inFamous length "still to be determined"

By Tom Bramwell Published 17 November, 2008

Sucker Punch still hard at it.

Sucker Punch hasn't worked out how long its openworld superhero game inFamous will eventually be despite (admittedly jokey) reports to the contrary stemming from our live interview with Nate Fox last week.

Poor old Fox had simply been answering a handsome question from a handsome person about whether long games were sustainable in the current climate of rising dev costs and falling share prices, and he said - citing GTA IV and God of War - that "it seems to me that it's not about length, but about quality", going on to add that inFamous will place the highest value on quality, obviously.

This led to suggestions around about the internet that inFamous might not be very long, but speaking to Eurogamer today publisher Sony refuted this. "inFamous is still in development at Sucker Punch," it said, "and the game's length is still to be determined."

The full game is due out next spring, and you can read more about how it's shaping up in the transcript of our live interview with creative director Nate Fox. Although try to then avoid going on forums and claiming it's going to be full of child-abusing marsupials or something. Goodness.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Triggerhappytel #1 3 years ago

    As long as the quality is high and it has significant replay value (which, as an open-world game, it really has to), I don't mind a short-ish game. Anything over eight hours is fine.

    Really looking forward to this; I like Sucker Punch a lot and hope it doesn't dissappoint!

  • Dizzy #2 3 years ago

    Length is indeed very overrated on the Internet forums. As long as the game is good and has (online) replay I am happy.

  • penhalion #3 3 years ago

    Between the lines translation service

    "Oh dear...people really were not happy with a sandbox game only lasting 8 hours! Not happy at all.....What stuff can we add to extend it?"

    :)

  • Artemus #4 3 years ago

    These days, I'm quite happy with a 8-10 hour game.

  • Triggerhappytel #5 3 years ago

    @ Dizzy - I don't think this game will have any online features. I don't know if Sucker Punch have discussed this element yet, but I just don't expect it will. Co-op would be perfect, though (incase the improbably-named Nate Fox is reading!).

  • rock27gr #6 3 years ago

    Are they still a Sony-exclusive developer? And is that through choice, or are they second-party or something?

    Also, is this a platformer-style game (Sucker Punch's specialty) or something totally different?

  • lambtron #7 3 years ago

    inFamous Length.

    Fnar Fnar.
    Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

    etc.

  • Triggerhappytel #8 3 years ago

    @ rock27

    They are, Infamous is a PS3 exclusive (Sony probably own the IP but I don't know that for sure) and I believe it's the only game they have in development right now.

    I think people's opinions differ on the classifications, but I once read an interview with Kuju who called themselves second party to Nintendo when developing Batallion Wars - Sucker Punch are the same, as they are not owned by Sony but have very close ties and funding from them.

    And Infamous is basically going to be the PS3's Crackdown, or similar to Assassin's Creed/Prototype (except you get superpowers). And it looks marvellous, can't wait for it.

  • menage #9 3 years ago

    Pffffffff, speculation this and that, why is it so important for this game? Tons of games last 6-10 hours.

  • Les #10 3 years ago

    "Pffffffff, speculation this and that, why is it so important for this game?"

    Because this is the internet and it concerns an exclusive... ;)

  • dsmx #11 3 years ago

    If you make your single player game less than 10 hours you better not charge full price for it unless it has huge replay value or has multiplayer.

  • SEVQA #12 3 years ago

    child-abusing marsupials = Knuckles the echidna

  • CunningLinguist #13 3 years ago

    I agree, a good example is Uncharted. Had I paid full price for that game I would have felt a bit cheated. As amazing as the game is you can't expect to charge full price for something so short. But as a platinum title I think it is worth every penny. The same will probably be said about inFamous.

  • penhalion #14 3 years ago

    Are a lot of you guys serious?

    The reason the 6 - 8 hour timeframe concerns people is because this is being touted as a superhero sandbox style game. Is anyone seriously trying to get others to believe that a sandbox game that has only 8 hours of gameplay in it is a good thing?

    Clearly there is no actual sandbox gameplay in there if the game is that short. This makes the whole "Explore the city" premise either

    A) a complete lie.
    B) The city simply doesn't have anything additional activities to do, beyond the story elements!

    If it's the former, then the developers are in for a very rough ride. If it's the latter, then the game is simply miles from being done!

  • Les #15 3 years ago

    Why a discussion about game length for a sandbox game?! The length depends on how much you like to do wandering and simple, repetitive mini-games over and over again.

  • penhalion #16 3 years ago

    @Les

    Why a discussion about game length for a sandbox game?! The length depends on how much you like to do wandering and simple, repetitive mini-games over and over again.

    Hu?

    Have you played any GTA games or Crackdown or Saints Row?

  • Triggerhappytel #17 3 years ago

    I was under the assumption that our discussions were only with regard to the main story quest, not including the side-missions. If there really only was 8 hours' total play for a supposed sandbox game then it would be a travesty.

    However, eight hours for the main quest would be absolutely fine, with perhaps twice as much again for side-missions. None of this is including elective exploration or general messing around and time wasting, though.

  • penhalion #18 3 years ago

    @Triggerhappytel

    Yep that's why people are wondering what is going on. From the interview with the infamous dev guy and other info they have released. There doesn't appear to be anything other than the main quest. You save people who have been injured during your battles with the villains and go around town from one confrontation to the next trying to figure out what happened.

    Sucker Punch have always avoided answering the question of "What else can you do in the city?". People are starting to realise that maybe sucker punch didn't actually plan anything else for you to do at all.

  • NinjaWilliams #19 3 years ago

    I found MGS4 way too short, great production value but not enough gaemplay left me hankering for more!...

  • Les #20 3 years ago

    "Hu?

    Have you played any GTA games or Crackdown or Saints Row?"

    I've played Vice City, half of San Andreas and around 10 hours of Oblivion and I've come to the conclusion that I absolutely detest open world/sandbox games. If that's the future, I don't want to be part of it.

  • 3william56 #21 3 years ago

    I thought there was a whole bunch of side quests saving people a la Spiderman games?
    (As long as it's done a lot better than Spidey, which no doubt SuckerP could handle easy).

    I'm hoping that there's a secret plan to nick Resistance 2's online engine, and have 64 superfreak superpower supersmackdowns online. Not gonna happen, obviously, but would be nice to have a arcadey console CoH.