Cos if you pretend it is then when it doesn't sell ten million copies you can bash the shit out of XBox which is always fun!
Extra points if you're a gaming chud then you also get to bash "woke" because it foregrounds a woman. win win!
What the hell is going on with Hellblade 2 on Steam? Why is it so low on charts?
- Thread starter Dust
- Start date
Cos if you pretend it is then when it doesn't sell ten million copies you can bash the shit out of XBox which is always fun!
Extra points if you're a gaming chud then you also get to bash "woke" because it foregrounds a woman. win win!
Yeah this is what I started to think. A shame the games and devs are the ones to pay from the demencia of the big corporations.
They're based in the UK aren't they? Doubt the average salary is in the ballpark of $100k, even with MS pounds.
You can probably halve that for UK salaries.
Even right at this moment, without actually looking specifically (and being in this thread!) I couldn't tell you the release date for Hellblade 2, but I know exactly when Shadow of the Erdtree and Lorelai and the Laser Eyes release. It really is baffling to me. And I loved the first Hellblade. Perhaps part of it is the current controversy/frustration with MS, but probably more so is the very long development cycle. I've somewhat stopped caring.
Dunno how people can say "literally 0 marketing", it has a sponsored advert on Reddit every couple of scrolls, the biggest online platform in the world (or one of the biggest)
Granted, I will admit, I think the vast majority of internet users are specially trained to skim over adverts like that
Granted, I will admit, I think the vast majority of internet users are specially trained to skim over adverts like that
May get it if Digital Foundry says its well optimized because I want something to push my 4090 but not because its a bad port and I have to bruteforce it.
Otherwise I have not that big of an interest in the game.
And gamepass surely doesn't impact anything on Steam because Gamepass on PC is even less of a factor than Xbox is in Europe.
As always overvalued on here.
No one wants to format their harddrive all the time.
If people are actually interested in a game they will buy it for full price on Steam.
Looks like there currently is really low interest in it and who knows what the reasons might be.
Otherwise I have not that big of an interest in the game.
And gamepass surely doesn't impact anything on Steam because Gamepass on PC is even less of a factor than Xbox is in Europe.
As always overvalued on here.
No one wants to format their harddrive all the time.
If people are actually interested in a game they will buy it for full price on Steam.
Looks like there currently is really low interest in it and who knows what the reasons might be.
Didn't love the first game and not much I've seen has changed my mind. I'll be playing it on PC as I have GP, otherwise I'd skip until sales.
Only reason I know it is coming out soon is upcoming games on GP and the few threads we've had on here. Not seen much talk about it elsewhere, and no one I know has even spoken about it.
Not really a fan of these devs but I don' t want to see more studios close. Hopefully it does well.
Only reason I know it is coming out soon is upcoming games on GP and the few threads we've had on here. Not seen much talk about it elsewhere, and no one I know has even spoken about it.
Not really a fan of these devs but I don' t want to see more studios close. Hopefully it does well.
You don't talk about marketing like this. You simply do it.
And Xbox' massive problem with marketing is not a week old.
I've seen or heard 0 of all that marketing for Stellar Blade, literally all I've heard about it is chud excitement, nothing more, on the other hand I've actually seen trailers pop up for HB2. I'm not in the US though so could be that.
I guess if you count the main director or whatevers comment about you're gonna spend a lot of time looking at the back of the character as marketing that would count
I just don't think the interest is there for this game. I feel like this game got greenlit when Microsoft was just throwing around gamepass money like there was no tomorrow, and in retrospect this probably never should've been made in the first place.
that's not to say it's gonna be a terrible game, but the first game didn't exactly cultivate a huge following, so spending 7 years developing a sequel and using that dev time to hand carve wooden objects so you can scan them into the game for a more authentic feel seems like an extravagant use of time and budget.
that's not to say it's gonna be a terrible game, but the first game didn't exactly cultivate a huge following, so spending 7 years developing a sequel and using that dev time to hand carve wooden objects so you can scan them into the game for a more authentic feel seems like an extravagant use of time and budget.
It's close to my hear for a bunch of personal mental health reasons and if it doesn't appeal to people that's fine but seeing people come into this thread just to shit on this title is depressing the fuck out of me
It's going to be way worse after launch :(
I just don't think people are motivated to play it right now. Probably one of those games where if you played the first then this one won't be very different. Why buy it now when you can get it on sale for cheap later.
That and M$ marketing is terrible.
That and M$ marketing is terrible.
It is pretty funny to be in a thread asking why HB2 is not lighting up the steam pre-order charts to then have it be populated by multiple people saying they aren't interested/it's not for them/it's not enough of an action game.
It's not a lack of marketing, that's just another avenue to beat Microsoft with a stick over.
No I don't wonder why, it's obvious. The point is that most people don't even know the game deals with schizophrenia. The point is that Microsoft can do and could have done more than what they're doing.
You're not going to tell me this is weak ass attempt at marketing the game is justified because the game is about schizophrenia.
View: https://x.com/Xbox/status/1788285447699046602
I think this is the unfortunate truth.
The lack of marketing probably isn't helping, but I really don't think there is much hype around this release as some members of this community seem to think there is.
