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Highguard Debuts on Steam with a peak CCU of 97k and 21% positive reviews
- Thread starter LectureMaster
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Nydius
Gold Member
But if it was free, I think the numbers would be worse than Highguard since at least Highguard has an hot redhhead and Concord...
I disagree, somewhat. I think if Concord had launched F2P it probably would have followed the exact same trajectory as Highguard. Mainly because people can't resist rubbernecking at a train wreck. I imagine a whole lot of people would have jumped in on the first day or two just to see if it lived up to all the internet negativity, then dropped it as soon as they realized it did.
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Timberwolf25
Member
They probably don't have the luxury of other sources of income since they are a brand new company.
simpatico
Gold Member
All the big gaming press are tweeting and writing in support of it. Concord advertised a lot with the same outlets. When are publishers going to figure out that they no longer have any influence? This will be the 6th or 7th AAA flop that every arm of the gaming press supported with full force. How can they still charge for advertising? Who signing those POs at the pubs?
RafterXL
Member
They only exist to push this nonsense. They know they are irrelevant to what is supposed to be their audience, so now they pander to developers for attention.
Same person wrote every one of the headlines, and there are more just like it:
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
The crazy thing is it's not like the studio was given no time or money to make it either.That shit is 100% by design.
They prioritized diversity, "body positivity", and thwarting the male gaze over designs that people actually like and want to play as. That studio was filled with activists and spineless yes-men afraid to say what everyone is thinking. Never has a studio deserved to fail so badly.
The game had been dev for ages and used up shitloads of budget. Problem is a good chuck of that money went to CGI cut scenes, story plot (including the Amazon clip with MORE characters) and animations which I think everyone will agree are top notch. Silly stuff ate up so much of the money, they barely even marketed it. A vague trailer a year back that resembled GotG, another trailer 3 months before launch and a beta test 2 weeks before launch. Thats it.
So aside from DEI characters, the entire studio didnt even realize MP shooter fans dont care much for story or character select animations.
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MayauMiao
Member
simpatico
Gold Member
But why do pubs still pay for it if it no longer works? The games they pump up aren't selling anymore.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Game companies got to use up that marketing budget, and some gaming sites will always cave in for the almighty dollar. About a decade ago the marketing team at work would present they got YT influencers to promote the product. The ones they talked about were $5000. So give them $5k, cases of free product and whatever graphic assets they need to make the video slick and those influencers will plug anything.
The way marketing budgets work at companies is if you dont use it, you'll lose it. So the marketing managers spend all of it to the last dime. If they are trending throughout the year they dont use it, then the finance team notices and tells execs there's lots of unused marketing/advertising budget left. If there isnt a good reason to use it up, the execs will scrape it back to the corporate bank account. And for next year or next project, the lower marketing spend used up the lower the starting budget the marketing team gets next period since the bar just got lower.
So to max out budget for every year or project, a marketing or brand manager needs to blow the wad and hope nobody notices it's spent on dumb shit. Every marketing team needing to explain their spends in front of the room with their fancy powerpoint will put on a dog and pony show with crazy nice animated powerpoints telling everyone this, this and this are great places to spend the budget.
For those of you who dont sit in big board room meetings discussing various topics, one thing ALWAYS holds true. The marketing team's presentations are always the coolest looking slides presented with the biggest smiles on their faces.
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Bonfires Down
Member
After jerking off for 9 hours straight, I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Currently at about 12,700 at 1:00 UTC time. Last night at the same time it was about 19,300.
Going by what people posted from last night, it bottomed at about 6,500 middle of the night. So tonight it'll probably tank to about 4,500-ish if the % drop trend holds true.
Going by what people posted from last night, it bottomed at about 6,500 middle of the night. So tonight it'll probably tank to about 4,500-ish if the % drop trend holds true.
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Not a single appealing character to look at, like 3 are basic af at least, but that's nothing, it's like these devs never understood the concept of players actually caring about the characters they have (and want) to use for hours upon hours
Someone who actually tried this TRAASH can say if these characters had different skins, clothes and stuff like that besides basic colors like in the old school fighting games?
A trashcan robot with pronouns, lmao...
TintoConCasera
I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
I think Overwatch nailed the formula on release: all the dudes looked cool and most girls had a very nice ass.
Plus they were quite "cliche" but who doesn't want to play as a cyborg ninja, or a cowboy, or a big knight? Characters in those other games have nothing going for them, no appeal.
Hari Seldon
Member
I just don't understand how these games get made in the first place. Who is investing millions in making gaas shooter #432?
I love making a description of the characters in Concord.
