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[CrichtonKicks]

Feels like SE is putting every single marketing dollar into FFXV and is letting the rest of their line suffer as a result. Hitman has been horribly under the radar as well and right now it feels like they are going to let the RotTR PS4 release come and go with minimal fanfare.

 

[EGM1966]

I'll be getting it soon (waiting for new PC) but as others have noted:

Marketing wasn't strong and impression given is SE just thought original audience would automatically come back

The gap between titles was arguably too large allowing interest in a character/narrative continuation to drop

Pity as I love the franchise but you could sense the lower interest this time around. They just didn't generate demand for it.

 

[FallenGrace]

Feels like SE is putting every single marketing dollar into FFXV and is letting the rest of their line suffer as a result. Hitman has been horribly under the radar as well and right now it feels like they are going to let the RotTR PS4 release come and go with minimal fanfare.

Agreed which is a real shame as SE's portfolio really is a lot greater than just Final Fantasy. I get that's a big hitter for them and they've put a lot into it but they shouldn't be ignoring their other franchises, especially if they want them to grow.

 

[mcz117chief]

It will sell but not at full price, people are biding their time and waiting for sale.

This game's release was nothing compared to Human Revolution. This isn't the sequel everybody was waiting for with all those trailers and viral marketing. Everyone knew this one was coming so nobody got surprised and nobody is in a hurry to buy it.

 

[seph1roth]

Guys, i know there's only one city hub in the game (better than Hengsha and Detroit in HR in terms of possibilities but only one), but what about the quest and level design of the missions?

Is at the same level as HR?

 

[Zafir]

Feels like SE is putting every single marketing dollar into FFXV and is letting the rest of their line suffer as a result. Hitman has been horribly under the radar as well and right now it feels like they are going to let the RotTR PS4 release come and go with minimal fanfare.

The funny thing is, I'm sure Square Enix will overestimate its targets on how XV will sell like they've done time and time again, and it'll end up underselling.

I'm amazed they've put so much money into all of the side projects surrounding it really.

 

[dragonflys545]

I just saw a shitton of micro-transactions for this game on PSN... Why do they even have that?

After 5 years of development and hearing about the abrupt ending that leads to part 2... Yeah I'll wait for till Black Friday.

 

[Floody]

I can't say I'm that surprised, don't think I've seen a single ad for it. Is a shame though as I think MD is better (though only slightly) than HR and is just a really good game.

 

[farisr]

Not surprised. Has a lot of factors going against it for initial sales.

-game got delayed
-had the whole preorder blowback
-worse/less marketing (Human Revolution had one of the best game trailers of all time)
-game doesn't fair nearly as well visually as Human Revolution did back then
-people knew what to expect of the game, and HR possibly had inflated expectations for a lot of people and resulted in them being disappointed even if they liked the game, so they may be holding off.
-lower metacritic score

Haven't played the game yet even though I have a copy sitting on my shelf here (since I sold my ps4 in anticipation for the neo), but the game seems solid, and should have decent legs.

 

[BigTnaples]

-game doesn't fair nearly as well visually as Human Revolution did back then.

Uh what?

This is the first time in he history of the franchise that a Deus Ex game hasn't been dated graphically at launch.


Mankind Divided is a stunning game graphically.

 

[Shin-chan]

I was very hyped for HR when that came out. I think I'd have bought MD had my PC been up to snuff, but I've also just been way less interested this time.

Upon finishing the first game (since HR basically comes off as a reboot), it just didn't feel like Jensen needed a sequel. The stories developed in HR weren't compelling enough to leave me desperate for more five years later.

Plus, there's been a number of titles since HR that did what it did in a similar way so the game isn't as unique anymore. I suppose Dishonered is the big one.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

Agreed which is a real shame as SE's portfolio really is a lot greater than just Final Fantasy. I get that's a big hitter for them and they've put a lot into it but they shouldn't be ignoring their other franchises, especially if they want them to grow.

What's the best case scenario for FFXV? Maybe 10 million copies? Worst case- maybe 5 or 6 million (looking at the reception of something like Resident Evil 6).

Hitman is a series that has sold millions of copies for individual installments. Same with Tomb Raider which, at it's height, sells comparably to FF mainline games. Both have spawned movies that received multiple installments. DX is less successful but was at least growing.

It just feels SE is throwing away the health of major franchises for the sake of saving face on FFXV and may even net fewer overall sales of their entire catalog in the long run.

 

[Bisnic]

HR never looked that good, even back in 2011. It was its visual style that saved it.

 

[jett]

The cover comparison sums it up for me. I'm not a Deus Ex fan, but I really, really liked Human Revolution. I played a stealth build and had a lot of fun with it (41 hrs, according to Steam).

