Are Big Games Actually Great?

Gaming’s favorite dependable marketing bullet point

I’m still working my way through the huge, dense world of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, propelled by its story and fun combat. PS5 Pro screenshot captured by the author.

I’ve seen it argued over and over again online by both professionals and enthusiasts that gamers are completely tired of huge games. Apparently, they no longer want massive worlds to explore, or maps filled with icons and quests, or stories that can potentially last over a hundred hours. According to this set of views, there’s just too much open world fatigue out there, and this can sometimes also dampen the fortunes of the latest and greatest release.

If you look at achievement percentages across different platforms, you might find some evidence to support this case. Big games are often not finished by the vast majority of their purchasing audiences. Completion rates approaching fifty percent are quite good, actually — with many players giving up long before reaching the halfway point of the latest large adventure.

And yet, big games continue to sell comical numbers of copies. Vast open single player worlds filled with content, endless survival games with randomized play spaces, and ongoing infinite live service games like Fortnite rake in the dollars. There are sometimes exceptions. Star Wars Outlaws didn’t do that well last year even with its big name IP and large set of worlds to explore, and I saw everyone blame “Ubisoft fatigue” alongside usual…