You have:
-trash can robot
-Purple haired alien furry thing that certainly posts on Resetera
-The most generic white guy ever put on an sci-fi game ever
-girl using an blender as a helmet
-girl that looks like it is using the big head mode from the 90s and a rocket launcher
-Big Blue babboon Groot
-Mushroom Groot
-Green Yondu
-The asian girl who is the only beatiful person in the entire fucking game but her costume is basically an burka
-The girl with an cap that almost looks cool but her costume makes her look like an hobo
-The black guy who tried too hard to look cool
-The 70s villain woman from an very bad movie that had no money for costumes
-The fat dude that should've been using those chairs from Wall-e
-A fat black woman that looks like it have an shitty personality that was added because why not add another one?
Highguard will be long forgotten in an year. But these dudes from Concord, they are eternal in being so bad. Nobody will remember anyone from Highguard other than maybe the guy with the Neymar hair.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Tech and gaming always have deep pocket corporations and investor funds. Media in general too with big budget movies and TV shows (She Hulk $225M for 9 episodes).
As long as some game or movie director can convince whomever is acting as master banker there's giant money to be made with a game, gaas, or a movie and the corresponding Walmart toys, there will always be people willing to listen.
Most of the people holding the money probably have no clue what's really going on, but they just trust a bunch of people with an idea and some powerpoint charts presented in a room are good enough to commit. It's really no different than the avg stock investor jumping in and buying shares and all they got to look at are some old financial statements as a trend. Many probably dont even do that because most people probably cant even understand balance sheets and income statements. But they trust if you commit some cash on a whim, the stock price will just go up.
What they probably do in gaming and movies is convince the board..... "Well, shooters make lots of money right? Fortnite and COD make billions right? Well, if you invest in our project as long as we can carve out 1% of what they do the value will be xxxx millions. All we got to do is get 1% which is totally achievable!"
The above sentence are the types of claims I've seen myself in meetings where the marketing manager makes a claim like that against the industry leaders when they pull up the industry revenue rankings from an AC Nielsen chart (now called Cricana). But it's even bolder because they'll claim they can get 10-20% like it's no problem. And most of the time.... you you guessed it. Not even close.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
First think I thought of when I saw the green guy was Hipster Shrek.
The character itself doesnt even make sense. An alien dude, speaks perfect English, has an Earthy name like Lennox and uses a cowboy pistol. wtf?
Fake
Member
Cyberpunkd
Member
Because the Marketing Dept. at the publisher is staffed by the same type of people as those that write those articles for PC Gamer.
Cyberpunkd
Member
You mean by the end of Feb?
Tertullian
Member
I do feel bad for the developers. They don't seem egregiously ideological or self-righteous as with Concord or Veilguard.
But nobody forced them to spend years making the most generic-looking, sweatiest game imaginable in a genre that everyone has been sick to death of at least since Overwatch 2 shat the bed. We can't stop these developers from surrounding themselves with yes-men and betting their careers on the Russian-roulette-with-5-bullets of making another tired GAAS game. We can't save them from themselves.
winjer
Member
I don't remember a game that has dropped so many players, this fast.
It might be a new record.
TintoConCasera
I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
We could have had Titanfall 3 or something just as cool instead of whatever the fuck a Highguard is.
PeteBull
Member
Concord was like hitler of videogames, extremly unprofitable hundreds of milions of usd lost since it only made dunno 1m usd in revenue or not even that.
Game can flop hard even if it makes 10x(so 10m usd) or 100x(100m usd) more revenue than concord, its still peanuts compared to modern day AAA game from western dev studio for the simple reason they got crazy high budget
PeteBull
Member
They all soldout to publishers years ago, bro, noone of those professional journos has any gamers interest in mind, they are pasically e-prostitutes selling their soul and creditibility to the highest bidder, those young bimbos on yachts of rich old farts- reviewers/journos are basically same cathegory just mentally since they cant sell their physical boddies like bimbos can
Dr.Morris79
Gold Member
Oh no
What a shame..
Oh well
Now where was I, oh yeah
What a shame..
Oh well
Now where was I, oh yeah
Cyberpunkd
Member
This time it will be different! Our game will not fail like all the others because we have 60 people from Respawn that made Apex Legends, and that is printing money machine, dear Investor.
Cyberpunkd
Member
They know gaming press doesn't have any influence with hardcore gamers, but it can still sway casuals. So they will pay for coverage, maybe an award or two, and then tweet about it. Hey, I think Rogue Trader is a better RPG than BG3, but guess who got more coverage?
PeteBull
Member
24h peak is still over 12k, once its down to under 5k game gonna be dead and burried, currently its drowning and grasping at straws aka those positive/encounraging articles from prof journos, but we all know no1 believs those sellouts anymore, no1 did with concord, veilguard and all other failied games
The only reason game's peak ccu isnt below 1k currently- its f2p so ppl hear how bad it is and they wanna check for themselfs, but likely even that will stop coz there is only so many dissapointed gamers, give it a month after launch and we gonna reach concord numbers.
