New Vegas Developer: Most Players Don’t Finish Games, So Don’t Make Them Bigger

Josh Sawyer, a well-known game developer who worked on several large RPGs during his career, including Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, and also developed smaller Pentiment, recently posted a new video answering questions from gamers. In it, the developer said that, in his opinion, the scale of a game isn’t as important as whether the player enjoys the experience.

The developer said that though some people play games to finish them, most, including the developer, don’t worry too much about finishing the story. Overall, it’s more about enjoying the process, and reaching the finish line is not that important.

Sawyer also hopes developers won’t aim to make games larger than Skyrim or The Witcher 3, as fewer players would complete them. Making games 6-8 times bigger than Skyrim or The Witcher 3 would lead to a drop in quality because of such scales, games would start looking less unique.

Sawyer is not opposed to large titles but rather emphasizes that their size should not detract from the enjoyment of playing them. The developer believes the secret to success is simple: games should be engaging, non-repetitive, and not rely on the grind.

You can find the full video here. Previously, Josh Sawyer said New Vegas has death claws and Cazadores early in the game to show it’s not as easy as Fallout 3. “You can’t just slide all over the map and not feel the heat”. Learn more here. 

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