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Senua's Sage: Hellblade 2 Debuts at 23rd in Xbox's "Most Played Games" Rankings; 6th Most Played Game Pass

Topher

Gold Member
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In the top 10 most played for Game Pass...

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DaGwaphics

Member
Jesus Christ, no wonder companies push so hard for GAAS. The entire top 25 is all GAAS except for about 3 games.

Sad times, even sadder when you look at the age of some of these things. Great for the devs that made those specific titles, not so good for devs trying to bring new games to this same space.

Fallout 4 really getting a boost from the show and the new update, good to see that.
 
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xrnzaaas

Member
Jesus Christ, no wonder companies push so hard for GAAS. The entire top 25 is all GAAS except for about 3 games.
The problem is that vast majority are older / established games and IP's, only Xdefiant seems to be something brand new.

It just shows it's going to be very tricky for new gaas games to convince people to stop playing other games.
 
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You joke, but I'm sure that does play into it. Not just for this one, but for a lot of single player games with campaigns that can be completed in 20 or 30 hrs or less. Though of course it's the $ they care about, especially for titles that don't have a MTX back-end.

Half joking half serious. It obviously wasn't going to chart high but it definitely wouldn't have done it any favours depending on how these are updated
 
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Topher

Gold Member
If it wasn't a MS game, one thread with 2 pages would have been enough and people would have forget it.

First party games always get more attention than third party. This does not apply just to MS games.

I enjoy bashing Hellblade 2 just as much as the next guy but this is like the 8th thread about how terrible it is doing...

What threads? This is the Xbox version of the HB2 Steam CCU thread (closest thing to it anyway). What other threads are there?
 
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DarkBatman

SBI’s Employee of the Year
No problem. I read from Xbox fans here in the forum that Microsoft had planned it this way from the beginning and deliberately gave Ninja Theory so many years of development time so that they could get fantastic Gamepass fodder that hardly anyone was interested in.
 
First party games always get more attention than third party. This does not apply just to MS games.



What threads? This is the Xbox version of the Steam CCU thread (closest thing to it anyway). What other threads are there?
There is literally like a 10 page thread about how terrible the engagement with the game is. You really think HB2 deserves 2 threads on CCU and how bad it is doing? okay
 
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geary

Member
First party games always get more attention than third party. This does not apply just to MS games.



What threads? This is the Xbox version of the HB2 Steam CCU thread (closest thing to it anyway). What other threads are there?
I didn't see this volume of thread activity for Pentiment and Astrobot.
 

XXL

Member
There is literally like a 10 page thread about how terrible the engagement with the game is. You really think HB2 deserves 2 threads on CCU and how bad it is doing? okay
We get UK sales, US sales, Japan Sales, etc. I don't see this as any different than that.

The other thread was about Steam, this is about Xbox.

It's interesting to see how the game is doing different places. Imo. Also, the main defense in the other thread is that it was on Game Pass. This doesn't suggest anything is different on Xbox.

The only issue people have with this being posted is that they both aren't great results.

If you don't like the thread, don't engage with it. It's as simple as that.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
There is literally like a 10 page thread about how terrible the engagement with the game is. You really think HB2 deserves 2 threads on CCU and how bad it is doing, okay

Uh....pretty typical for a major first party release. Sorry if you don't think so.

I didn't see this volume of thread activity for Pentiment and Astrobot.

True. I shouldn't say "always". Some smaller first party games don't garner as much interest. This isn't like those though.
 

Darsxx82

Member
Jesus Christ, no wonder companies push so hard for GAAS. The entire top 25 is all GAAS except for about 3 games.
That's why they are there, because they are the ones that add hours and hours of play. HB2 is a game that you finish in 7 or 8 hours on average and is no longer replayable.....
 

Buggy Loop

Member
How are these tracked? Maybe it couldn't keep up with how many people finished it within a day lol

Legit question

While I don't expect a game like Hellblade to ever be a blockbuster, a 6h story adventure with no replayability is hard to nail how much it sold, even worse with gamepass making it all murky to analyse. Since its so short the concurrent users will never be overlap with the new players joining in. Stanley parable, Scorn, ABZU, Inside, What remains of edith finch all showcase similar graphs. Limbo and Firewatch seem to have the highest peaks of the genre but they also rapidly cratered. (in case of Limbo, seems to be during a sale).

Now I doubt they are all failures. Big difference though is that they are true indies and look on par with the expectations (Well Scorn looks freaking nice). Hellblade is made like an indie game, but with a high budget. I don't see how financially it makes sense.

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I guess if it worked for the first game, it should be ok for the second.
 
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djjinx2

Member
It's a high profile first party game. Pentiment was a cheap visual novel and Astrobot was a VR game.

If concord is Sony's fall game and does shit the you're probably going to see five threads from just ArtHands ArtHands alone
People here use Astro bot as a yardstick for first party release in list wars.

Now it doesn't compare. Hellblade isn't the big budget AAA people here seem to paint it as.

Do you realise how big Ninja Theory is? (Not Very)
 

XXL

Member
Hellblade is made like an indie game, but with a high budget. I don't see how financially it makes sense.
I found this the other day and thought this was interesting

“The goal with Hellblade 2 isn’t to perfect it, but to create an experience that feels more believable and more refined. Its ambition in terms of scale is bigger. I think Hellblade 2 will make Hellblade look like an indie game,” said Antoniades."
 

Topher

Gold Member
People here use Astro bot as a yardstick for first party release in list wars.

Now it doesn't compare. Hellblade isn't the big budget AAA people here seem to paint it as.

Do you realise how big Ninja Theory is? (Not Very)

Ninja Theory may not be that big, but they have released AAA games in the past and Hellblade 2 is a major first party release for Microsoft. There wouldn't be any pushback on this thread if the game were in the top ten.

Awkward John Krasinski GIF by Saturday Night Live
 
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