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[JimmyRustler]

Sony fanboys do love their exclusive slop. SMM could call their next game "Sweet Baby simulator 2025" and they'd still eat it up coping how it is somehow not woke.

Well, they do have insane production values. I‘m a bit puzzled how they do it. Usually when devs start to do diversity hires they don’t get the top talent any more. You can see it in most woke games released in the past years.

Sony seem the be the only ones to stave that off so far. Then again, Ragnarok was a huge slog and worse than GoW and it’s been a while since ND released a new game. Guess we‘ll see with Intergalactic and Yotei.

 

[March Climber]

Go woke. Go broke.

Go sleep. Go meep.

 

[yazenov]

He‘s right though, even though some right wing manchilds think of it as the no.1 factor to decide whether or not a game is a success, outside of their tiny bubble no one gives a shit. PR has a much bigger impact and DAVs PR was terrible.

Forced DEI woke trash injected into games isn't the number 1 factor in these games flopping, Its a combination of factors that made these game sales tank. But to refuse to admit it IS a factor is gaslighting.

Jason refuses to admit that it is even a thing. That shows that he is a fucking activist and not a journalist.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

The game is shite regardless of the main character.

That's the point.

The common theme with woke propaganda games is that they're full of preaching about their shitty woke virtues, all the while forgetting to make a fun or even reasonably entertaining game.

Outlaws, Veilguard, Concord... the common theme is the games are offensively unremarkable, and in some cases downright trash.

 

[thefool]

 

[Kerotan]

Genuine question. If this game went with a macho/hetero vibe to it would it of had a big impact on sales?

 

[Cyberpunkd]

"Why these games bombs and didn't find the audience you ask? One of biggest mysteries of the universe. I guess we will never know."

 

[Majukun]

Good. Now the Sony tentpoles next please.

those will sell no matter what

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

That's the point.

The common theme with woke propaganda games is that they're full of preaching about their shitty woke virtues, all the while forgetting to make a fun or even reasonably entertaining game.

Outlaws, Veilguard, Concord... the common theme is the games are offensively unremarkable, and in some cases downright trash.

I certainly think the 'DEI' factor was a reason why Veilguard and Concord sold badly - but it's always a combination of factors. As far as Star Wars is concerned - it's a dying IP that no one cares about anymore and has been milked to the ground. And as you've mentioned, Outlaws is an awful game full stop.

 

[Mister Wolf]

 

[Sharius]

as i still willing to put on pre-order for game that has no propaganda even 6 month before it will release, like dynasty warrior origin or MH wild, but ofc they still blame single player game is dead anyway rather than modern audience is not big enough to support their idea since it doesn't fit with their narative to "own the chud" lmao

 

[LMJ]

Sony fanboys do love their exclusive slop. SMM could call their next game "Sweet Baby simulator 2025" and they'd still eat it up coping how it is somehow not woke.

I can destroy that argument with 1 word and game

SM2 sold like gangbusters due to the firsts success, almost every fan admits its weaker, the ending is nowhere as impactful and MJ went from annoying to insufferable with manjaw to boot lol
HD2 is more popular on PC and got major backlash form Sony fans until they played it and it was the new hotness
and just look at the buzz around Intergalactic hardly nothing but glowing praise

As a Sony fan the gem admis all of this was Astrobot

Point being as bloody always things aren't just black and white, many Sony fateful are moving to PC as well

 

[winjer]

This is what happens when companies gut their studios out of talent and replace them with DEI hires and propagandists.
Who could have guessed that hiring based on merit is the best way to make a good team, to make good products.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

I certainly think the 'DEI' factor was a reason why Veilguard and Concord sold badly - but it's always a combination of factors. As far as Star Wars is concerned - it's a dying IP that no one cares about anymore and has been milked to the ground. And as you've mentioned, Outlaws is an awful game full stop.

But that's what I'm saying. The DEI is not only a factor but the symptom of a deeper issue. The devs have been captured by a wave of talentless, hack activists.

That the games are Choc full of DEI pandering is a manifestation of these goons using gaming as a platform to spread their ideological poison.

As a result the game's quality is shit because studios that have been ideologically captured value the voices of those activist devs who conform to those actually talented longtime veterans who don't; leading to a product whose primary development directive wasn't to delight gamers but to beat them over the head with an ideological stick until they fall in line.

It's no surprise the creative leads in most of these studios, that were around when their best work historically was being made, all left before or around the launch of their new woke pandering propaganda piece.

So DEI is absolutely the reason these games failed because DEI is the very reason these woke activist invaded the games, movie and comics industries in the first place. To promote their ideology and stroke their own over inflated sense of moral superiority.

 

[Sharius]

wasn't an article about DEI hired at ubisoft using star war game as their first project to enrich their profile

 

[TVexperto]

Didnt he delete this tweet also?

