How are you qualifying Returnal as a commercial failure when SIE themselves came out and said they were satisfied with the game's sales? You think they lost money on it or something? Also in what world was Ico a commercial flop? SCE at the time probably never expected GT numbers from that type of game, and it served other importance such as bolstering the PS2's library at a time it really needed some bolstering. Big reaches on your part to put those two in that list.
Returnal didn't sell like it was acclaimed. As for it being fine internally at the studio or not, sure, Sony can be happy for the "indie" idea. Compared to the GAAS bleeding money, they probably saw Housemarque as a drop of water in the ocean comparatively. This game was also bundled so reported numbers are quite pathetic all things said.
But it still didn't sell like it should've. Otherwise
most games in the list would have just met the bare minimum of it sold enough to not be a financial hole or even covered costs of making it. But publishers do not make games just to cover costs, do they? Otherwise most of the studios that are on the list of games above would have not changed direction to something completely different after their last flop or downright close.
Ico, I’m surprised I even have to show receipts where were you during those years?
The VP of Sony's Japan Studio, Yasuhide Kobayashi, has revealed that its forthcoming title The Last Guardian was given …
www.gamesindustry.biz
“ICO sold about 270,000 units in the US, but Kobayashi explained his belief that it could have performed better: "If the packaging was designed differently, we think it would have sold more - in fact on the internet many people have said that the Japanese version was better."
You know you are difficult to please when two of the industry's favorite games, ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, aren't good enough in your eyes. Fumito Ueda has
elder-geek.com
“I think the problem is different,” discusses Ueda, “I believe the issue is with the product. The fact that
Icoand
SOTC didn’t sell well is because they weren’t good enough. They didn’t have enough to appeal to users…
The Last Guardian wants to learn from this. I’m making the game so that it’s appealing, with the hope that many people will give it a try and love it.”
As for your general point, yes, it holds true, but a lot of these games can be broken down into specific reasons why they were commercial failures.
Earthbound: Offbeat JRPGs at a time when JRPGs weren't even that popular in the West
System Shock 2: Bad timing, caught in the post-QUAKE & Unreal environment, and coming right before Half-Life would steal a lot of its thunder
Grim Fandingo: Bad timing and possibly many still thinking it was a pure point n' click, a genre that was dying by the late '90s
Okami: Very late PS2 release just as 360 was launching and gamers were transitioning to that, PS3 ('06) and Wii (also '06)
Sunset Overdrive: Failed marketing by Microsoft and XBO acting as a commercial bottleneck. Also not a game appealing to most of Xbox's core audience at the time.
Psychonauts: Lack of marketing and stiff competition. Also a victim of platformer saturation at the time.
Shenmue: Was a massive money sink ($70 million) for a game meant exclusive to a console with niche install base (Dreamcast)
Could've touched on a few others but that's probably good enough.
So timing timing timing marketing
Like I said. Larian is high as a kite on success but they might have lucked it out. There’s more than just “be good”. Exactly my point.
Nowadays you need streamers and flock mentality for high CCUs. If YouTuber goblin kings and their short attention span Gen why twitch chatters aren’t jumping up and down with a game stream, its put aside.
www.videogamer.com
Larian does a lot of things right and very few things wrong (if at all). Players respect that.
