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[Spyxos]

Are the opinions of journalists unimportant? Both games had a lot of criticism from the press, Space marine 2 and Wu kong. Nevertheless, they sold extremely well. 20 million in one month for Wukong. And Space marine over 2 million. Just sit it out and ignore it?

News - Business - Sales-Age - Black Myth: Wukong Sold 20 Million Units in its First Month

It has been revealed that Black Myth Wukong sold 20 million units in its first month across the PlayStation 5 and PC. The information comes from Ken Kutaragi at the Toyko Game Show (via Dean Takahashi), in which a presentation slide reveals that Black Myth: Wukong sold 10 million units in its...

www.neogaf.com

Sales-Age - Warhammer: Space Marine 2 has sold 2 million copies

TWO MILLION Space Marines have joined the fight to protect the Imperium in #SpaceMarine2.

www.neogaf.com

 

[TheCed]

Really depends on the reason of the outrage.

Concord should've listened because it was legitimate criticism that should've been addressed. Delaying the game and trying at least to avoid the massive marketing failure.

But things about Wokism or Anti Wokism... Better to avoid that stuff... It's usually just people looking for reasons to be mad at something.

 

[Natsuko]

Well, you have to sell your game somehow. You can only do that if people hear about it. How are people supposed to hear about it if you ignore the press? Sure, you can advertise elsewhere. But many people want to know more about it first. I wouldn't buy a game just because there's a colourful picture hanging somewhere. Let's be honest, some of them can't even be compared to the game itself because they're just artwork. How about some proper games? Then people will want to play them.

 

[Kacho]

The opinions of the press are more irrelevant than ever, but they still serve a purpose. Publishers need them as a vehicle for their marketing and the consumers need them to fuel the hype cycle.

If IGN puts out an exclusive preview video for a game I'm interested in, of course I'll watch it. Do I care what IGN employee Jose Randomo thinks about the gameplay mechanics? No.

 

[LordOcidax]

In the real world, gamers never care about game scores and press.

 

[Rentahamster]

It depends on of the criticism is based on the actual game itself (gameplay, graphics, bugs, performance, writing, quest design, art style, etc) or if the criticism is based on stuff unrelated to the game directly (non-game related opinions of staff/actors/writers, mundane actions of the staff outside of game development, signal boosting of opinions about the game from people who are not the target audience/not going to buy it regardless, etc).

 

[Spyxos]

I should have worded it better. I meant Ign's recent campaign against Wu Kong.

 

[Kacho]

I should have worded it better. I meant Ign's recent campaign against Wu Kong.

That's just white noise. No one cares what IGN thinks about the lack of diversity in Wu Kong, or how 'problematic' the studio culture supposedly is. Just like no one cared that Eurogamer and other outlets refused to cover Hogwarts.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Most teams/products/brands don't have the option to ignore them...but almost all "grin and bear it".

 

[TrueLegend]

I don't believe in existence of game journalist. At this point my dick writes more than this so called journo PPL.

 

[Digital-Aftertaste]

Thankfully not anymore, it would be almost impossibly to see another God Hand situation happen because of the opinions of a games journalist. Also bias is way easier to detect nowadays; those two games were being criticized mostly based on their biases and had nothing to do with the game itself nor the gameplay.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

The current entertainment media is a bunch of grifters who act against the fanbase, so devs and movie producers should listen to their actual customers instead. The same applies to us. Journos can't be trusted anymore, especially in those games or movies that are impacted by controversies, real or made-up.

 

[Begleiter]

Traditional games media are part of a larger landscape of coverage, and whether you can ignore them depends on your game and the company you work for. Wukong was safe because the Chinese market was a sure thing, Space Marine did fine because the first game was great and 40K has a large built in audience. Small games and big controversies have it harder. Companies can't seem to wait out the news cycle any more.

That said, sometimes the press having your back is meaningless as well. Puff pieces couldn't save Concord.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Wukong was safe because the Chinese market was a sure thing,

Disagree with this one. Wukong was a risky move for a first-time studio with a AAA budget. They were harassed and defamed in the West. In China, people can destroy a game for the slightest mistake or bad decision. There's the case of a mobile game from a big studio that went out of business even before release due to a controversy similar to AC Shadows.

Space Marine could have been a disaster if Saber were a different type of studio. Look at the media backlash after the release. Fortunately, they know better and cater to their actual audiences, not to the media wackos.

IMO there are only two groups of games that benefit from legacy media:

- Indies too small to be used as a token in cultural wars.

- Bad AAA games with ideological armor: Dragon Age, Star Wars Outlaws, etc.

 

[March Climber]

Are the opinions of journalists unimportant? Both games had a lot of criticism from the press, Space marine 2 and Wu kong. Nevertheless, they sold extremely well. 20 million in one month for Wukong. And Space marine over 2 million. Just sit it out and ignore it?

Both questions are irrelevant because your concept itself is out of touch and a bit bubbled. Twitch/Youtube streamers and tik tok influencers have more of an impact than joe schmo journalist in 2024, and the difference between both are as vast as the grand canyon.

The only thing old school writing journalists do is clickbait the older audiences like yourself into caring about what they have to say.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Social media is the main carrier of information today anyway, people would rather watch their favorite youtubers than read IGN.

 

[Crayon]

For social "issues", people have been starting to ignore it. Peak woke is behind us even if it will take a while to really wind down. Anyone with half a brain has noticed that the best way to handle it is to not apologize. Either saying nothing or standing your ground makes the harassment wave is more likely to just go away. Bullies are going to go for the easiest victims.

 

[newtypepilot]

video game "journalists" are not journalists. They are mouthpieces for their deranged snowflake friends.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Love that their CEO posting an innocuous YouTube comment about modern devs imposing their morals on gamers was a big story in games media, and nobody gave a shit and kept buying their game.

 

[BlackTron]

Really depends on the reason of the outrage.

Concord should've listened because it was legitimate criticism that should've been addressed. Delaying the game and trying at least to avoid the massive marketing failure.

But things about Wokism or Anti Wokism... Better to avoid that stuff... It's usually just people looking for reasons to be mad at something.

This post hurt my head. It's like the second paragraph is a rebuttal of the first one.

 

[SHA]

For an average consumer like me, I can only picture what I saw at tgs, there's a lot to cover up and the presentation do matter cause a good one will stick in our heads for sure.

 

[Barakov]

Are the opinions of journalists unimportant? Both games had a lot of criticism from the press, Space marine 2 and Wu kong. Nevertheless, they sold extremely well. 20 million in one month for Wukong. And Space marine over 2 million. Just sit it out and ignore it?

News - Business - Sales-Age - Black Myth: Wukong Sold 20 Million Units in its First Month

It has been revealed that Black Myth Wukong sold 20 million units in its first month across the PlayStation 5 and PC. The information comes from Ken Kutaragi at the Toyko Game Show (via Dean Takahashi), in which a presentation slide reveals that Black Myth: Wukong sold 10 million units in its...

www.neogaf.com

Sales-Age - Warhammer: Space Marine 2 has sold 2 million copies

TWO MILLION Space Marines have joined the fight to protect the Imperium in #SpaceMarine2.

www.neogaf.com

Given how badly a lot of them want to be activists, definitely. Seems like some developers are waking up to this but you shit on your core audience long enough it affects whatever your selling.

There's other factors at play with Wukong and SM2 but the fact they didn't kowtow to the far left people only helped them.