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LawBreakers' launch numbers are much lower than Battleborn's - PCGamesN

It's a shame because I hear it's a good game but it seems like any game of this type, that comes out now, will live in the shadow of Overwatch.

When Overwatch has a large amount of the people (who like this type of game) already invested in it, getting them to stop playing and try something new is difficult and the genre already has Battleborn, Paladins and a few others too, so it seems like LawBreakers is just suffering because it's late to the party, not because it's a bad game.
 

Bluth54

Member
Steamcharts shows the 24 peak at around 1850 players. Lawbreakers couldn't break it's launch day peak of around 3,000 players on the first Friday night after launch. It will be interesting to see how it does to see the rest of the weekend but I doubt it will hit launch numbers.
 

Jobbs

Banned
This is literally the first I've ever heard of this game, and I'm an avid gamer who spends at least 5 minutes each day here on GAF, so...
Somebody completely failed to make people aware this game was happening.

EDIT: I'm watching a couple gameplay clips and... Huh.
I mean, it certainly looks competent, but there's an oddly...generic feel to it?
Like, this looks like one of those mock-up games you'd see someone playing in the background of a TV show or on NCIS or something during one of those "this is what your grandma thinks a video game is" episodes.

I've been looking at it. I can't speak to the gameplay merits of the game, because I'm not big on overwatch so I'm not sure how to compare it mechanically -- But in terms of visuals, it's incomprehensibly dull. The characters seem to be cheerful and happy, which would go along with a fun looser style for the game, but instead everyone looks drab and generic and dull like a logical AI (an AI born in the xbox 360 era) designed them.

I don't know how games exist that look as dull as this. There's clear talent here, and clearly the artists who work on the game are very skilled -- but the actual art design is so bland and forgettable I can't even remember what anyone or anything looks like mere minutes after looking away. By comparison, I've only played Overwatch a couple times and I remember most of the characters.
 

Meccs

Member
I agree that the character design is atrocious. Everyone that has played it say it's great fun though. It needs a free weekend but I bet it will have to go F2P at some point. It already has loot boxes for $$$ build in...
 

Apathy

Member
100% should have not listened to the fans and should have just been f2p. Would gave let a much larger audience try it. Probably the biggest mistake the game did
 
Yeah, it seems to be the game with the closest UT feel right now. I guess it's too "niche" nowaday. As you said, it seems to be very unforgiving as well which is probably too hard for 95% of Overwatch playerbase.

99.9999%. They really are the most unskilled and least capable group of gamers ive ever seen
 
This is literally the first I've ever heard of this game, and I'm an avid gamer who spends at least 5 minutes each day here on GAF, so...
Somebody completely failed to make people aware this game was happening.

EDIT: I'm watching a couple gameplay clips and... Huh.
I mean, it certainly looks competent, but there's an oddly...generic feel to it?
Like, this looks like one of those mock-up games you'd see someone playing in the background of a TV show or on NCIS or something during one of those "this is what your grandma thinks a video game is" episodes.

Giant Bomb made a similar remark that Lawbreakers "gives me such a heavy videogame-from-a-movie vibe" in their Quick Look.
 

gossi

Member
The game is actually really cool and fun, and reviewed well.

They didn't have a marketing budget. It's not that people disliked the game, because largely they haven't played it.

Same happened with Rainbow Six. I remember when that first launched, NeoGAF danced on its grave.
 

Amneisac

Member
The game is actually really cool and fun, and reviewed well.

They didn't have a marketing budget. It's not that people disliked the game, because largely they haven't played it.

Same happened with Rainbow Six. I remember when that first launched, NeoGAF danced on its grave.

They did, but the thing is R6 still had 10-12x more people than this playing at launch. Eventually the problem is, with all value judgments aside, that if too few people are playing new people won't buy not because they don't think the game is good but because they're worried it's not going to last. R6 was also complicated by the people who resented the change of direction from the earlier games.
 

Miker

Member
The game is actually really cool and fun, and reviewed well.

They didn't have a marketing budget. It's not that people disliked the game, because largely they haven't played it.

Same happened with Rainbow Six. I remember when that first launched, NeoGAF danced on its grave.

The marketing was there - I think it was streamed by some Twitch streamers (sponsored), and I saw a lot of ads on Twitter. It's a multiplayer only shooter, and it wasn't gonna get your traditional 30 second TV ad campaign, but they definitely made an effort. I think there's just not a whole lot of room for another hero shooter in the current market, at least with an upfront $30 cost.
 

E92 M3

Member
Overwatch stealing all of the oxygen doesn't mean I want it to fail. Apparently that's not common sense for some.

Lawbreakers is nothing like OW, and the comparisons are blatantly stupid. Either way it's shameful that some of you want an indie studio to fail.
 