 

[SJRB]

I love the apologetic and worthless “that’s a real shame”, a quick virtue signal to show that even though he’s the bringer of terrible news, he’s still one of the good guys.

Veilguard was terrible, and it sold terrible. And that’s a good thing. Devs should be ashamed of themselves for tarnishing a legacy.

 

[Ben87fr]

Could we stop talking about these two turds ? So they'd die even faster...

 

[ArtHands]

We already know they (and other new AAA games) flop on consoles.

 

[cormack12]

Next dialogue inbound for veilguard 2

 

[MMaRsu]

Dragon Age flopped, Star Wars Outlaws flopped, Indiana Jones flopped.

Single player games in trouble?

Indy didnt flop.. stop trying to make that a thing

 

[Chechack]

Cant wait to read the obligatory gaming industri is doomed and downfall written by all the usual suspects

 

[kruis]

Genuine question. If this game went with a macho/hetero vibe to it would it of had a big impact on sales?

That was only part of the problem. This in depth review goes into all the game's issues.

 

[Fabieter]

Did you see this druckmann? This is your future as well.

 

[ricardo_sousa11]

Genuine question. If this game went with a macho/hetero vibe to it would it of had a big impact on sales?

It would still flop if it still had been written by/for a 3 year old.

 

[Gaiff]

Genuine question. If this game went with a macho/hetero vibe to it would it of had a big impact on sales?

Yes.

Not a genuine answer, but your question most certainly isn’t genuine either.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Genuine question. If this game went with a macho/hetero vibe to it would it of had a big impact on sales?

Yes, it would have sold better. I certain this game will sell 2-3 times more than Veilguard:

 

[ValiantInstance]

I certainly think the 'DEI' factor was a reason why Veilguard and Concord sold badly - but it's always a combination of factors. As far as Star Wars is concerned - it's a dying IP that no one cares about anymore and has been milked to the ground. And as you've mentioned, Outlaws is an awful game full stop.

It's the canary in the coal mine. If a game is woke, then making a great game was not the primary consideration in the development process.

 

[TBiddy]

I'm still angry about Outlaws. So much potential, so many stories to be told and they decide to make it a stealth game, where a 50 kg girl can knockout armored troops with no harm to her tiny hands. Fuck that shit.

 

[Drake]

Dragon Age flopped, Star Wars Outlaws flopped, Indiana Jones flopped.

Single player games in trouble?

From the way people were talking I thought the game was pretty successful, but then I checked and the all time high on Steam was only 12k. I guess my disconnect was that the game wasn't actually as woke as people thought, but that definitely didn't translate into sales in this case.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Genuine question. If this game went with a macho/hetero vibe to it would it of had a big impact on sales?

Your "genuine question" betrays your bias, because the premise of your question presupposes a reason for the game not resonating with audiences that is not even close to being true; nor even argued by anyone.

You're gaslighting and it's transparent.

To correct your ignorance, Veilguard turned off audiences because it was a shit game, made by people who hate the audience of the previous games, for a new audience that doesn't even exist.

The art direction was wank. The character design was offensive and the writing was so bad a 13yo could have done a significantly better job.

But all of the above are symptoms of a deeper problem, i.e. the capture of the dev by activist extreme left ideological bad actors whose prime directive is to spread their poisonous message using the game as a platform, instead of just entertaining gamers by giving them what they (i.e. gamers) want.

 

[PeteBull]

Of course they're fucking not.

Space Marine 2. Black Myth Wukong. Shadow Of The Erdtree.

Hogwarts, cp2077 and its expack, hell gta6 is singleplayer too (multiplayer too but main thing is singleplayer;p) and it will likely sell 50m copies on its first year

 

[ryzzz]

Indy didnt flop.. stop trying to make that a thing

Can you provide evidence that it didn’t flop?

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Can you provide evidence that it didn’t flop?

Can you provide evidence that it did?

 

[drganon]

We already know they (and other new AAA games) flop on consoles.

They flopped on pc too, dipshit.

 

[Wildebeest]

Genuine question. If this game went with a macho/hetero vibe to it would it of had a big impact on sales?

I don't know. Midnight Suns had more of a macho vibe, but it sold even more like shit. Veilguard even did moderately well in comparison. I think that grown up dudes are just not that thrilled by AAA games that seem to be more than 50% young adult visual novel/dating sim.

 

[PatientGamer]

The problem with these titles and the anti-DEI narrative in gaming in the last 2 years, is that devs/publishers are trying to forcefeed a message of 'inclusivity' in the most tokenised, bullshit way possible. It's not just heterosexual males that are fed up; the very same minorities they're trying to capture aren't even buying their games. Because the writing in these stories and character designs are downright insulting & are essentially caricatures.