Next standard move for such a terrible projects is for devteam to announce roadmap btw, lets see if we get this annoucement in upcoming days/weeks or devs abandon it like concord even before that xD
Dr.Morris79
Gold Member
Revolutionary
Member
New games tend to peak on their first weekend, but this one peaked on day one. I expect a small bump during the weekend but it's not getting close to 97k.
Cyberpunkd
Member
D-2 8am: 11 174 players
D-1 8am: 7 872
Today 8am: 5 514
Looks like we are dropping approx. 30% per day. Tomorrow it should hit 4k.
D-1 8am: 7 872
Today 8am: 5 514
Looks like we are dropping approx. 30% per day. Tomorrow it should hit 4k.
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Moridianae
Member
It'll have a small jump with weekend curiosity still around, but I don't see it being very large. Maybe 20k? Maybe?
It's dropping by a % each day; I give it at best a week before it's completely tapped out.
It's dropping by a % each day; I give it at best a week before it's completely tapped out.
Angry_Megalodon
Member
What is disturbing and hurting the industry is the amount of money thrown into these projects that clearly are not meant for gamers but for dumb investors. The audacity of these devs deserves to be punished. The investors who support these games instead of more innovative ones or better aligned with the market tastes also deserve to go bankrupt.
I feel no sympathy for people who treat their potential fanbase as zoo monkeys. Give us something better than peanuts or get rekt.
Cyberpunkd
Member
Yeah, I would actually agree pretty hard with this take. Imagine that money would have been spent to make some epic action adventure game or to fund several small innovative projects that do not need that much money to break even. Instead we are getting another generic hero shooter in an incredibly crowded market because the studio heads did a terrific job at pitching the potential (as improbable as it was) upside of capturing that Fortnite or Valorant market share. Fuck that.
HeisenbergFX4
Gold Member
There are times people deserve to fail and lose their jobs, get these people out of this industry especially people with agendas
Game development does seem to be hard, you are right but those who can't hack it needs to find a new line of work
TintoConCasera
I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
As consumer we shouldn't reward mediocrity, and we owe nothing to the devs. If the studio closes then shit luck, should have made a good game instead.
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Madserb2023
Member
It's not a bad game, it just very average. However, unlike single player games, you are in direct competition with games like Fortnight, Battlefield 6 etc. People have limited time and the aim is to pull people from those games. Can't be done unless it is amazing. I am sure Marathon will follow the same fate. Resident Evil 9 doesn't have to worry about gamers still playing Silent Hill F. I actually think that now something like Titanfall 3 with a great campaign would be more successful in the current climate.
Majima Everywhere System
Member
I haven't played it, held out some hope. But from what I saw there was a lady saying baddies every time an enemy player was spotted, and each character looked more and more like a concept collage.
I don't see how it even got 100k to try it.
I don't see how it even got 100k to try it.
Neon Xenon
Member
The only real attention PC Gamer ever seems to get now is when they post "articles" with stupid, fuckass headlines meant to grab easy clicks via shitholes like Twitter or trying and failing to play defense for games like Highguard that are the target of deserved criticism.
I stopped reading PC Gamer after what feels like a decade ago, and their quality still seems to be so low that it's not worth trying to distinguish the difference between what might be clickbait or what could simply be really stupid opinions.
Calling Highguard "mid" or "mediocre" is the most charitable thing I could say about the game after playing it myself. It wasn't worth any sort of hype, and so many aspects of gameplay from more focused, better games being smashed together makes it less than the sum of its parts. "Undercooked" is the right word to describe this game. Mara is hot, at least.
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simpatico
Gold Member
Any living creature is going to be happy it's sensors still work. If not, it would compromise our ability to provide for ourselves and remain employed. So many people felt it was plain to see that no one would want to play Highguard. When actual experience confirms the assumption, of course people are going to be pleased with themselves. I don't think it takes a really savvy video game consultant to watch that trailer and know it won't be popular. Tell me this Oz, why is an average GAF poster better than the financial consultants at EA, WB, Ubisoft, Sony and Microsoft? I don't think GAF has been wrong about a sloppa floppa yet. Our chudliest chud could have saved them billions of dollars and countless jobs.
"Hey that's a terrible idea, don't make that".
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Cyberpunkd
Member
ChuckeRearmed
Member
But why?
Apparently Twitch viewers rather watch animals doing nothing than playing Highguard.
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
It does seem like investors are easily tricked by older game designers with a track record of success.
Though, this was probably greenlight after Valorant which was a huge success.
Cyberpunkd
Member
I mean - you have fucking penguins and this turd, I would watch the sneaky fuckers as well.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Sadly, they're going to embellish the emotional side of Logan, I feel. Going a bit too far with 'on the nose' eye-rolling tropes instead of the complexities and nuance from the earlier comics and film.
I hope to be proven wrong.