Ex-PlayStation boss Shawn Layden says that time is a more important factor than cost in the modern day when it comes to games.
A lot of major releases these days end up trying to be massive behemoths designed to keep you playing for an endless amount of time, be it a big live service game like Fortnite or just a huge open world like Assassin’s Creed Shadows. And with games becoming more expensive, the prospect of paying $70 for a five-hour game does seem like a tough sell. However, former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden doesn’t really care for unnecessary bloat in games.
While speaking to Player Driven, Layden spoke about how longer games with unnecessary padding are becoming less appealing to players as they grow older and more of their time is filled up with work commitments or becoming a parent. “I don’t need you to spend 100 hours on my game,” Layden said, adding, “I want you to put down the controller after 20 hours and have sweaty hands.”
Ironically, some of PlayStation’s games have become culprits of this very problem, with The Last of Us Part 2 and God of War: Ragnarok being substantially longer than their predecessors (made more exhausting in The Last of Us’ case since there’s barely a moment that’s not miserable in that game).
Layden praised Astro Bot for this, however, saying, “they [Team Asobi] have endless technology they can use. Draw distance to forever, and all the memory a person needs. But they made every level nice and tight.”
Layden added, “a feeling that we’ve kind of lost – in some gaming – over the last five, six, seven years is the idea of completion.”
