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[gpn]

But it was in top 8?!

It was! It was in the top 8 pages (of 24).

 

[nial]

I do think Housemarque would be finding more success if they had remained independent vs whatever Sony is trying to do with them.

The self-published Nex Machina (day 1 on PC) was such a big underperformer for them that they tried to pivot to a PvP multiplayer game with "battle royale influences", which would end up being canned. The studio would have likely been dead if it weren't for Sony funding Returnal for them.

ARCADE IS DEAD — Housemarque

END OF AN ERA – LONG LIVE ARCADE, AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Letter to the fans For more than 20 years we’ve been carrying the torch for arcade, bringing arcade coin-op inspired games to the market with a Housemarque twist, and I think it’s fair to say we’ve gotten pretty good a

housemarque.com

STORMDIVERS OFFICIAL TRAILER REVEAL — Housemarque

Hello from Housemarque! We are excited to finally share our first real look at Stormdivers with this new official trailer featuring gameplay. You can expect to learn more about Stormdivers, Housemarque’s first gaming experience of a new era, in the coming months. Be sure to check out&a

housemarque.com

RIP. When Returnal's director left, they most likely cancelled/rebooted his project and made this Returnal-esque game in ~3 years.

Which is a shame. It really feels like a $40 spin-off game.

Harry Krueger left Housemarque in November 2023, which is less than 2.5 years before Saros released, a game we also know started development in 2022.

 

[Last Hearth]

Would the game have done better if it had no stories or cut scenes? Just action like the old Doom games.

 

[havoc00]

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Games like Saros will rarely be big sellers, especially at full price. Who the hell is going to pay $90 CDN + tax = over $100 for a bullet hell shooter?

Even worse, how does this game require a $76M US budget? Returnal was supposedly about $25M. Saros is so much better it costs 3x to make?

 

[AndrewRyan]

The self-published Nex Machina (day 1 on PC) was such a big underperformer for them that they tried to pivot to a PvP multiplayer game with "battle royale influences", which would end up being canned. The studio would have likely been dead if it weren't for Sony funding Returnal for them.

They were really bad at promoting their own games. I completely missed out on most of their of their major releases despite being a huge fan of their PS3 and PSP games, and being on their mailing list for that failed multiplayer game. Only found them months or years later by searching directly for their company name.

If they are needing to make some money they should make Nex Machina 2. With their reputation and a $20 price, I'd take that all day every day over Silksong.

 

[Moses85]

 

[Poppyseed]

I'm talking about unit sales. I Platinum'ed Returnal, I know the games are fun. I'm not racing to drop $70 USD on a reskinned expansion pack though--especially a rogue like--when there's so much other stuff to play. What I was intimating is there's now too much competition on an old and busted console that has long lost its luster, and it's way too expensive for what it is.

You said it was effectively an expansion pack. It definitely is not. Go back to play Returnal. I LOVE that game but Returnal is way better in terms of the gameplay loop and progression.

 

[CyberChulo]

• Release Date: April 30, 2026.
• Data Period: April 28, 2026 – May 21, 2026 (24 days).
• Context: The game was available for 21 days during the tracked period (as it released April 30).

Data Extrapolation

• Average Hours Played Per Day (Total): 315,714 hours/day.
• Average Player Deaths Per Day: 625,238 deaths/day.
• Average Enemies Killed Per Day: 41.09 million kills/day.

Estimated Player Count

Based on the 6.63 million hours played over 21 days of active gameplay, the average time spent per player is roughly 15 to 25 hours for a title of this genre (often high-difficulty, roguelike-adjacent).

• Conservative Estimate (Average 25 hours/player): ~265,000 players.
• Aggressive Estimate (Average 15 hours/player): ~442,000 players.

 

[MrJangles]

Next time lets stay away from rogue lite mechanics and please keep the story simple in your "arcadey" game, we dont need a course in cuck bicurious psychology to play a fucking shooter game.

There won't be a next time for Housemarque!

 

[Physiognomonics]

I watched this classic yesterday! Still a great movie.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Next time lets stay away from rogue lite mechanics and please keep the story simple in your "arcadey" game, we dont need a course in cuck bicurious psychology to play a fucking shooter game.

Not limited to Sony games because you see it everywhere now.

But studios got to jam in their politics, drawn out narratives, and dialogue cut scenes as they itch to be seen in the same light as Spielberg at a red carpet event.

And as usual, with every game or sequel it's always got to be bigger, more splashy and a higher budget just to make sure every gamer can see it's a big wow showcase event complete as one part game and one part movie. As if every game or gamer needs to have big plots.

Why go see a film for $15 when you can pay $70 US for a product that is one part rogue shooter and one part movie. Kill two birds with one stone!!!

 

[//DEVIL//]

6 million hours played.... considering some people spent 30 hours on this game already. maybe avarage 8 hours .... the game barely broke the 1 million sale ( if even ).

at 500k players its avarage around 12 hours played so far.