Look, there's nothing wrong with having 'diverse' games. I actually don't think people have an issue with that. When the first Life is Strange came out, I didn't hear anybody give two flying fucks about it. New game, new IP - wish you all the best.

What people have an issue with is 'brand replacement'. Taking beloved franchises and inserting or changing leads for no reason other than because it's the main topic of discussion in politics these days. If I was non-binary and played Dragon Age Veilguard, I'd ask for a refund after that story conversation.

Create NET NEW games & IP with this stuff if you want. They have an audience and will find people to keep playing/buying, but don't take existing great work and woke-ify the hell out of it because you want to make money. I'm glad it's biting them in the ass.

Keep doing it and more studios will close.

 

[CliffBronger]

I'm sure that dei clown who showed up in the first preview didn't help sales for the indy game.

The game is fantastic though one of my goty.

 

[mitch1971]

It’s not about their skills, they purposely uglified her to make her look like ‘average’ woman

That face they made was certainly not average. It was ugly, period. It looked abnormal, even alien. That thing fell and hit every ugly branch of the software tree.

 

[PeteBull]

Genuine question. If this game went with a macho/hetero vibe to it would it of had a big impact on sales?

Imagine ur product, just like concord, looks super disgusting in terms of character design, to huge chunk of ur potential customers, ofc majority of ur customers wont wanna touch it, DA:V doesnt even have denuvo on pc coz devs knew pc players wont want to pirate this shit, that is how nasty it was
Lets give those ugly concord and da:v character design to a game that sold like crazy, mario kart 8, which sold, and here is official data, 8,46m on wiiu +64,27m on switch, so total over 71m copies, and even such a sure juggernaut will have its sales substantially reduced if character roster looks like concord or/and da:v characters.

Funny anecdote about sales predictions btw, many of us still remember stupid sellout journo from poligon and his stupid article proclaiming mario kart 8 will sell really badly

Mario Kart 8 will likely be the worst-selling game in franchise history, here’s why

Your source for the latest in video games, sci-fi, fantasy, tabletop games, anime, horror, books, and comics.

www.polygon.com

It was back in 2014 so even many of us here on GAF believed journalists back then

 

[kruis]

From the way people were talking I thought the game was pretty successful, but then I checked and the all time high on Steam was only 12k. I guess my disconnect was that the game wasn't actually as woke as people thought, but that definitely didn't translate into sales in this case.

My guess is that people wanted a 3rd person Indy game instead of the 1st person game we got. That's the reason why I lost all interest. I love Tomb Raider and Uncharted style games, I love the first three Indiana Jones movies but I absolutely hate 1st person games.

 

[ValiantInstance]

The problem with these titles and the anti-DEI narrative in gaming in the last 2 years, is that devs/publishers are trying to forcefeed a message of 'inclusivity' in the most tokenised, bullshit way possible. It's not just heterosexual males that are fed up; the very same minorities they're trying to capture aren't even buying their games. Because the writing in these stories and character designs are downright insulting & are essentially caricatures.

Look, there's nothing wrong with having 'diverse' games. I actually don't think people have an issue with that. When the first Life is Strange came out, I didn't hear anybody give two flying fucks about it. New game, new IP - wish you all the best.

What people have an issue with is 'brand replacement'. Taking beloved franchises and inserting or changing leads for no reason other than because it's the main topic of discussion in politics these days. If I was non-binary and played Dragon Age Veilguard, I'd ask for a refund after that story conversation.

Create NET NEW games & IP with this stuff if you want. They have an audience and will find people to keep playing/buying, but don't take existing great work and woke-ify the hell out of it because you want to make money. I'm glad it's biting them in the ass.

Keep doing it and more studios will close.

The issue they refuse to acknowledge is that 'heterosexual males' have and will always make up the vast majority of the player base, no matter how many surveys include women that play Candy Crush.

If you don't attempt to appeal to these people, your game will flop. A business is supposed to create products that appeal to their target market.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

those will sell no matter what

Idk, I'm huge fan of Sony's studios and own everything they put out since PS3, and I'm considering carefully if I buy the next ghost, wolverine or intergalactic. My reason being that Sony already showed their hand with games like spider 2 and horizon, to me it is clear that they have an agenda now and I, for one, don't support it. I'm sure I'm not alone, I don't think those games will flop necessary, but it is a possibility, let's not kid ourselves.

 

[Sanepar]

Europeans saving us from wokeism

 

[Allandor]

Currently it is more a problem of a recession in Europe. People are less likely to spend money on video games. With that a large chunk of a possible audience is out. Also large chunks of money go into services these days (Netflix, prime, ps+, gamepass, ...) so it is also less likely people will spend money on games the publisher killed years ago.

