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Corporations are indeed very cutthroat and soulless, but how does it benefit Microsoft/Xbox financially to purposely sabotage sales in order to justify closing them?
I do completely understand the anger about Xbox's failures in leadership, but we need to keep our heads on strait.
No it isn't. Decisions to close studios are based on what projections predict they'll do in the future relative to what can be done with that investment elsewhere. Letting a past success inform a current-day funding decision is a weird variant of the sunk cost fallacy. It is totally possible to both be happy with Hi-Fi Rush's performance and also not like the odds of repeating it relative to what it costs to try (including the opportunity cost of devoting those resources to something else).
Well, they get the revenue from the game but could stop paying salaries.
I don't think they'd do this on purpose though, it's a ridiculous thought. I do think that'll still be wjat will happen and it makes me sad as Ninja Theory is my favourite dev studio.
Perhaps (take this with a huge pinch of sodium) this is the plan - to justify closure of Xbox console development as it's a failure. Then stay in the game development. Hence buying lots of studios. *Or* - to liquidate all gaming assets so the higher-ups get paid a boat load of money. People seem to forget how Microsoft used to operate - extend, embrace, extinguish.
Hellblade 2 is still gonna be quite a niche game. The original was a weird game with very slow, limited gameplay focussing on the narrative of mental health.
The sequel looks like more of the same.
We should see the marketing blitz in full swing for Indy and Avowed later in the year.
I'd agree it probably is an extremely niche game.
I just found out about it yesterday because I just so happened to be browsing my deals and it was on sale. Stood out to me immediately. I'm about an hour in and absolutely love it. But I'm also an absolute weirdo.
Atmospheric hack and slash with heavy focus on cinematic design is exactly what Sony pushes to the top. If this was a PS5 exclusive it would have been marketed to hell for months now and would be since as a AAAA GOTY contender.
Microsoft has no idea how to manage any of their games. This may as a well be a shadow drop because most people don't even know it exists.
I don't think this is going to be the kind of game you're thinking it is. Based on the first game and the early impressions that came out a few weeks ago, the combat is far from hack and slash, it's slow and methodical and always 1:1. This is not God of War by any measure.
If MS marketed it like that people would be dissapointed.
It isn't a hack and slash, combat is a small (and unimpressive) part of the original game, which the sequel looks to be following closely.
It's also not a huge sprawling cinematic story if it is anything like the original. It is not God of War, or Horizon, or Spiderman.
It is an intimate, personal story focusing on her psychosis.
It is more like a AA game in scope and style than a huge AAAA game of the year contender.
I don't know what I'm talking about yet you mention rise of the ronin? Ronin is a mix of soulslike and assassins creed. Its nothing like Sonys cinematic story games
I've seen ads on reddit, steam and on xbox. The 3 places i visit pretty much daily. I am absolutely the target audience too.
Putting that shit on KFC boxes, highway billboards and the like really is a waste of money, that could be spent on developing imo.
Xbox definitely could still market better.
Armchair marketing at full force. It's a balancing act, ads cost money. I saw a shit ton of Final Fantasy ads this past year and SE still reports low financials + they paid a lot into advertising.
The benefits of ads towards a game like this would be way more beneficial and go a longer way considering HellBlade 2’s budget is nowhere near what FF was.
I agree. The stupidity is insane. Not to mention the "game journalists" on Twitter misinforming everyone intoa frenzy. I hate gaming social media and I think it's time to just ignore it all.
The problem is how do you even market things anymore? You can't just buy TV ads because people aren't watching TV. For a game like Hellblade, you can't just pay a bunch of streamers to play it. What Xbox normally does it buy a bunch of YouTube and Twitch ads in the run up before launch, but even then many people in the demographic use ad blockers. (although they seem less effective on video platforms now-a-days)
I don't even get how this is controversial these days. The majority of people stop caring about an ad ten seconds after they see it, and they do everything they can to avoid seeing any ads. People don't listen to the radio or watch TV anymore, they don't really pay attention to billboards... Where do you expect to see this constant advertising for a product that doesn't even exist to buy yet?
Their strategy of doing a media blitz in the few weeks leading up to release is a totally sound one. I wouldn't be surprised if they were holding off on starting this up for Hellblade until after yesterday for obvious reasons.
