Шутер Concord, у який вклали $400 млн, торік у вересні дебютував з піком 697 одночасних гравців. Firewalk Studios / Sony
The latest survey Midia Research shows that gamers have less and less time to play games, with two-thirds of PC and console players spending only about 10 hours a week.
Looking at the individual figures, 36% of console gamers spend less than 5 hours per week gaming, while PC gamers spend slightly more than 40% for the same period of time.
The report notes that these figures can explain the decline of AAA projects (among other problems), as players simply do not have enough time to «hang» in a 100-hour RPG.
«Game length has become a tricky game over time», — Midia Research notes. «There were more and more games every year, and then, in 10 years, there was a crazy jump in their duration».
Previous reports have also noted that limited playing time is one of the reasons for «stagnation» Game Pass and PlayStation Plus at higher levels, as gamers do not have time to cover the vast majority of titles presented there; and also emphasized the negative correlation between the duration of the game and its completion (this can be easily seen in the data on trophies and achievements).
As an option for solving the problem, developers can — give players a choice of how they play the game (such as in Avowed by Obsidian(where the story can be played in variations of 15 or 40+ hours) or initially focus on shorter projects that, given the time constraints of players, are more profitable today, the report concludes.
«Of course, there should be big role-playing games lasting more than 100 hours and expensive, high-budget projects. But not every one — just like in Hollywood, where not every movie needs the same budget and scope as the MCU flagship»
Source: Midia Research