Bethesda Veteran Says Players Are "Fatigued" By Seemingly Endless Games

Between massive open-world games like Elden Ring and the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, or live-service titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Marvel Rivals, there are no shortage of games that can eat up players' free time. And that's why the industry may have reached a tipping point with its seemingly endless games, according to Bethesda veteran Will Shen.

Shen--who was previously the lead quest designer on Starfield--recently shared his thoughts about players being put off from jumping into large games during his appearance on Kiwi Talkz. He accepted that some of his previous Bethesda titles, including Skyrim, which "you can play pretty much forever, " may have contributed to player fatigue. However, Shen contends that the oversaturation of giant games leaves players without enough time to fully invest in new titles.

"We're reaching a point where people are fatigued, or a large section, a growing section of the audience, is becoming fatigued at investing 30-plus, 100-plus hours into a game," explained Shen. "Because they already have that. They already have the games that they will continually come back to, and adding another one to that list is a tall order. It's always a tall order."