But the moment I saw the first MD trailer, I immediately wrote the game off. As much as I liked HR, the trailer looked way too similar to HR and I didn't want to spend another 40 hrs with more of the same. Same vibe or tone, similar story beat. Which is not to say that I wanted them to change the tone and setting, but more that I had my fix and didn't need another one. "I already played this game", if you will.

I still want them to do well, because we don't have enough games in that setting and perhaps I'll play MD and enjoy it after all, even when it's a couple of years from now. But right now I couldn't be less interested.

Your post mirrors my thoughts. It just looked way too similar to the previous game for its own good. Like you, I'm not interested in playing the same thing again.

 

[tearsintherain]

At this point outside of the outlier franchise games, I think SP games need to temper their launch expectations. People buy into the MP hype games like Destiny, Division, Battlefield, Overwatch, etc but for SP story games, the audience has definitely shrunk a lot from the hey days.

Still, with great word of mouth I think SP games can do amazingly well - I'd guess Doom has done quite well, even though the buzz was TERRIBLE at launch due to bungled marketing and a bad MP-only beta but the word of mouth has been super positive since launch. By contrast Mirrors Edge 2 has done poorly because few who actually played the game were that enthusiastic about it, just kinda a "meh... its all right".

So far the buzz around DX seems to be pretty good I'd say, I'm about 50% in and absolutely loving it and haven't seen a lot of people hate the game. The biggest vibe is that its more of HR, so if you liked that game you'll like this, if you didn't like HR you won't like this.

 

[Iceternal]

At this point outside of the outlier franchise games, I think SP games need to temper their launch expectations. People buy into the MP hype games like Destiny, Division, Battlefield, Overwatch, etc but for SP story games, the audience has definitely shrunk a lot from the hey days.

Still, with great word of mouth I think SP games can do amazingly well - I'd guess Doom has done quite well, even though the buzz was TERRIBLE at launch due to bungled marketing and a bad MP-only beta but the word of mouth has been super positive since launch. By contrast Mirrors Edge 2 has done poorly because few who actually played the game were that enthusiastic about it, just kinda a "meh... its all right".

So far the buzz around DX seems to be pretty good I'd say, I'm about 50% in and absolutely loving it and haven't seen a lot of people hate the game. The biggest vibe is that its more of HR, so if you liked that game you'll like this, if you didn't like HR you won't like this.

So you think this one had bad word of mouth ? I'm not sure. I can't find a consensus for now ...

 

[Alo0oy]

What's the best case scenario for FFXV? Maybe 10 million copies? Worst case- maybe 5 or 6 million (looking at the reception of something like Resident Evil 6).

Hitman is a series that has sold millions of copies for individual installments. Same with Tomb Raider which, at it's height, sells comparably to FF mainline games. Both have spawned movies that received multiple installments. DX is less successful but was at least growing.

It just feels SE is throwing away the health of major franchises for the sake of saving face on FFXV and may even net fewer overall sales of their entire catalog in the long run.

You can't really compare them like that, FF games always sell 6+ million copies, the only TR games that did that independently were the PS1 games, the reboot was almost given away for free on humble bundles so its sales aren't reflective on how strong the franchise is.

Final Fantasy is significantly more popular as a franchise than any other SE property, so its marketing budget pie is somewhat understandable.

Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, and Hitman will most likely end up selling 3-4 million in a few years, probably profitable for SE, but not anywhere near a mainline FF title, fans of smaller games need to understand that.

 

[FlyinJ]

Guys, i know there's only one city hub in the game (better than Hengsha and Detroit in HR in terms of possibilities but only one), but what about the quest and level design of the missions?

Is at the same level as HR?

The design of the missions outside the hub is fantastic. Some of them are quite large in very unique areas, with their own sidequests.

 

[hank_tree]

Human Revolution was hugely discounted at launch in the UK and Ireland. I picked up a new copy on release for 27 euros from GameStop.

Edit: For 360

 

[pretty done]

Steamspy says 265,040 owners. Seems a bit low?

Damn, wasn't NMS at like 700k? Deus Bomba

 

[CrichtonKicks]

You can't really compare them like that, FF games always sell 6+ million copies, the only TR games that did that independently were the PS1 games, the reboot was almost given away for free on humble bundles so its sales aren't reflective on how strong the franchise is.

You could have said that before FF13. But FF is suffering the same fate that post PS1-TRs suffered. Lack of quality is leading to declining sale which is clear looking at the huge declines with FF13-2, Lightening Returns, and Type 0.

And in TR's case SE just revitalized it. TR 2013 may have not hit SE's insane sales projections but it sold quite well by any standard on initial release well before it was bundled. RotTR was an opportunity to build on that. Not backslide.