1 million 6 hours avarage. so i would say as an estimated guess they are close to 1 million sold copies.


Not really great numbers for a game that was in development for 5 or 4 years ( when returnal was released? 2021 ? 5 years then )

 

[K' Dash]

Maybe not the ones you were hoping for, but numbers nonetheless

this tells me that it didnt sell for shit, lol.

Sony keeps collecting failures.

 

[reezoo]

They create such good sci-fi world then f**k it all up by turning whole conversation into mental / personal issues. Dude/Dudette, I play games to f**king escape from this kind of BS, dont remind me about them again when I am here.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Someone earlier posted they think it's about 500k. I agree. 200-300k sounds too low. And I think 1M+ is too high.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

Probably won't find out until mid/late summer when Q1 reports come out. Not at all necessary to publish anyways.

Not necessary to publish if the numbers aren't great which every other source is pointing to them not being.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Someone could do some fancy math and take a look at the trophies related to boss completion and figure out pretty close to the number of "players" at least. Sales will be somewhat less than though.

 

[Not_A-Cop_Maybe]

Classic Microsoft with their evading actual sales stats and going to gameplay stats- clearly gamepass is eating into sa.....


wait who makes this game again?

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

Was anyone torn on starting it then glad they did? I bought it but man I just remember in returnal hating the combo of rogue and bullet hell, I had the concept of rogue... It's such a lazy style of game. But the atmosphere and game overall looks good but man I dunno, might start bond instead

 

[PeteBull]

Hermen "the hitman" Hulst after seeing that announcemnt:

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

Ufffff.....

Not a good sign

 

[YeulEmeralda]

It sold zero because gamers are dead.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Aside from the complete nonsense of these metrics, it's kind of unsettling that companies know so much about how we play a game. The amount of data they collect about your style, habits, and gaming patterns is pretty alarming.

They know who you fapped to and share this information.

 

[TheAmazingSpiderMan]

LOL, Xbox were doing this when their numbers weren't looking so good.

 

[Loomy]

Not necessary to publish if the numbers aren't great which every other source is pointing to them not being.

I just mean in general, not in this particular case.

 

[RafterXL]

Just checked the US Playstation store bestsellers list and Saros is sitting at #121, yikes! (Marathon's at ~90, so double-yikes). I bet Playstation's made more money off of Starfield, still hanging in there at #38, than either of those two.

Can't believe people were arguing with me that this game was a success. You could literally smell the corpse from day one.

Would the game have done better if it had no stories or cut scenes? Just action like the old Doom games.

Removing that stuff would have cut the costs and they could have priced it appropriately for what it is. For some reason Sony is under the delusion that throwing money at a niche genre and adding cutscenes will make people pay $80 for a $30 game.

 

[calico]

Alinea has it at 'almost 400k' sold. I think that's probably on the low side based on the hours (and there's another week of hours to add to the OP number).

 

[Kilau]

Likely low sales but those playing sure seem to like it.

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

lol

 

[Pelao]

"Returnal" is a phenomenal game, but I've learned my lesson not to spend 70 bucks on a game I can finish the same day I buy it.

 

[OLED_Gamer]

I'm really enjoying this. Bought day 1 so did my part o7

 

[The Mad Draklor]

Can't believe people were arguing with me that this game was a success. You could literally smell the corpse from day one.

Speaking of which, there's a certain person who's notably absent when he usually beelines towards threads like this to damage control.

 

[dwish]

Games have become far too expensive. I want this, but at 90 euros, when I don't even know whether I'll like it? No way.

New Bond game launched with a discount at ~50, I bought that when I would've preferred to buy Saros. Sony, please understand.

 

[FoxMcChief]

"Returnal" is a phenomenal game, but I've learned my lesson not to spend 70 bucks on a game I can finish the same day I buy it.

Like I've said numerous times. Only a few games are worth buying. Even fewer are worth buying at launch.

 

[ReasonBeing]

Say each player died 100 times in their play through that means there's only 130,000 players…

Say each player has died 100,000 times. That's only 130 players.

 

[Arsic]

Say each player has died 100,000 times. That's only 130 players.

I played through the game. It's fair to say to complete it you'll likely die 30-40 times I'd wager.

Now do some math and all signs are this sold like hot shit.

 

[ReasonBeing]

I played through the game. It's fair to say to complete it you'll likely die 30-40 times I'd wager.

Now do some math and all signs are this sold like hot shit.

Sure, it's not selling like you would expect a Sony 1st party release, I'm just busting balls.

Why didn't you divide by 30-40 then? Consider that you yourself state that would be close to an average number of deaths per player. I'm not really vested in what the number is, just curious about the choice.

 

[Arsic]

Sure, it's not selling like you would expect a Sony 1st party release, I'm just busting balls.

