]

Personally I'd prefer if we went back to most games being 10-15 hours with Ps4 era graphics if it means dev times can be reduce to 2-3 years.
I'd also like to see the return of replay value as a way to increase gameplay hours. Give me a 10 hours game that's actually well paced, gameplay focused and fun to replay, maybe with a cool NG+ mode and well design difficulties, and I can easily get 30+ hours of entertainment from it.

The problem with people only seeing value in how long it takes to beat a game once is that we end up with these bloated 30+ hours long games that need to add a lot of filler, unnecessary RPG elements and boring story sequences in order to achieve those lengths. A big reason I hardly replay any modern games is because it's a big time investment and a substantial part of it will be replay boring stuff like countless walking and talking sequences, boring on rails story sequences with no real gameplay, shit that feels like a mandatory side quest that is only there to add an extra hour of gameplay, etc.

 

[Majukun]

No.
I don't need AAA features in the first place, but i do want my games to last if i have to spend money on them

 

[semiconscious]

i'm one of those people who only bought a telltale game after the series'd been completed/bundled. so i'm thinking, no, not really...

 

[Kadve]

Im fine if they simple reduced graphical fidelity and Polygon amount. We don't need to see every bloody little detail of a world to enjoy a game.

 

[Bartski]

I'd be happy with with short 5 hours AAA games in addition to regular 20-40h+ AAA games.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

No thanks

 

[Garibaldi]

They tried this with Half-life and SiN. Look how those turned out.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I mean, there's two questions here. Episodic games kind of suck. Why would I want year+ long cliffhangers? It's bad enough as it is with TV series, and I'd argue it's worse with games because of the need to get reacclimated with the mechanics every time you start a new episode.

Shorter games, though? For the love of God, yes. Not because of dev times or anything like that just. No, because shorter games tend to be better, especially given the sheer amount of bloat and needless meandering in most modern AAAs.

 

[mitch1971]

with games taking now from 6 to 10 years to make would you be happy with shorter games released in episodes, like a tv show instead of a movie
like what is done with Call of duty or Fifa but for single player games

One studio gets 2 or 3 teams working on a project each with 2 or 3 years of dev time, and you get 1 game released every year

I remember when Value said that about the future of HL series. It took just as long to release one episode.

I remember playing an 'episode' game years back around the time of HL2. They did the first episode and then didn't carry on. Too much of a risk for a studio. Anything could happen between each game, to where the game doesn't get a conclusion.

 

[DaGwaphics]

Probably the better strategy here is to go the Insomniac route and just develop a full length game with a world that can be used a couple more times to tell additional stories. Most of the core work is getting done on the first iteration, the second will primarily be about the dialog and capture for any new cut scenes plus whatever alterations/new areas are added to the world map along with any new characters, weapons, or abilities, etc. This is the only way you get a trilogy delivered in a single generation and they can split a lot of the costs across the three titles. If you planned things out right, you could have enough changeups worked into the game play so that each release could add something to it.

 

[Evil Calvin]

We need to talk about value here, why should a 5 hour game cost the same as 100 hour jrpg, so if they want to make 5 hour games they better slash the price in half.

Pretty much any 5 hour game should be no more than $25

 

[Sanepar]

No. It would be the crap de la crap

 

[Ammogeddon]

No they can pull their finger out of their arse and do better. Maybe they shouldn’t be fucking about on scooters and playing pool in the office, or whatever nonsense they get up to. Dance for me monkeys.

 

[GHound]

Hellblade II was announced in 2019. It's not inherently a length problem.

 

[Edgelord79]

Prefer 20 hr experiences. 5 hours is a bit short.

 

[Humdinger]

I'm all for shorter, cheaper, and less bloated games. I wouldn't want a large game cut up into episodic chunks, though. I want the short games to be self-contained. And by "short," I'm thinking 10-20 hours.

 

[nemiroff]

I don't get it, why should we care about development time. If Rockstar needs 10 years to make GTAVI that's fine with me so-to-speak. I'll just focus on what's relevant now, and everything else I can't see why it would be in my purview.

 

[Majima Everywhere System]

How long does it take to make Symphony of the Night or Dark Souls? That’s all the time you get.

I ain’t paying for some chopped up games, I would just get the compilation.

 

[Arsic]

I would be happy with good games that don’t run like shit and aren’t micro transactions out the ass.

I can wait to get them.

Luckily fromsoft delivers once a year.

 

[simpatico]

In the span on 5 years, Bethesda developed Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Oh but now since we require high resolution textures it takes 8 years to make just one of those.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Fuck off, i prefer a game split in 3 parts of 8/10 hours of content ( uncharted 1 2 3 ) that only one game of 30/40 hours per generation

 

[WoJ]

AAA games just don't need to be bloat fests. 15-20 hours with good gameplay and some type of incentive for replayability (multiple endings or something, different character classes, etc.) Not every game needs to have a 40 hour main story with 60 hours of additional content.

 

[Pejo]

I don't think it scales linearly like that. Creating assets and mocap and animations all take a while. Adding more story or sidequests seems like it's relatively easy compared to building the other parts of the game, regarding game length

 

[Woggleman]

As much as people complain about long games they would complain here as well. Some gamers are perpetually unsatisfied people.

 

[Bkdk]

If it reduces it to 3 month of dev time, then sure, also they can save some time if they don’t always find ways to make girl chars look ugly.

 

[Phase]

This is how I'd expect this to go with God of War as an example:

Sony: "Hey guys we know the economy is in a tough spot right now, so here's GoW for only $50!"

God of War part 1 - initial release $50
God of War part 2 - 6 months later $50
God of War part 3 - 6 months later $50
God of War part 4 - 6 months later $50

 

[rkofan87]

no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the episodes be over just when you get into it.