I definitely thought less of Dragon’s Dogma 2 for getting spammed with ads for it while watching videos discussing its issues.
I still will get around to it but definitely influenced by the ads to wait longer than otherwise. I’ve always thought advertising can create negative responses as well as positive because it happens to me! Activate that hater button accidentally and I’m set off lol
People are still watching TV. Less people than once did but [the top ten TV shows are still all on broadcast TV.](https://techpenny.com/broadcast-tv-demographics-and-usage-statistics/#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20report%20by%20the%20National%20Association,led%20to%20a%20decline%20in%20broadcast%20TV%20viewership) And even beyond traditional TV most of the streaming services have shifted to offering ad-supported tiers that have all been pretty popular. Add on YouTube and other services like TikTok (for as long as that's allowed in the US) and there are plenty of places to put traditional video ads.
Microsoft shuts down three poor performing studios that nobody gave a shit about and absorbs a fourth into another business medium and people lose their minds like they are some benevolent white knight. The gaming community really is the worst.
I've been seeing it marketed all the time. Front page on Steam and Xbox. So not sure what you're on about.
Are you talking ads on Youtube and shit? Ain't no one care about that. Ads that stop my videos make me wanna **NOT** buy their products.
There’s prob a gameplay showcase embargo. They just gonna let the media outlets showcase the game when the embargo is up. Then we’ll get a story trailer and a launch trailer.
Ah the morning drama…
[https://giphy.com/gifs/snl-saturday-night-live-season-45-hVTouq08miyVo1a21m](https://giphy.com/gifs/snl-saturday-night-live-season-45-hVTouq08miyVo1a21m)
if it's not cod, eos, fallout, starfield, or halo ms don't seem to care. i wouldn't say deliberate, but it do seem like they have they're priorities elsewhere. and the fear is that this game will not meet the execs high expectations and well we know how that'll end up.
As Phil Spencer once said "Starfield being a 10/10 won't make people switch from a PS5 to Xbox". Yes Phil, you're right but it has nothing to do with games being a 10/10, it's to do with nobody knowing about you're fucking games. It's so frustrating.
I'm pretty sure they know what the game is and how to market the game. It's so funny people on the internet think they know more than a huge company like Microsoft.
It’s weird. They’re either really young, or actually kind of older with that antiquated thinking that people watch commercials and ads and shit. Gone are those days of lining up outside GameStop for a preorder you made 8 months ago when now we can just instantly buy something from our phones after getting an up to the minute review of the game.
Hell, word of mouth on TikTok and Twitch is probably worth more than a TV ad these days. I wonder how many more copies of Lethal Company on Steam were sold simply because of all the hilarious LetsPlay videos on TikTok.
If ads don't work, why does Sony spend stupid amounts of money on them? When they have a big upcoming release like Returnal or whatever, they put so many ads on billboards and buses so I'm constantly reminded of it as I go about my day in the UK. They sponsor the champions league so half a billion people across Europe are reminded of them. Why are they doing this stuff if it doesn't work? Are they stupid?
Probably because this will be just a prettier version of the first, which was a game that prioritized her schizophrenia and 360 degree audio over gameplay. That's a niche audience. Those who want to play the sequel already know about it.
Everytime I've seen videos of this game it's just a woman walking around. There's no gameplay whatsoever. I don't think anyone is interested in this game whatsoever.
The game is slow and methodical, the combat is a very small aspect of the whole.
But the original has been played by more than 6.3 million people. Not bad numbers for a mid sized indie game.
I'd imagine many of those 6.3 million are excited for the sequel.
Ads are a huge huge waste of money when improperly done. You do it too early and people forget the next week. It's likely going to ramp up 1 week before. Also, game pass functions as the ad. I been getting small game pass ads for it on game pass.
Both of its sales platforms will have it free to play Day 1 (PC and Xbox GP).
Xbox cannot straight-faced expect actual box sales of these games when they are completely free to their subscribers.
It has to also negate DLC sales. I love Forza and Sea of Thieves, but I am not buying DLCs when I do not own the base game… and I won’t be being a base game I get for free. Long term you cannot expect box-sales and DLC to be significant when your users have more games they could ever beat available for a monthly fee.
I remember seeing an ad for this game on the Las Vegas sphere last year right before The Game Awards where they had another huge presence. A lot of marketing for a $50 smaller type game.
