Wed, Mar 13, 2013 | 15:24 GMT

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons’ Fares: lengthier games don’t necessarily equate “value”

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons’ Josef Fares believes many games last longer than needed, becoming tedious in the process.

Speaking with Eurogamer, the filmmaker said some game could have “three or four hours” taken out easily, and a game’s length shouldn’t be extended just to add “value for the money.”

“I feel many games have come to a certain point where you feel that you could have taken away three to four hours easily,” said Fares. “If you play Max Payne 3, after one hour you’ve played the whole game. They just only change the setting. I love Rockstar, but what?

“Why should we ask how long a game is? The question should be is it a good game or a bad game, not how long it is. This game is as long as it has to be. If it’s 20 or one, it doesn’t matter.

“Who cares about value for money? You never question how long a movie was – people say they put this money down and they want value for their time. But value for your time is if I get three really good hours, that’s value for my time. Then I can do something else. It’s not that I replay ten hours of shit.”

Fares said his and Starbreeze’s Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons will only last around the three to four hour mark, and within that timeframe, “everything you see, it happens only once.”

“We could have made it ten hours if we wanted, but it’s important to keep the player curious, and on a journey,” he said. “It’s not a bad thing to be short if it’s strong.”

Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons is slated for PSN, Steam, and XBL in spring 2013.

15 comment-trail-alt Posted in: 505 Games, Action, Adventure, Development, PC, PS3, PSN, Steam, Xbox 360, Xbox Live
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15 comments

#1

Cobra951
13/03/13, 3:33 pm

This again? For full price, you need duration *and* quality throughout the experience. It’s not either or. If you can only muster 5 hours of quality play, fine! Sell your effort at a commensurate price, say $10.

#2

Hcw87
13/03/13, 3:39 pm

What bullshit. If a game is good, then the longer it is, the better. Also about movies, who would want LOTR or The Hobbit to last 1.5 hours? Noone.

#3

DrDamn
13/03/13, 4:02 pm

@1
“Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons is slated for PSN, Steam, and XBL in spring 2013.”

@2
The good for 4 hours does not necessarily == good for 8 hours or more. If you can’t keep the gameplay fresh then longer =/= better.

#4

SameeR_Fisher
13/03/13, 4:15 pm

This is BS, I am not paying 60$ for 2hrs game, or even 6 hrs game, at least give me a 12hrs game, you get my respect for giving me 20hrs, It is not my problem if you lack the creativity to make a long game.

#5

DrDamn
13/03/13, 4:23 pm

@4
He’s not talking about a $60 game, Brothers is a PSN/XBLA/Steam release.

#6

OrbitMonkey
13/03/13, 4:31 pm

Quality over quantity, not a popular phrase amongst some eh?

#7

Djoenz
13/03/13, 4:41 pm

@5&6
It doesn’t matter how good the game is if the game is too short I wont buy it full price.

And btw this statement seems to be about games in general and not their own game.

XBL/PSN games tend to be short thts acceptable but this mister Fares is talking about games in general and I think thats utter bullshit.

Best games should have 20+ hours for story minimal imo. How many hours does ME games have in general for story? Now thats quantity and quality hihihoho.

#8

Djoenz
13/03/13, 4:52 pm

Especially his statement about Max Payne 3 wow…. I loved max payne 3 and after one hour of playing Rockstar only changed the settings? Uhmm hello story???? What an ass. He could have been more subtle with his lame statements.

#9

nollie4545
13/03/13, 5:11 pm

What a complete cock. Yeah, sure mate, you want gamers to pay for every hour of play, you tosser.

#10

rusty_shackleford
13/03/13, 5:47 pm

I think a game can be 1 hour long or 100 hours long. It depends on the game and story(if any)

The more you offer your customer the better though, I’ve never heard an actual gamer say these new 4-6 hour long games are ‘too long’, that is some BS marketing right there!

I’ll make a note to not buy this.

#11

OrbitMonkey
13/03/13, 5:49 pm

^ Wut? Every dev wants gamers to pay… It’s how they get to make more games… And eat and stuff :-/

Besides he has a point. I love Mass Effect 1, but theirs a good few hours of filler, were your driving that Mako around.

#12

Djoenz
13/03/13, 6:24 pm

@11 thats nonsense. Those are optional side quests. You might consider them fillers but I rather have fillers than the lack of content. Besides I loved exploring those planets to collect ores etc. even though you didnt get anything good from them it gave a little explanation about why you should collect rare metals. Also you even get a bonus in ME2 if you import depending on how many metals you got. The medals from corpses even had minor backgrounds about them.

Supporting this is basicly justifying short games tht will eventually be filled anyway but by DLC.

#13

Djoenz
13/03/13, 6:26 pm

Like honestly I wanted to buy Dishonored but yeah I’ll wait till its supercheap. It got new DLC btw. Im the kind of gamer who doesnt buy those games full price.

#14

Dragon246
13/03/13, 6:34 pm

I wonder why people are commenting here without READING THE DAMN THING.
Its a downloadable game. Depending on price and re-playability value, it could easily be worth it.

#15

xxJPRACERxx
14/03/13, 8:02 am

If a game is too long, even if it’s really good, I just got bored and never finish it. I like to see the end of games I play.

8 hours minimum and 18-20 hours MAX is good for me. Perfect is 12-15 hours.

BUT, in open world games like GTA and RDR since sometime I just wander around the 20h MAX don’t applied.

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