Batman: Arkham City's Marketing Manager Dax Ginn has told GamerZines that the game can be completed "in about 8 hours" if players stick "to the core narrative path", but that "exploring and trying new things adds a lot to the experience and the game time".

"It's really hard to say with any specific quantity because everyone's different," said Dax when we asked him whether the open world setup of Arkham City would give the game a longer playtime than the relatively linear Arkham Asylum.

"Our QA guys can straight-line it - so not doing any of the side missions and just sticking to the core narrative path - in about 8 hours. If you're exploring and trying new things, obviously that adds a lot to the experience and the game time. I would say for a normal player who knows their action adventure games, between 20-24 hours.

"We don't want to make these huge games that take a huge chunk out of your life. We want to tell an amazing story that you can really enjoy and not feel like you've got to take six months off work in order to get through it.

"It's great that those sorts of games are out there, but for us, we want to make sure the experience is really high quality. Filling out gameplay time with frivolous collection we just thought, let's not do that."

Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to 2009's award-winning Arkham Asylum. Unlike Asylum, the game uses an open world structure to let players explore the entirety of Arkham City from the moment they start the game.

Batman: Arkham City is due to release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in October. You can look out for our full interview with Dax later in the week.

http://www.gamerzines.com/ps3/news/batman-arkham-city-8-hours.html

@OP

Strictly speaking your thread title is true, but I still think its a little misleading...

"We don't want to make these huge games that take a huge chunk out of your life. We want to tell an amazing story that you can really enjoy and not feel like you've got to take six months off work in order to get through it.

"It's great that those sorts of games are out there, but for us, we want to make sure the experience is really high quality. Filling out gameplay time with frivolous collection we just thought, let's not do that."

Thats what matters to me. I do not know why people complain about short games, sometimes they feel just right. Games should be as long as they need to convey their story and give you time to enjoy the gameplay elements. I enjoyed the first so I will probably be getting this also.

you forgot to bold the "Our QA guys can straight-line it," part ...

20-24 hours to do everything? rofl, bullshit. Developers and publishers always make up some absurd claim, in reality it's probably 12 hours.

Have you played it?

stop using walkthroughs or collectible guides then.

point if making it open world or action adventure is telling lots of content. and the longer the better.

I can't wait for this game I loved Batman Arkam Asylum but I have one question: Will it come out for wii?

bet i can't plat it in 8 hours lol