Are today’s video games too long? And is this largely the industry’s concern with games that take too long to develop, that cost too much money, so that in the end, very few players play them and come to finish them? For Shawn Layden, the former boss of PlayStation, yes, and that’s a problem.
Video games are too long
The video game industry is in a fairly critical crisis for several months. The year 2024 remains to date the worst year in terms of studio closures and staff layoffs. This is undoubtedly the most delicate period the industry is going through. since the video game crash of 1983.
Of course, the post-Covid years are the main causes of this crisis. However, this is not the only factor. For Shawn Layden, the former boss of PlayStationseveral concerns affect the video game industry and explain this crisis, particularly with games that are too long which take far too time consuming and require too much investment from players. Often these games take a very long time to develop and are extremely expensive.
In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Shawn Layden returned to this system which, according to him, is less and less tenable and profitable.
With each generation, the cost of developing a game doubles. What cost $1 million on the PS1 then costs $2 million, then $4 million, then $16 million. It goes exponentially. During the PS4 generation, the last one I was associated with, developing a game cost $150 million if you wanted to be at the top, and that was before marketing. So by that math, PS5 games should end up hitting $300-400 million, and that’s just not sustainable (…) The games are too long. If only 50% of players see the end of your game, what about all the millions you spent on the final level, only to have half the people see it?
Quite interesting comments from Shawn Layden that many players agree with. Many fans explain that today, they don’t have no longer enough time to devote more than 30 hours to a single game. It will therefore be interesting to see how publishers and developers will evolve their productions in the months and years to come. For your part, do you think that video games are far too long in 2024?
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