These are difficult times for the video game industry—and that’s putting it lightly. Normally, when faced with a rat king of existential threats involving tastes, economics, and generational turnover, I’d be the last person to subscribe to a simple solution. But in this one instance, I think I’ve found the silver bullet everyone’s been desperately scrambling to pick up off the floor: Make all games 15 hours long (or less).
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This is a companion piece to ‘I Love Luxuriating In A Long Ass Game’
Let’s start with the easy part: This would immensely improve 99.9 percent of games—single-player and/or co-op games, at least. Far too many games begin with the assumption that players are looking to get their money’s worthy loaded with padding
I would’ve finished the 2018 God Of War reboot, which I really enjoyed, if it wasn’t 30-40 hours long. Most of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth could’ve been an email. I have what I call an “OK, I get it” point that I hit with everyFar Cry and Assassin’s Creed where I feel like the mechanics have largely unfurled themselves, and everything else I do beyond that point will be a repetition of what I’ve already done before. Wanna know when that occurs, almost without fail? At the 15-hour mark. Resident Evil 4 is very nearly a perfect video game. Guess how long it lasts. That’s right: very nearly 15 hours. The appeal of co-op games is exploring new landscapes with your friends; they don’t need to last longer than 15 hours. Friendslop games, especially, are thimble-deep and a dime a dozen. They’re spiritually 15-hours long already.
You might tell me that some non-FFVII Rebirth JRPGs—or more systems-driven Western counterparts like Baldur’s Gate 3—benefit from longer runtimes. I’m here to reply: nah. I still haven’t finished Baldur’s Gate 3, and though I did complete its predecessor, Divinity Original Sin 2, I did so for review, and by the end I wasn’t sure I loved or hated it because I just wanted so badly for it to wrap things up already.
I’ve already said it once this week, but I adored Trails In The Sky 1st Chapter; I still spent the last 15 or so hours wondering when it would finally end. I love hanging out with party members and all, but that could have been such a tighter, more affecting story without all the standard JRPG fluff—the fetch quests, the multitude of “Oh, so-and-so isn’t here after all” moments, etc. There’s no getting around it: Many video game stories are bad, but within those too-long tales are shorter, better stories. Cut the rough, give me the diamond.
Depending on genre, I think many people—at least, those of us with jobs, lives, responsibilities, and possibly families—would agree with some version of this argument: Games should be shorter, for all our sakes, and a lot of games would benefit from it on a basic quality level. But, you might reply, most regular people only buy a few games per year, or they’ve been sucked into the infinite vortex of a forever game like Fortnite, Roblox, or Grand Theft Auto Online. What I’m advocating for is simply not practical.
And so, this is where I propose something more radical: When I say all games should be 15 hours or less, I mean all. The rest should be eliminated.
I’m aware that this sounds extreme, but consider the alternative: The video game industry continues in its current death spiral, with only those few forever games surviving while indies die on the vine and triple-A publishers make a feast out of their own tails. If we simply destroy the forever games and mandate that all games from now until the end of time must be 15 hours or less, this will incentivize people to purchase more than just a few per year, thus solving everyone’s problems. Nobody wants to spend $70 on another Call Of Duty or Maddenrehash anyway. They will be gratefulthat they get to spread those dollars between a plethora of inventive indie games on Steam—where the meta, if you’re not a triple-A publisher, is already to price your game well below $70 anyway.
Meanwhile, triple-A games, no longer burdened by the need to win an arm’s race against forever games and each other by giving themselves the longest possible legs, will become significantly cheaper to make. As a result, there will be no need for eye-popping price tags or exploitative microtransactions. Now, whether C-suite types will act accordingly, that’s another matter. Does this plan require a revolution of the proletariat to fully succeed? Maybe, but we’re overdue for one of those anyway.
And really, can you argue with the results? By making all games 15 hours long or less, I just saved the video game industry and, with it, the world. I sincerely doubt that Gita can offer you anything so lofty. Vote Grayson 2028 (if we are still allowed to vote by then).
It’s Hater Week here on Aftermath. This week we’re letting the hate flow through us by examining what it means to be a hater (and… a lover?), venting about some of our biggest pet peeves in games and life, and giving others a space to do the same.
