video games average wait length

[fallacy]

I have been wondering what is the proper time in years for a video game to take to be complete and sold to the public. modern warefare did not take that long to have a series only one or two years apart mw1 was released in 2007 mw2 was released in 2009
and black ops was released in 2010 didnt take that much time between them but.The elder scrolls have a much longer time span between each other morrowind was released in 2002 oblivion was released in 2006 and skyrim will be debuting in 2011 and those games have 4 to 5 years apart so I just wanted to know what is the average time for a video game to be complete is it 1 to 2 years or 4 to 5 years.

[=UAL=Shock&Awe]

A proper game takes at least five years to be considered complete.

[Sgt.Gotee]

I don't think it's really a matter of time.

[TheRevanchist]

Lots of factors:

scale of the game, ie: indie vs AAA title
size of developers
budget
new IP or sequel
engine used
etc


Using the games you listed as examples: the difference between Morrowind to Oblivion to Skyrim is definitely bigger compared to the difference between MW1 to WaW to MW2 to BlackOps.

[cwbys21]

hard to say, since there are so many games being made to get a real good guess, but I would say 3-4 years. lots are able to do it in 2 at the moment, especially a lot of the shooters. but you also get a lot of games that take a lot longer for any number of reasons whether it just be that the developers work slow like Valve and Blizzard or they are incompetent like 3DRealms and Duke Nukem, or they are just making a very big game like most rpgs.A proper game takes at least five years to be considered complete.
*cough, cough* bulls hit

[Blackops]

It depends on the game. Sequels don't take near as long as a game starting from scratch. Bigger games also take longer for obvious reasons. A simple puzzle game may only take a year or two while RPG's and FPS's usually take at least 4-5.