Loading bars in video games were fake: creators admit it

Imagine this: you're 12 years old, playing your favorite RPG, and a loading bar appears before the next level. You watch it progress, slowly. "Not long now," you think. Lie.

Decades later, developers have admitted what many suspected: loading bars were an illusion . They didn't reflect actual progress, but rather moved at an arbitrary pace, designed to reassure the player while the game did its work behind the scenes.

It all blew up when content creator Alasdair Beckett-King posted on X (formerly Twitter):

“They should create loading bars that move at the actual pace of progress.”

What seemed like a humorous comment sparked an avalanche of responses. Developers like Mike Bithell and Raúl Munárriz confessed that, indeed, those bars weren't real . They were a visual illusion to keep the player entertained or feeling in control.

The answer is simple: user experience . Static screens with predictable progress were less frustrating than waiting without context.

• Avoid impatience : an advancing bar, even if false, gives the impression that the system is working.
• Disguise long times : In the days of optical discs, loading a new map could take over a minute.
• Narrative Control : Loading screens were used to display tips, lore, or simply to breathe between battles.

Bithell admits that “jerk bars” are more honest, as they better reflect the moments when the system is actually working.

Nowadays, with the widespread use of solid-state drives (SSDs) and background loading, classic progress bars are disappearing.

Modern games use techniques such as:

• “Infinite” elevators in Mass Effect to hide the load.
• Interactive hyperspaces in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor .
• Micro-cut animations to simulate loading while hiding the actual process.

Developers have become more creative and less reliant on the static bar , which now seems a thing of the past.

Not quite. In some cases, such as the shader build at the start of the game, actual loading is shown , accompanied by exact numbers. But in most cases, the bar was a psychological tool, a means of controlling player perception. A little pious trick , one we've all accepted for years.