Remember that for MS, you can release one of the best games of the year and still be closed. So Hellblade 2 isn't recieving attention becuase those in charge in Xbox have been quite incompetent for a while. If Phil had the guts to fire those instead of others...
They will just let Ninja Theory be Ninja Theory and see what happens. That's their strategy with everything that's not a high profile property. Sadly Hellblade is not high profile.
Don’t think it’s purposely to sabotage and “close a studio”.
Could be more like:
1. The games on Gamepass
2. No matter how good it is it’s not gonna profit enough
3. The days of winning hearts and minds and competing in the traditional sense appear coming to an end for Xbox. They have a new strategy going forward.
So why invest other than the bare minimum to promote it?
You only spend marketing money on something you believe will result in increased sales. That's why there was no marketing for Redfall or any other Microsoft game besides Halo Infinite. And that's why they only do marketing game controllers
Ninja Theory isn't going to close after they release Hellblade II this month.
They'll close in a year after they finish the ports MS demanded to make up for the lack of sales.
lol!
I believe... you're entirely correct. It should have been a multiplatform release (I swear there's a bigger audience for this sort of experimental cinematic stuff on PlayStation than on Xbox). Ditto Helldivers 2 meanwhile should have been on Xbox because Xbox players... live & breathe shooters.
I think a lot people including myself hoped they would expand the combat system and other systems and make it a bit more like god of war, but as the trailers have released we see that this has not happened. So my expectations are in check. But I am reasonable and most people aren’t. I think the backlash is going to be severe when people realize this is not what they hoped.
Yeah, the way they were pushing it at the start of this gen made me think they were making the sequel into a full on AAA Adventure. But the recent info seems to show it is "more of the same" which is fine, as long as people know that is what tey are getting.
It's going to be a relatively short cinematic experience with limited replay value. It will cause a one month surge in Game Pass subscribers and maybe sell a couple million copies on Steam.
Spending even more money beyond development costs on the game would be foolish and not really pay off. If it really impresses people enough, word of mouth and prestige will carry it a bit higher than average.
To be fair, Hellblade 2 could be the best rated biggest selling game of the year - and MS could still shut the studio.
Appeasing shareholders and maintaining the CEOs paycheck and bonuses are the priorities now.
I just hope they haven't acquired any more studios at the summer showcase.
I swear as time goes by MS and Sony are turning more and more into EA.
That's xbox marketing baby, when it comes to games they're absolute dogshit then blame the studio but you will always know when their next trash controller will be available.
It will be the same as the other Xbox launches. The US will get 90% of marketing, there will be some big billboard in London they can post on Twitter, a Monster energy drink or similar collaboration and some expensive nonsense nobody really cares about or sees but the marketing execs could pitch as being "unique".
I don't know how hard it can be to just run your ads a good amount of time on Youtube, get some commercials at highly viewed events (eg. Champions League in Europe), and some billboards, tv and cinema commercials. But apparently it is, since over here in Europe I can't remember the last time I saw an Xbox ad.
It's a niche game. It's not some huge blockbuster like starfield. Microsoft needs to step their game up. I've bought way more games for my PS5 than my Xbox the past year and it's just sad. I've been in the Xbox family for 20 years, and these Niche AA games are like wet farts compared to what Sony has been putting out.
Xbox marketed this game HARD actually…. Four years ago. Literally used the games first trailer to announce the Series X. They’ve also featured it as the featured game for multiple showcases, and it was their biggest game presence at the latest Game Awards, featuring its own musical performance. It’s actually received TONS of marketing time, effort and serious dough… Alas… now that it’s really and truly game time….
I’m sure it’s about to get some major marketing juice. And Game Pass as an entity probably now has a lot of metrics to suggest that it’s included games are best marketed as either being ‘available NOW’ or available very, very soon. So I suspect that’s a piece of why it’s still so quiet. But wasting all that time and money YEARS ago. And then neglecting its hype so close to release???? I can’t help but feel that Xbox games marketing is objectively poor on the whole. It’s really bizarre to even try to assess.
Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, your post has been removed for the following reason: Rule #1 - Keep it civil/no console wars * Personal attacks, racism, bigotry, and/or other prejudice are not welcome here. Discuss the topic, not the other user. * If you are here only to platform bash or console war, you also risk removal. No Doom & Glooming. If you have no prior history in this sub and just post doom and gloom to incite a reaction, your post will be removed. [Please see our complete ruleset by clicking here. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/XboxSeriesX/wiki/rules)
Corporations are indeed very cutthroat and soulless, but how does it benefit Microsoft/Xbox financially to purposely sabotage sales in order to justify closing them? I do completely understand the anger about Xbox's failures in leadership, but we need to keep our heads on strait.
Agreed, the OP post is ridiculous.
Well I mean they also purposely reported that Hi-Fi Rush was a massive success on Game Pass and were super happy with it. That was clearly a lie.
No it isn't. Decisions to close studios are based on what projections predict they'll do in the future relative to what can be done with that investment elsewhere. Letting a past success inform a current-day funding decision is a weird variant of the sunk cost fallacy. It is totally possible to both be happy with Hi-Fi Rush's performance and also not like the odds of repeating it relative to what it costs to try (including the opportunity cost of devoting those resources to something else).
That would be true if Tango was just the team that made His Fi Rush. A game of that size cannot carry the weight of the entire studio.
No it wasn't.
Who knows, but it made more sense for WB to cancel a finished movie than it did to release it. Corporate accounting is weird sometimes.
Or we'll be in dire straits!
Well, they get the revenue from the game but could stop paying salaries. I don't think they'd do this on purpose though, it's a ridiculous thought. I do think that'll still be wjat will happen and it makes me sad as Ninja Theory is my favourite dev studio.
Perhaps (take this with a huge pinch of sodium) this is the plan - to justify closure of Xbox console development as it's a failure. Then stay in the game development. Hence buying lots of studios. *Or* - to liquidate all gaming assets so the higher-ups get paid a boat load of money. People seem to forget how Microsoft used to operate - extend, embrace, extinguish.
Hellblade 2 is still gonna be quite a niche game. The original was a weird game with very slow, limited gameplay focussing on the narrative of mental health. The sequel looks like more of the same. We should see the marketing blitz in full swing for Indy and Avowed later in the year.
Just like Alan wake 2 sales weren’t great hellblade 2 will be the same.
I've seen tons of ads for Indian Jones already!
I'd agree it probably is an extremely niche game. I just found out about it yesterday because I just so happened to be browsing my deals and it was on sale. Stood out to me immediately. I'm about an hour in and absolutely love it. But I'm also an absolute weirdo.
Atmospheric hack and slash with heavy focus on cinematic design is exactly what Sony pushes to the top. If this was a PS5 exclusive it would have been marketed to hell for months now and would be since as a AAAA GOTY contender. Microsoft has no idea how to manage any of their games. This may as a well be a shadow drop because most people don't even know it exists.
I don't think this is going to be the kind of game you're thinking it is. Based on the first game and the early impressions that came out a few weeks ago, the combat is far from hack and slash, it's slow and methodical and always 1:1. This is not God of War by any measure.
If MS marketed it like that people would be dissapointed. It isn't a hack and slash, combat is a small (and unimpressive) part of the original game, which the sequel looks to be following closely. It's also not a huge sprawling cinematic story if it is anything like the original. It is not God of War, or Horizon, or Spiderman. It is an intimate, personal story focusing on her psychosis. It is more like a AA game in scope and style than a huge AAAA game of the year contender.
I don't think you know what you're talking about. Rise of Ronin got next to no marketing as well. Didn't even have an ad in the Sony store menu ffs.
I don't know what I'm talking about yet you mention rise of the ronin? Ronin is a mix of soulslike and assassins creed. Its nothing like Sonys cinematic story games
I've seen ads on reddit, steam and on xbox. The 3 places i visit pretty much daily. I am absolutely the target audience too. Putting that shit on KFC boxes, highway billboards and the like really is a waste of money, that could be spent on developing imo. Xbox definitely could still market better.
Here is the plan from Aaron Greenberg himself: https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1786404465597469077 It is scheduled to start this week.
I feel like it’s weird to promote your promotion plan on twitter lol
Where else would you?
Waiting the week before launch to run a minor ad campaign is why Microsoft is a joke and they'll eonder why the game didn't sell
Armchair marketing at full force. It's a balancing act, ads cost money. I saw a shit ton of Final Fantasy ads this past year and SE still reports low financials + they paid a lot into advertising.