_Legacy_

Member
The game's a flop so far, that's for sure.

I'd feel sorry for Cliffy if it wasn't for his "Xbox XOXO" a few weeks back. Got what he deserved.
 

Gator86

Member
Overwatch stealing all of the oxygen doesn't mean I want it to fail. Apparently that's not common sense for some.

Lawbreakers is nothing like OW, and the comparisons are blatantly stupid. Either way it's shameful that some of you want an indie studio to fail.

Being apathetic to the market shrugging at a new release isn't wanting an indie studio to fail. That's a ridiculous false equivalency.
 

Budi

Member
Being apathetic to the market shrugging at a new release isn't wanting an indie studio to fail. That's a ridiculous false equivalency.
They didn't mean that people not buying the game want it to fail. But the gloating that has happened around this game and it's sales even here in GAF. If you are apathetic towards it, then the person clearly wasn't talking about you.
 

zedge

Member
Have you actually played the game? The gameplay is actually really amazing. I could see this being a great Esports game if the Internet didn't decide it sucked prior to actually playing it.

Yes, I played the beta. I wanted to like it as I like Cliffy and what he has done in the past. It did nothing for me. There are much better games I would rather play, including overwatch which I enjoy, even though I suck for the most part.

I will keep my eye on it and see if they make any big changes though. The price is a plus too, at least its not $60/70 full price like some online only games.
 
I won't lie, the sponsored streams of this game (and other games) actually did more to turn me off to it than on. I get annoyed when my streamers stop playing their usual games or games they'd naturally want to play to do sponsored stuff. I typically just turn away when that happens.

What separates this from Overwatch? To someone who only has a little experience with Overwatch, it basically just looks like less creative Overwatch.

Higher emphasis on mobility and aiming, MOBA elements (ults/cooldowns/etc.) are toned down and less important, classes are much more generalistic as opposed to the "hard counter" design of Overwatch.

If Lawbreakers is TF2 with MOBA elements (for better or for worse), Overwatch is first-person Heroes of the Storm.
 

Perineum

Member
It's so strange, because watching year in year out posts on GAF for what GAF wants from a FPS this is what I've seen most want from a fast pace shooter.

Balanced (at the moment I can get MVP with any class on PS4)
Great map design
No lag issues
No spawn issues
No regenerating health over time
Fun to play
Looks great
Great soundtrack
Skill > all

I mean shit, what more do you need? To top it off they didn't make their loot boxes stupid like OW's IMO, and it's $30 bucks out the gate.

Most would be surprised how good this game is if they gave it 5-10 games to try. It's my favorite shooter since Gears of War 1 for fun.
 

MaLDo

Member
It's so strange, because watching year in year out posts on GAF for what GAF wants from a FPS this is what I've seen most want from a fast pace shooter.

Balanced (at the moment I can get MVP with any class on PS4)
Great map design
No lag issues
No spawn issues
No regenerating health over time
Fun to play
Looks great
Great soundtrack
Skill > all

I mean shit, what more do you need? To top it off they didn't make their loot boxes stupid like OW's IMO, and it's $30 bucks out the gate.

Most would be surprised how good this game is if they gave it 5-10 games to try. It's my favorite shooter since Gears of War 1 for fun.


For me, controller support on pc is shit. And graphics in the second beta were bad too. I need absurd level of downsampling to reduce the shimmering and my 1080 was not enough. In the top of the problems, no bots for single player. So is a simple no buy for me.
 

Budi

Member
For me, controller support on pc is shit. And graphics in the second beta were bad too. I need absurd level of downsampling to reduce the shimmering and my 1080 was not enough. In the top of the problems, no bots for single player. So is a simple no buy for me.
How so? I haven't played this particular game on a controller, but could you elaborate.
 

Mik317

Member
As someone who generally isn't a fan of FPS, OW drew me in because of the pre-launch rollout with the cinematics and of course the character designs...but I didn't jump in until I saw gameplay and saw it was more than just run and shoot (by that I mean your character had lots of movement options which is the best part of gaming as a fat and out shape person lol). So I gave it a shot, and was hooked for over a year (falling off now due to my lack of skills trapping me with fellow scrublords and its just not fun down here ;_; ).

Lawbreakers however.....I just found out about it via some random youtube ad and didn't know it was out. Check one against it. The characters don't grab me personally...thats just asthetics at the end of the day but eh. Check two. And finally, its pretty hardcore..from what little I did look at it, one of the first things stated was that you gotta git gud to make it....OW at least for a little bit one had an out and could get carried. Check 3. Now this is just me of course but I imagine others fall into at least one of those "failings". OW was a perfect storm, with an incredible push, with enough of a low bar of entry to get its hooks in. Also EVERYONE was talking about it. I don't think any game can have that happen again.
 
