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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

The co-op PvE first-person shooter, set in the Control universe, was released on June 17 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC and is not only Remedy's first full multiplayer game, but also its first fully self-published game.

In its half-year financial report published today, the publisher says that while the launch was a technical success because it reached over 1 million players in its first 10 days, this didn't necessarily result in a financial success since the "majority of the players were Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 users".

The game was released on both Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, meaning it's unlikely many players bought the game full price on those systems. Instead, Remedy received "an initial accrual from subscription service agreements with Sony and Microsoft", a payment for putting its games on their services.

While Remedy would have been hoping sales of the PC version would have covered for low console sales, it instead noted: "On Steam, which was planned as the primary consumer sales channel on PC, the launch underperformed."

The publisher says the initial feedback on the game was negative, but also says that over time it's worked hard to turn this around and claims that players who have stuck with it are happier with it now.

"The game's initial onboarding experience and mission structure resulted in high early player drop-offs and an influx of negative reviews," it said. "As players spent more time in the game and we released updates improving the game, sentiment in reviews turned more positive."

Overall, Remedy says: "Commercially, we were unsatisfied with the launch-phase consumer sales of FBC: Firebreak." Despite this, it believes it can turn around the game's fortunes over the longer term.

"FBC: Firebreak was designed as a game that evolves over time," Remedy said. "Despite the rocky launch, we believe we have a solid game to build on. Players who spent over an hour with the game reviewed the game mostly positive, showing us that the core experience of the game is entertaining.

"We have already rolled out patches and communicated on how the game will continue to develop. Looking ahead, a larger 'Major Update' in late September will be the next key step for FBC: Firebreak. This will be supported by targeted marketing activities, which we expect to drive interest in the title.

"We are committed to continuing to work on FBC: Firebreak, engaging with the community, and expanding the game."

When FBC: Firebreak hit its 1 million players milestone ten days after its release, Remedy acknowledged on social media that it still had work to do improving the game, saying: "We know there is still a lot of work ahead of us, and we are super-motivated about it. We have a lot of exciting things cooking for Firebreak players. More about that soon."

The game's Metacritic score currently sits on 63, while its Steam user reviews are currently defined on the storefront as 'Mixed'. Of the 1,557 user reviews submitted on Steam so far, 67% are considered positive.

According to SteamDB, the game's start on Steam has been modest, hitting a peak of 1,992 concurrent players at launch and continuing to fall since then. At the time of writing, during the last 24-hour period the peak was just 24 players, and it hasn't managed to hit more than 75 concurrent players at any point in the last month.

Remedy was ‘unsatisfied’ with FBC: Firebreak’s launch sales but says it has ‘a solid game to build on’ | VGC

The publisher says the launch “underperformed” but player feedback is getting more positive…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Stop this ridiculous nonsense. Pour everything into Control 2

Now!

(Unless this game was a ploy to get those rascal Sweet babies doing something.. else, if that's the case, carry on)

 

[Luipadre]

to build on for who? You have 1 chance with games like this nowadays. Nobody will go back.

 

[Connificent]

Smells like shit in here

 

[coolmast3r]

"Despite the rocky launch, we believe we have a solid game to build on"

looks at SteamDB current player count

15. Fifteen players are playing this game at the moment.

That is a... really solid game to waste money on. Oh, sorry, to "a solid game to build on".

 

[Rockondevil]

Never heard anything about it coming.
Saw it on Gamepass and gave it about an hour.
The game was ok and I'm sure it's likely more fun with friends, but I don't know anyone I could talk into getting it just to try it when other games exist.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

Only joking. Never played it but assume numbers are abysmal.

Stick to your cool atmospheric survival horror type games.

 

[T-0800]

I could play it for free but I'm not interested. I finished Control btw.

 

[Jakk]

Why waste any more resources on it? The 24h peak on Steam is 24. Saying it "underperformed" there is very generous, it would be more fitting to say it's completely dead. Yeah, it's on Gamepass and PS Plus, but how many players can it have if we're counting those, 1000? Why bother.

 

[Xtib81]

This thing is dead. Let it go.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Stop this ridiculous nonsense. Pour everything into Control 2

Now!

(Unless this game was a ploy to get those rascal Sweet babies doing something.. else, if that's the case, carry on)

EH, both suck, but to each his own.

 

[clarky]

I don't see how you can be unsatisfied with launch sales when they gave the game away for free.

Probably in the GP/PS+ contract to deliver some dlc or keep the game running for x amount of time to get paid.

 

[SJRB]

Read between the lines, people. You know the drill by now.

This is corpo speak for "it's dead, Jim".

 

[ecosse_011172]

Not remotely my kind of game but I hope it succeeds because Remedy are fantastic.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Can they just hurry up and do Max Payne 1 and 2 remakes already? Played Alan Wake which was average for me and really didn't care for Control despite trying it out a few times. Haven't bothered with this one since the reception was pretty mixed.

 

[Rivdoric]

Market is saturating.

 

[Branded]

Such a bummer this turned out the way it did because from the initial trailers it looked really fun. I'm always up for more co-op L4D-style shenanigans and the Control universe lends itself perfectly for that sort of thing. This could have been great yet they sabotaged themselves by delivering and undercooked product. It should've been an Early Access release at best...

