There was a time when numerous companies in the video game space would make “compact” titles that you could pick up and put down without making major time investments. Then, there were the RPGs that sometimes would go on for dozens of hours, and you’d enjoy every minute of them. Once open-world gaming boomed, just about everyone expected games of the AAA variety to embrace that and make longer titles all the time. But there has been pushback from developers and gamers on that front, and you can count Insomniac Games among those who don’t want to “push their luck” with how long their games can be.
In an interview with the BBC, Insomniac Games lead Bryan Intihar was asked why Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was about the same length as the original PS4 game. In theory, a sequel should’ve been larger, especially since they knew where to build things up and what stuff to cut. But in a fun twist, the creative director revealed that they kept the game the same length campaign-wise to ensure the quality was the same and that gamers would have a fun time throughout:
“For us, it really comes down to the experience we want to deliver with the quality we want to hit. Obviously, there’s a certain level of, ‘hey, someone’s going to spend this much money on a game’, so we want to give them the experience that’s worth it. Our job is to make sure that you feel no matter how long it is, it’s worth that money, it’s worth that investment.”
And that’s the key that many developers forget. They’re so busy making “big worlds” that they don’t always fill it with meaningful content. Ironically, this topic is reflected in what Ubisoft and Square Enix have done with certain titles recently.
Ubisoft kept growing the Assassin’s Creed franchise to bigger heights and maps, but fans were literally getting lost in them and thus wanted them to be “scaled down,” which they did in their most recent entry to great success. Then, with Square Enix, the “remake trilogy” for Final Fantasy VII chopped the original game into sizeable chunks that could still be enjoyed in a couple of dozen hours depending on how you played things but wouldn’t overwhelm the player. Plus, they expanded on things the original game couldn’t do to great success.
There are games out there that are longer and high-quality, but not everything needs to be a 100+ hour adventure. Sometimes, you need to be high-quality but decent-sized playtimes.
