Another multi-million copy selling flop

[thebobmaster]

Well, it seems that despite selling over 4 million copies, the Guardians of the Galaxy game is considered a flop by Square Enix.

Square Enix Says Guardians of the Galaxy Sales Fell Below Expections

According to Square Enix, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy video game failed to live up to the company's sales expectations.

www.superherohype.com

That said, they are apparently planning on expanding sales to make up for the "loss", rather than simply writing it off as a failure.

Game publishers, if your game is selling literally millions of copies and is still considered "below expectations", I'm thinking the problem isn't with the game.

 

[BrawlMan]

Well, it seems that despite selling over 4 million copies, the Guardians of the Galaxy game is considered a flop by Square Enix.

Square Enix Says Guardians of the Galaxy Sales Fell Below Expections

According to Square Enix, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy video game failed to live up to the company's sales expectations.

www.superherohype.com

That said, they are apparently planning on expanding sales to make up for the "loss", rather than simply writing it off as a failure.

Game publishers, if your game is selling literally millions of copies and is still considered "below expectations", I'm thinking the problem isn't with the game.

History repeats itself. I honestly don't care, because Squeenix has been full of shit the pass decade and a quarter, and they continue to do so. The game did well, you imbeciles just want all of the money in the entire universe.

​

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

The game did well, you imbeciles just want all of the money in the entire universe.

Per quarter.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

So let's say a rough estimate of 240 million dollars in revenue. I have no idea how much it costs to make a game these days, but it feels like it definitely was profitable. I guess they were just expecting to make billions just because the MCU is so popular. I don't know why they still think that, when that hasn't been true for more than a decade.

 

[Dalisclock]

Per quarter.

InFiNiTe PeRpEtUaL gRoWtH.

 

[meiam]

To be fair the licensing fee for marvel game must be insane, add to that the marketing and development and it might really be a case where the game barely recoup its cost.

Does square enix ever say things like this about the japaness branch game? It seems like they're constantly underwhelm by eidos game sales but are just silent when the jpn game bomb hard, hell when FF14 was complete shit they rebooted the game, but do you see them doing the same for deus ex, noooooo.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

.......... The hell? *cough* Back in MY day, we'd consider a movie tie-in game selling that much to be a miracle itself!

 

[Chimpzy]

Might have turned out better if Squenix hadn't previously eroded tons of trust and hype by botching a game based on probably the biggest, most desirable IP on the planet.

.......... The hell? *cough* Back in MY day, we'd consider a movie tie-in game selling that much to be a miracle itself!

The game is not a movie tie-in. Neither was Avengers. Tho you can be forgiven for thinking they were, what with all the legally-disintinctive-from-MCU designs.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

This is just what Squeenix do. If it don't sell final fantasy numbers, they go and have a capitalist sob about it. I'm sure if they integrated more of them lucrative NFTs in the games though...

 

[BrawlMan]

The game is not a movie tie-in. Neither was Avengers. Tho you can be forgiven for thinking they were, what with all the legally-disintinctive-from-MCU designs.

Specter's point still kind of stands. It is based off of a licensed property. Back in those days especially, many publishers and developers would kill for those type of numbers.

 

[SilentPony]

I think the problem game suits have is they assume Marvel Game = The MCU. Guardians of the Galaxy made $800 million in the box office, therefore a video game with the "ticket" sale being $60 should make more. And at 4 million copies, $60 a pop, that's $240 million. Yeah I can understand why some idiots who convinced themselves they were making MCU video games would find that disappointing.

 

[BrawlMan]

Yeah I can understand why some idiots who convinced themselves they were making MCU video games would find that disappointing.

Then they're even bigger fools for expecting such goals, for such a crappy game. Even if the game is actually good or didn't have all the DLC bullcrap, they still wouldn't have reached that $800 million. Slimy and ungrateful bastards as always.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Might have turned out better if Squenix hadn't previously eroded tons of trust and hype by botching a game based on probably the biggest, most desirable IP on the planet.
The game is not a movie tie-in. Neither was Avengers. Tho you can be forgiven for thinking they were, what with all the legally-disintinctive-from-MCU designs.

Eh, I know that it's a think outside of the movies but we all know that this game wouldn't exist without the movie and is meant to attract people that know these characters from the movie.

 

[Chimpzy]

Specter's point still kind of stands. It is based off of a licensed property. Back in those days especially, many publishers and developers would kill for those type of numbers.

Eh, I know that it's a think outside of the movies but we all know that this game wouldn't exist without the movie and is meant to attract people that know these characters from the movie.

Well yeah, like I said, they had a shot at The Avengers. Ok, not The Avengers, what they had was more like Kirkland Avengers, but still The Avengers. Basically a license to print money if they had played their cards right. But they fucked that up. Badly. And it seems like for once people remembered cuz I remember hype for Guardians being pretty low. People probably saw another superhero team game from the same dev and publishers as Avengers, and I guess assumed it would be more of the same. Which it by all accounts isn't, but they didn't know that cuz imo the marketing for it was lackluster and did little to dispel those fears. Until after release window of course, when word got out it was a different and much better game, and only then did it slowly start getting sales.