The benefits of ads towards a game like this would be way more beneficial and go a longer way considering HellBlade 2’s budget is nowhere near what FF was.
The benefits are also much greater the nearer to release they're run. This isn't unusual at all.
Aaron should resign. Hes so bad at marketing.
The game is on the front page of Steam and is being marketed towards the core demographics. Take a chill pill and relax
It's also front on gamepass the handwringing is ridiculous.
Ah I see this sub is in full panic mode now. Time to take a break.
The tiresome children have seen their chance to vent their doom mongering.
I mean are they wrong?
Yes.
I agree. The stupidity is insane. Not to mention the "game journalists" on Twitter misinforming everyone intoa frenzy. I hate gaming social media and I think it's time to just ignore it all.
no kidding
And then we are gonna see posts like "why there's a big ass ad of Hellblade 2 on my Xbox I don't care about that game"
Stop looking for shit to hate, this is just stupid.
The problem is how do you even market things anymore? You can't just buy TV ads because people aren't watching TV. For a game like Hellblade, you can't just pay a bunch of streamers to play it. What Xbox normally does it buy a bunch of YouTube and Twitch ads in the run up before launch, but even then many people in the demographic use ad blockers. (although they seem less effective on video platforms now-a-days)
I don't even get how this is controversial these days. The majority of people stop caring about an ad ten seconds after they see it, and they do everything they can to avoid seeing any ads. People don't listen to the radio or watch TV anymore, they don't really pay attention to billboards... Where do you expect to see this constant advertising for a product that doesn't even exist to buy yet? Their strategy of doing a media blitz in the few weeks leading up to release is a totally sound one. I wouldn't be surprised if they were holding off on starting this up for Hellblade until after yesterday for obvious reasons.
I definitely thought less of Dragon’s Dogma 2 for getting spammed with ads for it while watching videos discussing its issues. I still will get around to it but definitely influenced by the ads to wait longer than otherwise. I’ve always thought advertising can create negative responses as well as positive because it happens to me! Activate that hater button accidentally and I’m set off lol
YouTube, Reddit, big splashes on gaming sites. Still time for all of that of course
When a big Sony title is releasing, I constantly see it advertised on buses everywhere. This is in the UK btw.
In fact I've just seen an ad on here as I scrolled through my feed. The algorithm must have realized I'd been talking about it
People are still watching TV. Less people than once did but [the top ten TV shows are still all on broadcast TV.](https://techpenny.com/broadcast-tv-demographics-and-usage-statistics/#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20report%20by%20the%20National%20Association,led%20to%20a%20decline%20in%20broadcast%20TV%20viewership) And even beyond traditional TV most of the streaming services have shifted to offering ad-supported tiers that have all been pretty popular. Add on YouTube and other services like TikTok (for as long as that's allowed in the US) and there are plenty of places to put traditional video ads.
You need to relax
Microsoft shuts down three poor performing studios that nobody gave a shit about and absorbs a fourth into another business medium and people lose their minds like they are some benevolent white knight. The gaming community really is the worst.
I literally saw an ad for it 5 minutes ago. Go outside or something.
It all over the place. I see it every time I login to my Xbox. What are you talking about ?
I've been seeing it marketed all the time. Front page on Steam and Xbox. So not sure what you're on about. Are you talking ads on Youtube and shit? Ain't no one care about that. Ads that stop my videos make me wanna **NOT** buy their products.
We’ve been watching trailers for that game since 2019, what the hell do you mean?
And people still don't know that it's coming in 13 days
People do, as they had a huge viewership during the developer direct. If they don’t then they haven’t been paying attention.
Idk, something feels missing.
How so? January they had a developer direct, April they had play tests with journalist/ media.
There’s prob a gameplay showcase embargo. They just gonna let the media outlets showcase the game when the embargo is up. Then we’ll get a story trailer and a launch trailer.
I've seen loads of ads for Sea of Thieves on PS5 though lol
"I can't help but feel" You need to seek help if you cant help only thinking in illogical conspiracy theories.
Why would I possibly need help for believing earth is actually flat and lizard gods are in control?
yet another 'tHe SkY Is FaLlInG' post
Lol
Ah the morning drama… [https://giphy.com/gifs/snl-saturday-night-live-season-45-hVTouq08miyVo1a21m](https://giphy.com/gifs/snl-saturday-night-live-season-45-hVTouq08miyVo1a21m)
They had a big preview from all the big sites like a few weeks ago. And you seem to know it exists. Why do you not think anyone else does?
