If Ready at Dawn co-founder Ru Weerasuriya could have changed one thing in the development of the PS4 exclusive game The Order: 1886, he would have allocated more time for its creation. In a new interview, he revealed that the studio was forced to cut approximately 30% of the game`s content just months before its scheduled release in February 2015.
Speaking with The Game Business, Weerasuriya expressed hope for a sequel to The Order: 1886 and reflected on the reasons for the game`s lukewarm critical reception. He noted that the game`s length, which was widely discussed (a reviewer, for instance, completed it in 6 hours), became a major point of contention. “We cut, I would say, 30% of the game a few months before release. The decision was made to release it within the allotted timeframe. If we had a chance to do it again, I would probably have tried to find a way to extend development,” Weerasuriya stated.
A week before the game`s launch on February 20, 2015, a leaked playthrough of The Order: 1886 appeared on YouTube, showing a user completing the game in five hours. Shortly after, Ready at Dawn denied this claim, stating that the game`s true length was approximately eight to ten hours.
Weerasuriya also touched upon the absence of a multiplayer mode in The Order: 1886. “We did work on multiplayer in the first year of development, but we didn`t have the budget and time to finish it, and together with Sony, we decided to scrap it in year two, hoping to bring it back in a sequel,” he explained. “We had a functional multiplayer. It was fun.”
The sequel never materialized, even though Weerasuriya mentioned having “the story for the second and third one” ready. Sony indeed delayed The Order: 1886 in May 2014, pushing its release to 2015.
Another Ready at Dawn co-founder, Andrea Pessino, also recently reflected on the fate of The Order: 1886. Like Weerasuriya, he noted that the pressure to release the game on schedule led to content cuts. In 2020, Facebook acquired Ready at Dawn, but subsequently closed the studio last year.