Players don't finish huge games, so GTA veteran's new project will be a 20-hour complete experience priced at 60 bucks
Leslie Benzies is betting on player engagement. We'll soon know the base to begin the multi-year development of the MindsEye franchise.
Leslie Benzies' ambitious project, the former developer of the Rockstar Games studio, has already caused mixed emotions among players. MindsEye, which is set to be released in just 10 days, has surprised with high expectations, worried with negative test results from journalists and online creators, and attracted negative comments after allegations of paid hate towards the title, issued by one of the general directors of the Build A Rocket Boy studio.
However, Benzies seems to ignore this, adding fuel to the fire in an extensive interview for GamesIndustry, where he referred to the unique specifics of the gaming industry. His opinions may divide players.
One of the most important points of the conversation with the GI journalist turned out to be the topic of the length of the game:
So you've got the MindsEye campaign, and yes, it'll be about 20ish hours. But you do have all this other side content: there's going to be this continuous stream of content.
These days, there are so many different options for people. It's not just games: there's streaming TV, so many good shows out there. I don't think you can have filler content in games. I think people want the meat, and they want the potatoes. We've tried to make as much meat as we can, if that makes sense.
I think that's a good length for a game. What you also find through data, is that [with] big games, people don't play them all. The majority of people – 60% or 70% of people – don't actually play games to the end.
The time needed to complete the game campaign isn't the same for everyone, so there's also been talk about the game's price in relation to that. Benzies presents it, referring to the relation to the content:
On price: the world's in a funny place. People are worried about the price of eggs. So value for money, I think people appreciate that when times are difficult.
At this moment, we are able to pre-order MindsEye on is focused on long-term development:
[The studio] will the game through Play.MindsEye, with continuous new content. Some of the content, like races, are made just for fun. But [with] most of the content, we'll try and incorporate it into the story. So once you've played the big overarching ten-year plan, you'll have a very good idea of what this universe looks like.
We have plans to add multiplayer, [and] we have plans to make a full open world. And of course, we've also got to look at what players are creating, and incorporate that into our plans. Given the ease of the tools, we think there's going to be a high percentage of players who will jump in and give it a pop, see how it feels. Hopefully some will create compelling content we can then promote and make that part of our plans to push to other players. [...]
It depends on the scale of the story. Some will be free, and some will be paid.
The ideas presented here are in line with the optimistic and ambitious approach to expanding the brand that has been promoted from the start of the project. In less than 2 weeks, we will find out how the community's first reception will the hopes of the gaming industry veteran. Before we experience many years of and engagement from players, we must await a successful release.