 

[clarky]

Market is saturating.

Not really, this is just a bit shit. Look at the Battlefield numbers this last weekend.

Loads of smaller titles find at least a small audience, you just need a good product.

 

[GrayChild]

> Drop all the DEI bullshit.
> Stop partnering with Epic as a publisher.
> Stick to what you do best.

 

[xrnzaaas]

No one really wanted this game and there's no way to change that now. Maybe it would've worked as some MP component to Control 2, but on the other hand I'd like if they 100% focused on singleplayer.

 

[Redneckerz]

What would be a long lasting grace is offline/bot mode. I know a few live games have done this.

But honestly, releasing a co-op PVP or MMOFPS these days is akin to a death sentence. People are tired of this kind of game in the same way people are tired of battle royales or roguelikes.

 

[Sephimoth]

Pure hopium

 

[Denton]

Remedy fans don't give a fuck about MP and MP whores don't give a fuck about Remedy. Stop throwing good money after bad, Remedy.

 

[Valt7786]

Yeah just drop it Remedy, you tried, you flunked it. Stick in your lane and do what people love you for, solid single player campaigns with cool storytelling.

 

[The Cockatrice]

"we remain hopeful that we will abandon the game in the next 3 months"

 

[Dr.Morris79]

EH, both suck, but to each his own.

Control was awsome. You uncultured Fiend!

 

[Gonzito]

Remedy and mutiplayer shouldn't be in the same sentence

 

[Punished Miku]

The game's fun. Little bit of jank graphically, but fun. I played through all the levels and difficulty levels then moved on. Was a nice, brief summer multiplayer break.

 

[RagnarokIV]

shut down in 3 months

 

[Begleiter]

You'd think they'd be smarter than this. Frankly Remedy have been living on borrowed time since Alan Wake, if they die chasing this dragon I don't have any sympathy.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Wait… Remedy was making that?

Oh no..

 

[Shubh_C63]

Remedy has been innovating and pumping single player games for decades now. Its OK for them to experiment with MP once where it seems FBC is a testing ground and was relatively cheap by-product of CONTROL. Its not gonna affect development of Control 2 that much which they already said will be made more efficiently than Alan Wake 2.

If they have any hope to have steady +1000 players on Steam they gotta keep hitting with innovative mammoth updates whenever they get the time. Small fry updates won't do.

 

[Kacho]

People were arguging that the Game Pass/PS+ deals were enough to break even on this... lol. Derp.

Remedy should stick to what they're good at because their audience doesn't want this crap. Fortnite Timmy's are playing Fortnite. They don't currrrrr.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

Corpo Cope activaaattteeeee!

 

[TVexperto]

their marketing department needs to be fired...F8C ... what a shit name .. nobody understood in the beginning it was connected to control

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Wait… Remedy was making that?

Oh no..

Yeah I had no idea Remedy made this lol. Doesn't sound like anything fans of Control or Remedy in general want.

 

[Miles708]

Well this looks incredibly uninspired, despite the source material.
If their single player games looked like this, they would be bankrupt already.

 

[STARSBarry]

 

[MagiusNecros]

Remedy fans just want Control 2 since Control is a great game.

There is no reason to play this over Deep Rock Galactic. Especially since the game has less content then Aliens: Fireteam Elite.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Why does this shit keep happening? Are big devs/publishers just that clueless about what their audience wants?

 

[Von Hugh]

Remedy keeps on making the weirdest and shittiest financial decisions. I don't understand why they like self-sabotage so much.

They somehow managed to create the most generic live service slop based on Control. How? Why? This is like making a racing game for kids from Lord of the Rings and naming it Swords & Wheels. No one will understand the connection, and no one will give a shit.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

They somehow managed to create the most generic live service slop based on Control. How? Why? This is like making a racing game for kids from Lord of the Rings and naming it Swords & Wheels. No one will understand the connection, and no one will give a shit.

When you look around at any industry at this current time is pretty evident they're not being run by the smartest bunch..

It just leaves you with a fair few questions, no ones answering

 

[Danny22]

All they have to do is to release big budget Control 2 without making it some survival slog like alan wake 2 and release it day 1 on steam and i know it'll blow up in sales finally.

But they'll somehow do something silly again.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Man... Remedy and Insomniac used to be my fav devs. What they've now become... ugh...

 

[Fake]

And the water is wet.

Bunch of incompetentes. Alan Wake 2 was a flop and they still think they can make a good game.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

I think everyone will agree though that Remedy is never really going to be the same again..



Gutting that was.

 

[SILKYSMOOTH30FPS]

As solid to build on as Redfall. Good luck.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

As solid to build on as Redfall. Good luck.

Don't knock it.

It could have been 14.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

You get trainwrecks like this because most game studios dont really ask what gamers want. They just make whatever they think in their heads is gonna be the best thing ever and hope gamers like it. By the time they show it in a trailer its already too late to change much.

Even though some people hate high selling repetitive sequels and evergreen kind of IPs that last forever (geez, why does this studio have to make the same game for 10-20 years kind of thing), at least those studios knows how to keep something going that sells well.

Zero people asked for any kind of game resembling FBC from Remedy.

 

[Branded]

I think the issue is more that this didnt even reach over 5000ccu on Steam alone.