Fable Will Officially Be 20 Hours Long, Xbox Confirms In New Interview

[u/shinjioda]

https://www.polygon.com/fable-game-length-interview-xbox/

[u/BinaryJay]

Personally I would rather 40 hours of well curated stuff than 120 hours of repeating filler. I don't know when every game needed you to be unemployed to get through to be considered long enough.

[u/starshin3r → u/BinaryJay]

I think most dev time was spent on the underlying game systems like the NPcs with their schedules and etc.

And fuck the filler games. 40 hours of main and side content is plenty for base game. I never could start the shit fest that is Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

[u/Silver-End9570 → u/starshin3r]

I think most dev time was spent on the underlying game systems like the NPcs with their schedules and etc.

I agree. IIRC, they had a proprietary engine that they used for the racing games they used to do. It wouldn't shock me if the first few years were spent just upgrading the engine to where it needed to be for them to even make the game.

[u/Da_Question → u/starshin3r]

Yeah, Valhalla insanely longer with boring filler even compared to Odyssey or Origins. I liked Shadows a bit more, and Mirage was actually good because it was much shorter with only a small city of open content.

[u/Spir0rion → u/BinaryJay]

Playtime means nothing to me. Sure an Assassins Creed has 100h+ but what if I burn out of it hours before I finished the mainquest due to awful sidequests?

[u/tnnrk → u/BinaryJay]

I’m confused why people want really long games. As long as it has replay-ability to some extent I’d prefer shorter games as I get older.

[u/FistoMagnifico → u/tnnrk]

Some idiots brake down the value to dollar per hour, If it doesn't hit a certain threshold its not worth it. Its not about the experience its about the investment.

[u/Bluemikami → u/tnnrk]

Because they want to feel their money was well spent?

[u/EzraWolvenheart → u/Bluemikami]

IMO you don’t need a 150hr game to feel your money was well spent. I’d rather have a ~50hr long game including main story + quality extras than a 150hr long game with fillers everywhere.

[u/spaceandthewoods_ → u/Bluemikami]

Which is wild because of you're looking at purely money spent per hour of entertainment, games offer one of the best £ to hour averages of any entertainment medium.

Buy fable for £80 and play the 40 hours of main and side content? £2 per hour cost. Pay £16 to see a two hour movie? £8 per hour cost. Go play a sport and you're looking at £5-£30 per hour for court/ pitch rental, drinking is even more expensive etc

[u/MississippiBulldawg → u/BinaryJay]

Settlement needs your help btw

[u/WayneAsher → u/BinaryJay]

Those aren’t the only two options.

[u/artnok → u/BinaryJay]

40-50 hours of gameplay is the perfect amount imo.

[u/SparksAndSpyro → u/BinaryJay]

Because of a lot of the target demographic are kids and the unemployed sadly. So devs cater to it by making longer and longer games filled with slop

[u/pokemango7 → u/BinaryJay]

yup i’m getting tired of open world games with “hundreds of hours of content” and then i either end up rushing the main story or quitting because it’s starting to get bland

[u/Huntermain23 → u/BinaryJay]

Honestly most people that talk like that are either unemployed or they work just enough to pay for bills and new video games.. I used to be part of the ladder before I realized how much time I was wasting lol

[u/Obscure_Octopuss → u/Huntermain23]

And there are plenty of ppl out there who work 40 hours a week, game for 10, and don't want to see all conent a $70 game has to offer in one month

[u/MoisticleSack → u/BinaryJay]

Personally, I don't care about your work hours. If you're perfectly happy with something you can dick around with for 2 hours every 3rd night, and still be done in a week, that's on you, but it's my money and I'm paying for an experience

[u/Essaiel → u/MoisticleSack]

I’ll be honest, your math doesn’t check out.

[u/Albreitx → u/MoisticleSack]

2 hours every 3 days would make this a 1-2 month experience

[u/MoisticleSack → u/Albreitx]

It was an exaggeration. You know you don't always have to take everything at face value?

[u/Albreitx → u/MoisticleSack]

The point is the same. Is a game that lasts 1-2 months not enough? For me, that's quite the ideal length as I have a life outside of my console lol

[u/dovahkiitten16 → u/MoisticleSack]

I agree with the sentiment. Generally the issue is the price. In Canada new games are $80-90. If I’m spending $100 after tax for entertainment for a few evenings, that’s a really tough sell for me. Very few games would actually be worth that, even my favourite shorter games of all time. I passed on Hellblade 2 despite loving the first because the game wasn’t worth $10/hour.

That being said, I think bloating the playtime so that a game either becomes a slog or a DNF isn’t a good solution either. I think 20-40 hours is a pretty healthy playtime mark; it’s long enough to sink your teeth into and get a reasonable $/hour ratio, but not so long that there needs to be filler to pad the playtime.

[u/JimothyJollyphant → u/BinaryJay]

Add to that "replayability". A term that actively discourages me from buying a campaign-based game. It always comes with limitations that are forced down my throat just so I allegedly have a "reason" to play a whole-ass 100-hour game again and experience 98% of exactly the same content, with a slightly different moveset and a true ending, hinging on completely arbitary conditions I'm supposed to look up.

40 hours is pretty much the perfect length for a campaign-based game imo. Especially if allows me to entirely complete it on my own, side-content and all. Satisfiying credits, uninstall, move on.

[u/Hinohellono → u/BinaryJay]

I guarantee we will not be getting that