Gamers need more information — how Sony sees game design

While multiplayer GTA V and Call of Duty: Black Ops III are leading in the top sales for PS4, Sony itself says — in fact, players like single-player games much more. That’s just that users have almost no time for them. The company offers developers to disclose information about the length of quests and allow gamers to run tasks in a convenient sequence.

Sony shared its conclusions after looking at how much time PlayStation users spend at the console. It turned out that the offline gaming session is usually longer than online.

Nevertheless, single-player games are not bought as actively as multiplayer ones. Sony interviewed over three thousand people and identified key problems with offline titles.

What gamers complained about most often:

• “I don’t know how long it will take to play. I start playing only if I have more than two free hours”;”Videos with hints are too long.
• It takes a lot of time to sort out the place where I’m stuck.”;”If I actively discuss the game, I can easily run into spoilers”;
• “I forgot what I did in the game last time.
• It’s hard to come back.”
  Sony also added that only in an ideal world, gamers can play around the clock.

According to the company, in reality, people have very little free time: an hour before bedtime, half an hour between homework, a few minutes before the start of a multiplayer match.

Sony concluded that people want to play single-player games, but they simply don’t have information on how long it might take.

Against this background, the company gave two main recommendations to developers: to add to the games the ability to “jump” between quests and tell how long these quests will be approximately. This will allow gamers to run the part of the game that they have time for right now.

Sony stressed that this approach can be implemented through the “Activities” function, which appeared on the PS5. This is a set of cards in the console menu, with which you can also switch between game tasks. Nevertheless, the company pointed out that there is no universal solution here, and different games will need to look for different ways.

Also on the topic:

• Why does the PS5 bypass the Xbox Series X in tests, while being inferior to the console in powerPlayStation CEO: more than $100 million needs to be spent on the development and launch of a new IP
• Microsoft: “we are not going to deprive Sony and Nintendo consoles of Bethesda games”
• Is there any news?