Polish developer Techland has said that shorter, standalone titles may end up being the future of the games industry. 

Speaking to GI.biz, Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektała said that he expects this type of project to become more common. Techland recently announced a new standalone entry in the Dying Light franchise, called The Beast. Smektała says that this type of game makes sense for a few reasons. 

"The first one is the perspective of the player," he said. 

"I understand that for many players there is a [fascination] about the number of hours the game offers. But then as players get older, as the world around us gets more and more intense, and as we have lots of things that steal our attention, if you have a game that you have to play for 50 to 100 hours to complete, it's really difficult to find time for that, right?

"For me personally, it started changing around the time of Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey. They were so long — I'm a super hardcore, dedicated Assassin's Creed fan, but when I realized I have played Odyssey for 100 hours and I'm not even finished it… With real life happening around you, it's very, very hard to get that commitment."

He continued: "There's some kind of inertia in the industry and that [obsession] about the number of hours a game can offer," he says.

"I think it's actually something that we'll see more of because the industry will see this as another way they can offer meaningful interactive entertainment to players. This might be a part of the future of games in general."