 

[Calico345]

I am waiting for each to be 50% off or more before considering purchase.

 

[Thief1987]

Can you provide evidence that it did?

AAA game, 7 years in development, less than 200k copies sold on PC - definition of a flop

 

[Filben]

I mean Schreier isn't wrong when he said DEI isn't a factor whether it sells or not. Okay, maybe it's a small factor but not that big of a factor like some of you wanted it to be.

Dragon Age just sucks as a video game in many many areas and there's like 20 things on a list supporting that claim and DEI may just be one of those. So it's impact is relatively small. I've compiled a list a while ago in another thread.

I haven't done so for Outlaws but I'll do it here:

- dumb and broken AI (slightly fixed after the major patch but utterly broken when sales matter the most)
- non optional stealth missions (also fixed, but again, too late)
- mediocre stealth mechanics
- bodies can't be moved and have to be left where you struck them
- no character-arc/progression for the protagonist
- uninteresting activities/jobs with unsatisfying rewards (paint jobs... this is so typical video gamey and un-immersive, you sneak and break into a facility and in a chest you find... a paint job. how does that even work in-game-universe?)
- non-reactive environment with little interaction
- people not responding properly to things you do (which includes e.g. run over people)
- gameplay becomes repetitive and none of its cores are more than robust, only mediocre (the shooting, the racing, the melee combat, space combat); it's just serviceable and nothing is outstanding
- on PC late Steam release, again, release it what matters most
- bugs and glitches (some what fixed?)
- some image quality and performance issues (some what fixed? again, release it what counts the most for these games)
- Star Wars as a brand is flooded with products which may reduce desire to explore a new product because it lacks perceived "freshness", especially after a highly divisive and polarising new film trilogy

Obviously this list isn't as huge as for DA:V but I'd argue it's not as bad as DA.

Also this is not to say it can't be fun or has its moment (I like the faction loyality system which has actual gameplay consequences), but it does not excel in any of its areas. The "uglyfied" protagonist (I still can't comprehend how they could make such a beautiful actress look like this in-game...) is just a small point you might want to add to that list.

If you had a great product, DEI wouldn't matter that much. Even Elden Ring usés "body type A/B" and no one cares because it's irrelevant in the grandness of that game. If Geralt had been gay it wouldn't matter for TW3. At least that's my point of view.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

I mean Schreier isn't wrong when he said DEI isn't a factor whether it sells or not. Okay, maybe it's a small factor but not that big of a factor like some of you wanted it to be.

Dragon Age just sucks as a video game in many many areas and there's like 20 things on a list supporting that claim and DEI may just be one of those. So it's impact is relatively small. I've compiled a list a while ago in another thread.

I haven't done so for Outlaws but I'll do it here:

- dumb and broken AI (slightly fixed after the major patch but utterly broken when sales matter the most)
- non optional stealth missions (also fixed, but again, too late)
- mediocre stealth mechanics
- bodies can't be moved and have to be left where you struck them
- no character-arc/progression for the protagonist
- uninteresting activities/jobs with unsatisfying rewards (paint jobs... this is so typical video gamey and un-immersive, you sneak and break into a facility and in a chest you find... a paint job. how does that even work in-game-universe?)
- non-reactive environment with little interaction
- people not responding properly to things you do (which includes e.g. run over people)
- gameplay becomes repetitive and none of its cores are more than robust, only mediocre (the shooting, the racing, the melee combat, space combat); it's just serviceable and nothing is outstanding
- on PC late Steam release, again, release it what matters most
- bugs and glitches (some what fixed?)
- some image quality and performance issues (some what fixed? again, release it what counts the most for these games)
- Star Wars as a brand is flooded with products which may reduce desire to explore a new product because it lacks perceived "freshness", especially after a highly divisive and polarising new film trilogy

Obviously this list isn't as huge as for DA:V but I'd argue it's not as bad as DA.

Also this is not to say it can't be fun or has its moment (I like the faction loyality system which has actual gameplay consequences), but it does not excel in any of its areas. The "uglyfied" protagonist (I still can't comprehend how they could make such a beautiful actress look like this in-game...) is just a small point you might want to add to that list.

If you had a great product, DEI wouldn't matter that much. Even Elden Ring usés "body type A/B" and no one cares because it's irrelevant in the grandness of that game. If Geralt had been gay it wouldn't matter for TW3. At least that's my point of view.

There's no great product when DEI is the focus. If you hire mediocre DEI developers, you get a mediocre product with zero innovation or complex mechanics. There's a cause-effect relation when this happens, always.

So yes, DEI is the ultimate killer, not because of cosmetic elements but down to the core ones.

 

[Facism]

all those woke people need to buy 10 copies each

How can they afford to when they've got nose-rings to buy?