Shen also cited a "secondary trend" of extremely difficult third-person combat driven by games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring, as well as the inclusion of survival-crafting mechanics inspired by Minecraft, which pile on more to do without adding much in the way of meaningful content. The net result is that "a large section or growing section of the audience is becoming fatigued at investing 30-plus, 100-plus hours into a game."
Presumably as a result of that growing sense of fatigue, Shen said we're seeing a "resurgence of short games." Most people don't finish games that are 10-plus hours in length, he reckons, and that splits a game's community between those who've finished it and those who played the first five hours or so and moved on to other things. Citing the example of Mouthwashing, an indie horror game that clocks in at just a few hours, he said "the community engagement around the story of Mouthwashing is only possible because everyone who is a fan has actually played through it all the way to the end."
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Former Starfield lead quest designer says we're seeing a 'resurgence of short games' because people are 'becoming fatigued' with 100-hour monsters
Will Shen says people already have huge, open-ended games they like, so it's tough for new ones to find room.