No marketing and up against insanely popular team based shooters with thriving communities like R6S and Overwatch. Hell, even Paladins is doing decent. Wrong time to release a me too fps.
 
It's so strange, because watching year in year out posts on GAF for what GAF wants from a FPS this is what I've seen most want from a fast pace shooter.

Balanced (at the moment I can get MVP with any class on PS4)
Great map design
No lag issues
No spawn issues
No regenerating health over time
Fun to play
Looks great
Great soundtrack
Skill > all

I mean shit, what more do you need? To top it off they didn't make their loot boxes stupid like OW's IMO, and it's $30 bucks out the gate.

Most would be surprised how good this game is if they gave it 5-10 games to try. It's my favorite shooter since Gears of War 1 for fun.

To be honest, I want TF2 but with better thought-out tank classes.

I don't want ults or MOBA elements at all.
 

RSTEIN

Comics, serious business!
Today will likely be the first day where peak players fails to hit the 1,000 mark. The good news is peak players seems to be stabilizing around the 1,000 area. The population is no longer falling 15-20% per day like it was last week. The bad news is... well, they're going to have to do some sort of hail mary pass (f2p, deep disounts, etc.) to resurrect interest/keep the studio going.
 

jediyoshi

Member
It's so strange, because watching year in year out posts on GAF for what GAF wants from a FPS this is what I've seen most want from a fast pace shooter.

Balanced (at the moment I can get MVP with any class on PS4)
Great map design
No lag issues
No spawn issues
No regenerating health over time
Fun to play
Looks great
Great soundtrack
Skill > all

I mean shit, what more do you need? To top it off they didn't make their loot boxes stupid like OW's IMO, and it's $30 bucks out the gate.

There aren't enough people playing to dispute these to begin with, so opinions of the game are what you're making of it.
 
It's so strange, because watching year in year out posts on GAF for what GAF wants from a FPS this is what I've seen most want from a fast pace shooter.

Balanced (at the moment I can get MVP with any class on PS4)
Great map design
No lag issues
No spawn issues
No regenerating health over time
Fun to play
Looks great
Great soundtrack
Skill > all

I mean shit, what more do you need? To top it off they didn't make their loot boxes stupid like OW's IMO, and it's $30 bucks out the gate.

Most would be surprised how good this game is if they gave it 5-10 games to try. It's my favorite shooter since Gears of War 1 for fun.

gaffers dont actually want this. see ovewatch
 

E92 M3

Member
It's so strange, because watching year in year out posts on GAF for what GAF wants from a FPS this is what I've seen most want from a fast pace shooter.

Balanced (at the moment I can get MVP with any class on PS4)
Great map design
No lag issues
No spawn issues
No regenerating health over time
Fun to play
Looks great
Great soundtrack
Skill > all

I mean shit, what more do you need? To top it off they didn't make their loot boxes stupid like OW's IMO, and it's $30 bucks out the gate.

Most would be surprised how good this game is if they gave it 5-10 games to try. It's my favorite shooter since Gears of War 1 for fun.

Well said.
 

Mooreberg

Member
Today will likely be the first day where peak players fails to hit the 1,000 mark. The good news is peak players seems to be stabilizing around the 1,000 area. The population is no longer falling 15-20% per day like it was last week. The bad news is... well, they're going to have to do some sort of hail mary pass (f2p, deep disounts, etc.) to resurrect interest/keep the studio going.
I am still not sure F2P is automatic solution. Games that launched with higher player counts (see the thread title) were not rescued by going free. If it could hit 2,500 concurrent players on a regular basis and tweak matchmaking to not punish people at far ends of the skill curve, it could be ok. But I think the longer it takes to correct that, the more some people will bounce off the game, and more potential players will be put off by reading about long wait or uneven matches.

I really disagree with that IGN article about how player numbers do not matter. If there are too few, or the people playing the game treating objective modes like TDM, it just turns into a mess.
 

E92 M3

Member
I am still not sure F2P is automatic solution. Games that launched with higher player counts (see the thread title) were not rescued by going free. If it could hit 2,500 concurrent players on a regular basis and tweak matchmaking to not punish people at far ends of the skill curve, it could be ok. But I think the longer it takes to correct that, the more some people will bounce off the game, and more potential players will be put off by reading about long wait or uneven matches.

I really disagree with that IGN article about how player numbers do not matter. If there are too few, or the people playing the game treating objective modes like TDM, it just turns into a mess.

Yes, SBMM exacerbates this problem so much.
 
It looks really well produced game. Seems very polished. I guess it's too late though. OW got the market. There is no room for another like it with a juggernaut already released.
 

noomi

Member
such a shame :(

I've been playing every day to get the most out of the game while the population is still somewhat around.
 
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