Quest Designer behind Fallout and Starfield Will Shen shared that part of the audience is getting tired of lengthy games that require dozens of hours to complete.
In a recent interview on the KIWI TALKZ YouTube channel, Will Shen said that releasing titles such as Skyrim and Fallout 4 led to the popularization of big, open-world games. He noted that those games can be played “forever.” According to the developer, MMOs, such as World of Warcraft, took up the position of extensive games. Dark Souls and Elden Ring followed Skyrim and Fallout 4, becoming a secondary trend.
“Now we’re reaching a point where a large section or growing section of the audience is becoming fatigued at investing 30+ or 100+ hours into a game because they already have that.” The developer explained: “Adding another one to that list is a tall order.”
Will Shen noted that there’s currently a “resurgence of short games.” The developer talked about Mouthwashing as an example. Its playthrough takes only about three hours, which increases community engagement as “everyone who is a fan has actually played through it all the way to the end.” The developer concluded: “The shortness allows everyone to engage fully with the entirety of the product.”
Bethesda
Will Shen was a Designer behind Skyrim, Fallout 4, 76, and Starfield and has worked at Bethesda for over 20 years. In October 2023, the developer left the company and joined Something Wicked Games as the lead Content Designer of Wyrdsong.
Bethesda
Speaking of the extensive world of Skyrim, we recently told you about a player known on Reddit as ShakeMistake_, who had tracked his own real-life walking and transferred it into the game to measure the number of steps it takes to walk from Riften to Solitude. The player didn’t stop at this and checked how many steps it takes to hike up Skyrim’s 7,000 steps.
Bethesda
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