Might end up one of those games that flops on arrival, but turns profitable from long tail. Tho if Squenix intended it to fill the hole left by the Avengers debacle, well, all the best luck. Even more so if it needs to fill the void in executives where real people have hearts.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Well yeah, like I said, they had a shot at The Avengers. Ok, not The Avengers, what they had was more like Kirkland Avengers, but still The Avengers. Basically a license to print money if they had played their cards right. But they fucked that up. Badly. And it seems like for once people remembered cuz I remember hype for Guardians being pretty low. People probably saw another superhero team game from the same dev and publishers as Avengers, and I guess assumed it would be more of the same. Which it by all accounts isn't, but they didn't know that cuz imo the marketing for it was lackluster and did little to dispel those fears. Until after release window of course, when word got out it was a different and much better game, and only then did it slowly start getting sales.

Might end up one of those games that flops on arrival, but turns profitable from long tail. Tho if Squenix intended it to fill the hole left by the Avengers debacle, well, all the best luck. Even more so if it needs to fill the void in executives where real people have hearts.

*sigh* It sucks how much the success of something is based on perception over what it actually is, in all aspects of life. Kinda reminds me of how DMC3 sold worse than DMC2 despite being a clearly superior game.

 

[BrawlMan]

People probably saw another superhero team game from the same dev and publishers as Avengers, and I guess assumed it would be more of the same. Which it by all accounts isn't, but they didn't know that cuz imo the marketing for it was lackluster and did little to dispel those fears. Until after release window of course, when word got out it was a different and much better game, and only then did it slowly start getting sales.

I didn't buy Guardians, because the gameplay is not interesting. I just don't want to play as Quill, but the other Guardians as well. I don't want them to be command assists a la Atreus. It's one thing, when it's just one support character following you, another when you have a full team. Ultimate Alliance 3 got this right. I know my brother enjoyed Guardians, but he's already done with the game at this point. Also, the game is a pain in the ass to play without copyright issues and copyright strikes. You can't enjoy any of the good songs during a watch or live streaming playthrough, because of all the copyrighted songs. Thanks again you dick wad music corporations and Twitch sucking your genitals happily for it!

 

[immortalfrieza]

Might have turned out better if Squenix hadn't previously eroded tons of trust and hype by botching a game based on probably the biggest, most desirable IP on the planet.

You would think the MCU itself would've taught the Entertainment Industry as a whole including video games something. The MCU showed a formula that should have shown that this same crap the industry is pulling is counterproductive.

The MCU's formula is:

Step 1: Make a good and faithful comic book adaption.
Step 2: Make 50 gajillion buttloads of money.
Step 3: Make another good and faithful comic book adaption.
Step 4: Make even more buttloads of money since both your audience comes back because they trust you will make good stuff and word spreads that the stuff you make is good.
Step 5: Go to 3.

You would think at some point the video game industry would get the hint, but not even the movie industry as a whole seems to have gotten the hint.

 

[SilentPony]

You would think at some point the video game industry would get the hint, but not even the movie industry as a whole seems to have gotten the hint.

The crazy part is how ripe for video game adaptation Marvel, and comics in general, are. Avengers? Group of 4+ players with different abilities, make it third person, make it a zombie horde game, make the zombies robots, and you've got an Age of Ultron related game.
There would be more to it than that, but I watch MCU movies and I can clearly see gaming set pieces.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I bought the game on Steam and shortly into it, I ran into what I'm pretty sure is a bug. I just couldn't walk past a certain part. It was under the 2 hours so I just refuned it.

I bought it because it was discounted, which surprised me so shortly after release for a title with such a big brand.

This is a game that is a classic case of- sure, it looks cool, I'll play it if it's not too much trouble. I like the Guardians movies, I don't have great love for comics or these characters, so it's like... whatever. I will play it someday and, yeah, $30 feels about right.

But it's weird it's a "flop" for a good game with popular characters that sold a lot of copies. I don't know how to feel about it- on the one hand, it's such a deeply original game that my inner-Yahtzee is like "hahah, good!" but the casual gamer in me is like "but I want to play space cowboy pew pew with rock tunes!"

 

[immortalfrieza]

The crazy part is how ripe for video game adaptation Marvel, and comics in general, are. Avengers? Group of 4+ players with different abilities, make it third person, make it a zombie horde game, make the zombies robots, and you've got an Age of Ultron related game.
There would be more to it than that, but I watch MCU movies and I can clearly see gaming set pieces.

The problem is the same problem that has befallen almost every licensed game ever: The developers and publishers don't care. It's not that it's difficult in the least, any more difficult than it is to make a video game in general anyway. It's just that they're just looking to sell copies solely based on the name and thus don't put any actual effort into making the game itself good. There are exceptions of course, like the whole Batman Arkham series and games that take after it, but for the most part the entire IP could be burned to the ground and these people don't give a crap so long as they make a little quick cash.