Feelings more important than game length - Pitchford

Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford has explained his belief that "feelings and experiences" in games are more important than statistics such as game length - although great games that are too short don't represent value.

Pitchford was talking in the latest edition of Eurogamer's Livetext interviews, answering a question on the length of the studio's forthcoming Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway.

"The campaign is not too short and not too long," he replied. "It's longer than Call of Duty 4. It's shorter than a Final Fantasy game. It's different for different players. When the end starts to come, you want it to come. But when you get there, you want more. It's really well crafted.

"Notice how I'm talking in terms of feelings instead of in terms of number of hours? That's important - it permeates everything we do. The stats aren't important. The feelings and experiences we have are.

"A game I'm not interested in can be 100,000 hours long and I don't care. Maybe if it was one hour and all the attention was put on that one hour, the game might be something I could get interested in... Meanwhile, if something is awesome, but too short, I don't feel value for my investment. The goal is to find the sweet spot."

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is due for release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC platforms in September this year.