Why didn't you divide by 30-40 then? Consider that you yourself state that would be close to an average number of deaths per player. I'm not really vested in what the number is, just curious about the choice.

I divided with other numbers in another post.

I went with the "imagine 100" scenario first because games like this journalists and casuals would die that much to see the ending.

I think I got away with 20 some? At 30 it's about 430,000 copies.

All I'm saying is if a Bond sold 1.5million in a day, and Sony won't mention a number for this, then we can all deduce it's under a million and if we use that death number it likely ranges IMO 300k to 400k at best.

 

[ReasonBeing]

I divided with other numbers in another post.

I went with the "imagine 100" scenario first because games like this journalists and casuals would die that much to see the ending.

I think I got away with 20 some? At 30 it's about 430,000 copies.

All I'm saying is if a Bond sold 1.5million in a day, and Sony won't mention a number for this, then we can all deduce it's under a million and if we use that death number it likely ranges IMO 300k to 400k at best.

I believe it's probably around those numbers as well.

 

[ahtlas7]

Maybe not the ones you were hoping for, but numbers nonetheless

Well I'm convinced!
I'll continue not buying the game.

 

[{insert code here}]

.... how does this game require a $76M US budget? Returnal was supposedly about $25M. Saros is so much better it costs 3x to make?

When you're spending your own money you're more likely to be frugal, responsible with it. The pessimistic scenario is that Saros is the first game they've developed since the Sony acquisition so.... if it's someone else's money then it's almost the opposite approach and you pull every dollar you can for your team regardless of the situation.

 

[Cakeboxer]

When you're spending your own money you're more likely to be frugal, responsible with it. The pessimistic scenario is that Saros is the first game they've developed since the Sony acquisition so.... if it's someone else's money then it's almost the opposite approach and you pull every dollar you can for your team regardless of the situation.

You are not wrong, but it's not that simple either. Sony isn't stupid and shits out money without asking and cotrolling. Development costs have exploded, and Returnal was started over a decade ago, back when making games at a reasonable budget was still much more managable.

 

[AutumnLeaves]

"Returnal" is a phenomenal game, but I've learned my lesson not to spend 70 bucks on a game I can finish the same day I buy it.

You beat Returnal the same day you bought it?

 

[MrJangles]

"Returnal" is a phenomenal game, but I've learned my lesson not to spend 70 bucks on a game I can finish the same day I buy it.

 

[IAmAnAgnostic]

"Most popular weapon the smart rifle."

Yeah, really? You downgraded the weapons from Returnal to be boring ('Smart' Rifle in Saros vs for example Laser Weapons or Rocket Launcher in Returnal, and the latter even have additional modifiers) and you also made them less balanced, by far the best weapon being the Smart Rifle in Saros.

You should never use any other weapon type in Saros, regardless of weapon level, and you can keep it on death. Nice "roguelike." Not regretting at all selling my physical copy upon beating the game.

 

[MALpractice311]

I see some people saying it didn't sell well because it's a rogue-like, I don't really understand this statement seeing as how Hades and Hades 2 exist, the bigger problem with this game aside from all the divisive narrative stuff is it fails at being both a rogue-like and an action game, it's not a full on action game cause it has rogue-like elements, but it doesn't really feel challenging like a rouge-like is suppose because they not only put too much weight on the feedback that Returnal was "too difficult" and made Saros too easy, but then gave you mechanics within the game to make it even easier so it fails to really nail the "struggling to persevere" aspects of a rouge-like.

I played Returnal on PC and while I've played harder Rouge-like games it's definitely not an easy game, by comparison I was able to beat Saros casually over 1 weekend playing it on a friend's PS5 while I was pet sitting at his house, once you die the handful of times the game's progression seems to require to roll out all of it's mechanics it kinda just quits being hard at all.

100% this. They tried to make a game that appealed to everyone and made a game that appeals to no one.

Housemarque is done for.

 

[Odinnii]

Would the game have done better if it had no stories or cut scenes? Just action like the old Doom games.

Would have costed a lot less to make, that's for sure.

A rogue-lite shooter doesn't need a full cast to preform a lecture on male possessiveness and its consequences.

 

[Bernardougf]

You are not wrong, but it's not that simple either. Sony isn't stupid and shits out money without asking and cotrolling. Development costs have exploded, and Returnal was started over a decade ago, back when making games at a reasonable budget was still much more managable.

LoL do we live in the same reality? Because in mine Sony bought a whole studio and financed a multi-million one week flop called Concord and is on the verge of an almost 4 billion investment flop... maybe the multiverse is real

 

[kiphalfton]

Total player deaths: 13.13 million

So even if each person who played the game died 13 times on average, it sold ~1 million copies?

Which I doubt, if it's anything like the first game (i.e. death happens a lot).

Sounds pretty bad.