You can always do more marketing but I'm scrolling past adverts for it every day on Reddit so it's getting "target marketed" I guess because I'm really looking forwards to play it
At this point people I suspect complaining about "marketing" is the same root cause as those posts by Republicans as to why they're getting so many porn ads
It's the monster advertising god people, it just doesn't think you'll be into it
"Why aren't I getting adverts for this game I won't like"
I wish this worked for non-games. Look guys I've JUST bought a new mattress, I'm good, stop showing me mattress adverts
I have Steam and Gamepass and only have enough interest in this game to click this thread to see how it's going. I thought the first one was mid and everything I've seen of this one looks pretty much the same. I imagine it still has its audience but reading this thread is painting a grim picture.
Xbox poorly marketing their game? No way!
Honestly, I don't know how Greenberg still holds the position he does.
Honestly, I don't know how Greenberg still holds the position he does.
I don't think anyone expected the game to be a smash hit but MS itself created an expectation that it would be a big release when it made it the very first glimpse we got of the Series generation. They showed its trailer at the game awards as they announced the Series X, and in the 4 1/2 years since it just seems to have lost some steam.
To go from "here's this trailer, this is how amazing our next-gen is going to be" to the muted interest the game seems to be getting now does show that the marketing hasn't done a great job along the way imo. Could just be people don't care about a sequel to a well-received but not megapopular game that came out quite a while ago, but that first trailer definitely received some buzz back in 2019.
To go from "here's this trailer, this is how amazing our next-gen is going to be" to the muted interest the game seems to be getting now does show that the marketing hasn't done a great job along the way imo. Could just be people don't care about a sequel to a well-received but not megapopular game that came out quite a while ago, but that first trailer definitely received some buzz back in 2019.
I think the mystery for me is why make it such a part of different showcases only to act like it doesn't matter at the finish line?
This is basically my thoughts, when so many people in this very thread say they aren't interested in it or the first one, it's very clear it's a niche game, if you don't interact with this type of content, you sure as hell aren't going to see many ads about it.
Because those different showcase appearances didn't move the needle.
The game is getting marketing. I am begging people to read through Twitter replies to Greenberg's tweet that has been shared in this thread multiple times, where people are saying that they're seeing ads coming out. I am begging them to also read Greenberg's reply, the tweet he made showing they're putting ads in a lot of spaces if they have accounts on Twitter still. I am begging people to go read just a few pages back to see that I posted that same tweet if they don't have a Twitter account anymore. I am begging people to do more reading, rather than popping off drive-by posts about how there has been zero marketing/only bad marketing like that one tweet from Xbox.
I think the reason they're not marketing the game, or have very limited marketing, is simple. They've internally concluded that any money spent marketing will not be made back through standalone sales or new Game Pass subscriptions. At best it will just increase the player base among people who already have Game Pass.
It's an incredibly myopic view, but I think that's their calculus.
It's an incredibly myopic view, but I think that's their calculus.
What does that mean for the game and how are we determining it?
Does that even mean much, when it comes out on gamepass?
Why buy it on steam when you can play it for 12.99 somewhere else?
Why buy it on steam when you can play it for 12.99 somewhere else?
It's not really effective marketing if people have to go actively digging for evidence of its existence.
Everytime you roll something out marketing wise, you have certain metrics you want to hit - preorders, wishlists, hype traffic and other metrics.
If you don't hit those numbers, you try a few other plans of attack, maybe a change of tone, maybe a change in what you are showing, maybe timing.
If all those don't work, you are running out of runway and often the solution isn't "unleash everything!" cause then that just becomes you wasting money you'll never make back.
I mean, I never said I don't like it. I intend to buy it, but not at release. On May 24th I'm going back to my own place, where I have a 1660ti. Won't be around my main PC with its 4060 until autumn, so it makes no sense to shell out 70 CAD + tax now and then try to rush through the game in 3 evenings.
I have it wishlisted on Steam, and I comment on it quite a lot (generally positive). So the algorithm is clearly screwing up.
I do sometimes wonder how important marketing is anymore anyway. Palworld had little to no marketing, Helldivers 2 barely had any, Animal Well had like.. a trailer here and there and thats it? Certainly no more than Hellblade 2. Especially when you factor in gamepass, which gives people easy access to a game. Word of mouth and streaming seem far more important really than any actual marketing in this day and age. Although I dont have hard figures to show that.
If you've heard about a game in any way, that's marketing.
There's just a million types of marketing and most people think traditional or digital ads when they hear the phrase.
I think in this instance the marketing comes down to the first game, was that good enough to get people interested in a second one? We will find out in under 2 weeks.
We will hear "x amount of downloads" but we won't know how long it was played or if it was deleted after an hour.
We are just in a weird space with games now.
Maybe not a popular opinion, but is it just possible the first game wasn't as big as people made it out to be, at least in terms of being a launching pad for a bigger budget sequel being marketed as a AAA/killer app type title? the first game did some interesting things and there was some novelty to the whole "Triple I" thing where an indie game was being produced with AAA type production values, but thus far it doesn't seem like this game expands all that much in terms of mechanics and gameplay, which is fine, especially for people who loved the first game but for people who maybe didn't check it out I don't know that there's a ton of pull to this one.
Completely anecdotal but I've noticed that there is a huge discrepancy between what I'm hearing about HB from journalists/influencers vs a complete lack of interest from my friends and gaming circles, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was the case.