Should short games be cheaper? According to some of the first people to play through a leaked copy of Ready at Dawn Studio’s The Order: 1886, the answer is “yes.” But the Californian game developer fired back at the criticisms, saying the game is not that short, and they did not set out to please everyone.

“It’s impossible to finish the game in that time, so we know the numbers are wrong,” Ready at Dawn CEO and creative director Ru Weerasuriya told Eurogamer. His comments are referring to YouTuber PlayMeThrough’s recent videos, which allege that the game can be completed in less than six hours.

There have also been criticisms of the game for utilizing lengthy cutscenes that cannot be skipped, making the game take longer to finish without actually adding meaningful gameplay.

“Rightfully, some people just hate cinematics,” Weerasuriya said. “Some people just hate certain types of gameplay. Some people hate navigation. The question for us was, we can’t just satisfy one group of people like that. What we want to do is give you an emotional ride. An experience. That was the long thread throughout the whole game.”

“The definition of a rental”

Despite Weerasuriya’s claims that “the numbers are wrong,” the full length of PlayMeThrough’s videos added together is around 5 hours and 40 minutes, and many gamers find it hard to justify the game’s $60 price tag for such a short experience, especially when roughly half of that play time is unskippable cutscenes.

“This is the definition of a rental,” wrote Reddit users Gboon. “You don’t need to pay $60, just rent it if they want to make a 5 hour game priced at $60.”

“So it’s a 60$, 5 hour long interactive movie? No thanks,” said another Redditor.

While $60 has been the normal price for new releases in the past, many gamers have become accustomed to high-quality games at lower prices thanks to services like Steam, as well as popular independent titles like Minecraft.

The market for video games has also grown significantly, and new games face more competition than ever. The Order: 1886 will have to prove that it is worth the cost if it is going to stand a chance against cheaper titles with more gameplay and fewer cutscenes.

Image credit: The Order: 1886/Ready at Dawn (c)