Final Fantasy is significantly more popular as a franchise than any other SE property, so its marketing budget pie is somewhat understandable.

What are your expectations for worldwide sales for FFXV?

Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, and Hitman will most likely end up selling 3-4 million in a few years, probably profitable for SE, but not anywhere near a mainline FF title, fans of smaller games need to understand that.

TR 2013 sold 3.4 million in one month. Taking a few years to get to that level for its sequel is not the way to grow the franchise. Hitman: Absolution sold the same in 6 months. Again, it shouldn't take years to get to that level.

Damn, wasn't NMS at like 700k? Deus Bomba

NMS' sales are insanely good for a major PC release. If word of mouth had been better they would probably be well over a million now.

 

[Turin Turambar]

See, I'm going to blame NMS

Spoiler

which is pretty in

, because people already spent $60 on it this month, not leaving money for Deus Ex . If it sold same in xbox and ps than in pc, that's three times more than DX: MD.

 

[Durante]

Uh what?

This is the first time in he history of the franchise that a Deus Ex game hasn't been dated graphically at launch.


Mankind Divided is a stunning game graphically.

Yeah, I agree with this.

 

[Jeronimo Jones]

Not totally shocked. I gave HR a try with no prior reference to the series way back then. I liked it but apparently not enough to finish it. I decided to skip MD for now. (Incidentally I loaded up my old HR save to play a little while last night, and it is clearly last gen.)

Just because HR sold and reviewed well several years ago doesn't mean a sequel was highly anticipated or guaranteed to capture a similar proportion of the available audience, even if it is a better game.

 

[JohngPR]

Human Revolution also had the advantage of being the first Deus Ex game in a long time...and a re-imagining of sorts at that.

Mankind Divided is a great game and it's a shame if it's not successful for Square-Enix. I'm not sure why it's getting the stigma that it's not a great looking game. Is it The Order 1886? No, but there isn't anything close to the size of levels in that game than in this one. The Witcher 3 is one that's easy to point out but that's more the exception than the rule.

Graphics aside, I really hope it does well enough to end a possible trilogy of games. I'm invested in the series and was another one at some point.

 

[farisr]

This is the first time in he history of the franchise that a Deus Ex game hasn't been dated graphically at launch.


Mankind Divided is a stunning game graphically.

I'm talking about the general perception for people who haven't played the game. What they showed off in the main trailers with the actual gameplay footage, wasn't impressive, and often led to a lot of visual criticism. It's all there in the trailer threads for the game for everyone to see.

 

[Mooreberg]

Loved the game. But releasing it around the NMS hype fest and Madden (more relevant to North America than UK sales, obviously) cannot have helped. It seems like every time a game gets delayed out of a good release window into a more crowded one, it takes a hit on sales. I don't think something like Mirror's Edge Catalyst was going to be a strong seller to begin with, but delaying it to just after a month in which Uncharted, Doom, and Overwatch came out was absolutely brutal.

It will be interesting to see how FFXV fares coming out at one of the weirdest times (immediately after Black Friday). Throw Hitman into the mix, and that is three consecutive big games that did not come out on time. SE needs to stop announcing release dates that are never going to happen.

 

[EpicBox]

No Man's Sky basically stole all the hype for this game, by the sounds of it.

 

[Soodanim]

I have to say that despite finishing HR 4-5 times, I've not exactly been super excited to continue what I've played so far.

 

[Savitar]

Well the sequel did give us one good thing, a Honest Trailers video for the series......oh wait it stunk too, except for the last half.

 

[Morts]

Uh what?

This is the first time in he history of the franchise that a Deus Ex game hasn't been dated graphically at launch.


Mankind Divided is a stunning game graphically.

Except when character faces are on screen. The animations during conversations are goofy as hell too.

 

[Sumio Mondo]

No Man's Sky basically stole all the hype for this game, by the sounds of it.

Kinda ironic when NMS was the wrong game to be hyped for. Mankind Divided is really underrated. Game is a slow burn but has the best side quests I've come across in any game this gen so far. Doesn't suffer from the other exploration game problems this gen either, there's lots to see and do and the game world is dense and full of surprises rather than just huge for the sake of it (like with NMS & Fallout 4). It's also way more of an RPG than other supposed 'RPGs' coming out on console nowadays or from other AAA devs.

 

[Kathian]

It's not come out at a great time. Sales seem a bit sluggish across the board. Game never got much attention either since announcement imo.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Except when character faces are on screen. The animations during conversations are goofy as hell too.

They aren't that far from other similar games, like ME or even Witcher 3.

Human Revolution looked way worse that Mankind Divided.