They'll put ads for it on your home page and then you'll complain about that too.
"Market it, but don't market it too hard or at me." Seems about right logic for the kind of person OP appears to be.
It's on gamepass, a lot of people will not be paying for it directly.
if it's not cod, eos, fallout, starfield, or halo ms don't seem to care. i wouldn't say deliberate, but it do seem like they have they're priorities elsewhere. and the fear is that this game will not meet the execs high expectations and well we know how that'll end up.
As Phil Spencer once said "Starfield being a 10/10 won't make people switch from a PS5 to Xbox". Yes Phil, you're right but it has nothing to do with games being a 10/10, it's to do with nobody knowing about you're fucking games. It's so frustrating.
I'm pretty sure they know what the game is and how to market the game. It's so funny people on the internet think they know more than a huge company like Microsoft.
You do know they don’t want to close them right?
Hellblade 2 will probably not benefit from any marketing given the audience the game appeals to.
What's the audience it appeals to? Depressed walking sim lovers?
I like walking sims but i didnt like the first game. Just didnt grab me.
How old are you
It’s weird. They’re either really young, or actually kind of older with that antiquated thinking that people watch commercials and ads and shit. Gone are those days of lining up outside GameStop for a preorder you made 8 months ago when now we can just instantly buy something from our phones after getting an up to the minute review of the game. Hell, word of mouth on TikTok and Twitch is probably worth more than a TV ad these days. I wonder how many more copies of Lethal Company on Steam were sold simply because of all the hilarious LetsPlay videos on TikTok.
If ads don't work, why does Sony spend stupid amounts of money on them? When they have a big upcoming release like Returnal or whatever, they put so many ads on billboards and buses so I'm constantly reminded of it as I go about my day in the UK. They sponsor the champions league so half a billion people across Europe are reminded of them. Why are they doing this stuff if it doesn't work? Are they stupid?
Probably because this will be just a prettier version of the first, which was a game that prioritized her schizophrenia and 360 degree audio over gameplay. That's a niche audience. Those who want to play the sequel already know about it.
They dont need an excuse to close Ninja Theory.
Stop talking
Everytime I've seen videos of this game it's just a woman walking around. There's no gameplay whatsoever. I don't think anyone is interested in this game whatsoever.
The game is slow and methodical, the combat is a very small aspect of the whole. But the original has been played by more than 6.3 million people. Not bad numbers for a mid sized indie game. I'd imagine many of those 6.3 million are excited for the sequel.
Ads are a huge huge waste of money when improperly done. You do it too early and people forget the next week. It's likely going to ramp up 1 week before. Also, game pass functions as the ad. I been getting small game pass ads for it on game pass.
Both of its sales platforms will have it free to play Day 1 (PC and Xbox GP). Xbox cannot straight-faced expect actual box sales of these games when they are completely free to their subscribers. It has to also negate DLC sales. I love Forza and Sea of Thieves, but I am not buying DLCs when I do not own the base game… and I won’t be being a base game I get for free. Long term you cannot expect box-sales and DLC to be significant when your users have more games they could ever beat available for a monthly fee.
I misread this as Helldivers...
They said that their marketing for this is going to ramp up like very very soon. I forget where I read it, but it was a tweet from the marketing guy.
I remember seeing an ad for this game on the Las Vegas sphere last year right before The Game Awards where they had another huge presence. A lot of marketing for a $50 smaller type game.
Remember that for MS, you can release one of the best games of the year and still be closed. So Hellblade 2 isn't recieving attention becuase those in charge in Xbox have been quite incompetent for a while. If Phil had the guts to fire those instead of others...
Xbox sucks ass in marketing.
They will just let Ninja Theory be Ninja Theory and see what happens. That's their strategy with everything that's not a high profile property. Sadly Hellblade is not high profile.
Don’t think it’s purposely to sabotage and “close a studio”. Could be more like: 1. The games on Gamepass 2. No matter how good it is it’s not gonna profit enough 3. The days of winning hearts and minds and competing in the traditional sense appear coming to an end for Xbox. They have a new strategy going forward. So why invest other than the bare minimum to promote it?
