News of Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed Infinity" project got fans talking about the lengthening playtimes in the top-selling series. But there's no sign that Ubisoft or any other big company plans to make their new games shorter.
The big picture: The conventional wisdom in the games industry now is that the longer people play a game, the more likely they are to pay for additional content.
- For multiplayer-centric games like "Fortnite" or "Call of Duty" new content can keep players coming back, but so can the social connections and competitive urges of what amounts to playing a competitive sport
- "Fortnite" = golf for less rich people, basically.
- For single-player series, keeping players in the game is harder, but Ubisoft clearly believes making "Assassin’s Creed" longer is the way to go.
As "Assassin’s Creed" games have gotten longer, Ubisoft has given players additional outfits, ships and other accoutrements to buy in-game, as well as lengthier additional storyline campaigns that can be nearly as long as the early "AC" games.