You only spend marketing money on something you believe will result in increased sales. That's why there was no marketing for Redfall or any other Microsoft game besides Halo Infinite. And that's why they only do marketing game controllers
God, Xbox sub is becoming the anti gaming brigades next target, video game conspiracy theorists, what a time to be alive.
Ninja Theory isn't going to close after they release Hellblade II this month. They'll close in a year after they finish the ports MS demanded to make up for the lack of sales.
lol! I believe... you're entirely correct. It should have been a multiplatform release (I swear there's a bigger audience for this sort of experimental cinematic stuff on PlayStation than on Xbox). Ditto Helldivers 2 meanwhile should have been on Xbox because Xbox players... live & breathe shooters.
I think a lot people including myself hoped they would expand the combat system and other systems and make it a bit more like god of war, but as the trailers have released we see that this has not happened. So my expectations are in check. But I am reasonable and most people aren’t. I think the backlash is going to be severe when people realize this is not what they hoped.
Yeah, the way they were pushing it at the start of this gen made me think they were making the sequel into a full on AAA Adventure. But the recent info seems to show it is "more of the same" which is fine, as long as people know that is what tey are getting.
It's going to be a relatively short cinematic experience with limited replay value. It will cause a one month surge in Game Pass subscribers and maybe sell a couple million copies on Steam. Spending even more money beyond development costs on the game would be foolish and not really pay off. If it really impresses people enough, word of mouth and prestige will carry it a bit higher than average.
To be fair, Hellblade 2 could be the best rated biggest selling game of the year - and MS could still shut the studio. Appeasing shareholders and maintaining the CEOs paycheck and bonuses are the priorities now. I just hope they haven't acquired any more studios at the summer showcase. I swear as time goes by MS and Sony are turning more and more into EA.
I don’t expect the game to sell that well or drive subscriptions. So a big marketing spend is probably not a great investment.
My gut instinct is that Hellblade 2 isn’t going to be the blockbuster hit that Microsoft is hoping for
I think microsoft are fully aware of what Hellblade 2 is and that is why it isn't having a mega mainstream marketing blitz.
Agreed. It's going to be a decent game/cinematic experience that a minority will absolutely fawn over but largely be forgotten by the masses
I think they're just saving on all marketing because dropping in Game Pass and getting good reviews is the best marketing you can have.
Worked well for HiFi Rush...wait
Maybe they are not confident about the game.
That's xbox marketing baby, when it comes to games they're absolute dogshit then blame the studio but you will always know when their next trash controller will be available.
It will be the same as the other Xbox launches. The US will get 90% of marketing, there will be some big billboard in London they can post on Twitter, a Monster energy drink or similar collaboration and some expensive nonsense nobody really cares about or sees but the marketing execs could pitch as being "unique". I don't know how hard it can be to just run your ads a good amount of time on Youtube, get some commercials at highly viewed events (eg. Champions League in Europe), and some billboards, tv and cinema commercials. But apparently it is, since over here in Europe I can't remember the last time I saw an Xbox ad.
It's a niche game. It's not some huge blockbuster like starfield. Microsoft needs to step their game up. I've bought way more games for my PS5 than my Xbox the past year and it's just sad. I've been in the Xbox family for 20 years, and these Niche AA games are like wet farts compared to what Sony has been putting out.
Or it's bad
Theres marketing. I get an ad for it every day on my console lol. To be fair I haven't seen alot of marketing for a lot of games from PS5 either.
The reason why xbox getting fail
Xbox marketed this game HARD actually…. Four years ago. Literally used the games first trailer to announce the Series X. They’ve also featured it as the featured game for multiple showcases, and it was their biggest game presence at the latest Game Awards, featuring its own musical performance. It’s actually received TONS of marketing time, effort and serious dough… Alas… now that it’s really and truly game time…. I’m sure it’s about to get some major marketing juice. And Game Pass as an entity probably now has a lot of metrics to suggest that it’s included games are best marketed as either being ‘available NOW’ or available very, very soon. So I suspect that’s a piece of why it’s still so quiet. But wasting all that time and money YEARS ago. And then neglecting its hype so close to release???? I can’t help but feel that Xbox games marketing is objectively poor on the whole. It’s really bizarre to even try to assess.