 

[thelatestmodel]

I'll be getting it soon (waiting for new PC) but as others have noted:

Marketing wasn't strong and impression given is SE just thought original audience would automatically come back

The gap between titles was arguably too large allowing interest in a character/narrative continuation to drop

Pity as I love the franchise but you could sense the lower interest this time around. They just didn't generate demand for it.

Exactly. It felt like a really big deal last time, this time it was just "pretty exciting".

 

[Lagamorph]

Except when character faces are on screen. The animations during conversations are goofy as hell too.

I laughed when, more than once, Adam made the "Whaaat?!" face and suddenly thrust his head forward.


Still, I loved my first playthrough of this game. Mechanics wise it improves upon the original a hell of a lot.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

This isn't really surprising. By most accounts, Mankind Divided seems to be a decent sequel to a game people were excited about many years ago, but came a little too late. When you take too long to release a straight sequel, you generally need something special to reboot the excitement cycle so people care about it again. They took the audience for granted. Another reminder that entertainment isn't a necessity, so you gotta work hard to make people really want something.

Yep. Human Revolution was one of my favorite games last generation, but by the time Mankind Divided was announced and now released I have just lost all interest.

 

[Sadist]

I have to admit, Human Revolution (at the time of launch) felt far more hyped up. There were far more store demo's, media coverage and more because "holy shit a new Deus Ex game!". Because of that I tried Human Revolution and got hooked. With Mankind Divided however... I totally forgot about it's release a week in advance. I guess the delay from February to August didn't do it any favours. It might have released at the tail end of the summer (vacation), but a lot of folks go back to work or return to their studies. I suppose that doesn't help either.

Shame though, because I'm really enjoying the game right now. It's one of the few AAA releases that has me excited.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

I have to admit, Human Revolution (at the time of launch) felt far more hyped up. There were far more store demo's, media coverage and more because "holy shit a new Deus Ex game!". Because of that I tried Human Revolution and got hooked. With Mankind Divided however... I totally forgot about it's release a week in advance. I guess the delay from February to August didn't do it any favours. It might have released at the tail end of the summer (vacation), but a lot of folks go back to work or return to their studies. I suppose that doesn't help either.

Shame though, because I'm really enjoying the game right now. It's one of the few AAA releases that has me excited.

Pretty much all of the game news this month has been dominated by NMS and Final Fantasy XV.

 

[Deadbeat]

Story was very weak and milquetoast (racism bad, m'kay), while doing nothing interesting gameplaywise. It just looked dull AF, almost as if it were a Sony first party game.

That's why I'm holding off and will pick it up cheap. Hearing they ruined the game's theme of conspiracy theories to shoehorn in current event political crap does not interest me in the slightest. I'm also tired of games with poor endings. No better way to ruin a journey than a bad ending.

Maybe dishonoured 2 will fare better.

 

[swarley64]

TBH it looks good but I'm saving my time/money for Dishonored 2 which I think'll be a better game. The reviews for DXMD all make it sound like a known quantity without any big twists to the formula. I'll get to it, but I'm not in a rush.

 

[Rellik]

I'm from the UK and didn't even know it had been released until I saw the reviews on here.

 

[swarley64]

Doesn't surprise me. Took so long for the sequel, and overall, it doesn't look leaps and bounds above HR.

Yeah taking time to make the Thief reboot first didn't work out for them unfortunately :-(

 

[chillybright]

Honestly I wonder how much of it is to do with how identical the consumer-facing imagery is to HR - the mainstream public will see no difference between this and the game that released five years ago, it might as well be a remaster.

So it got WiiUed.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

It's a shame because the level design, sidequest stories, gameplay, and environmental storytelling is absolutely a massive leap forward over Human Revolution, but that's something you have to play to understand. It's kind of astonishing how much love and care went into making Prague feel like a lived in location where every part of it feels like it has an interesting story or connection to the rest of the world.

 

[jettpack]

I'll be getting it soon (waiting for new PC) but as others have noted:

Marketing wasn't strong and impression given is SE just thought original audience would automatically come back

The gap between titles was arguably too large allowing interest in a character/narrative continuation to drop

Pity as I love the franchise but you could sense the lower interest this time around. They just didn't generate demand for it.

yeah that might be right. I played Deus Ex HR again recently (third time) and got super hyped for Mankind divided. And then of course I had no one to talk about it with :/

 

[jettpack]

Except when character faces are on screen. The animations during conversations are goofy as hell too.

Yeah i actually think it looks great. It has a couple rough edges but generally fantastic. I also LOVE the design of the world as always. So cohesive and dope as hell.

 

[Gaiaknight]

Damn shame the game is great and im really enjoying my playthrough of the game.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I'll pick it up closer to winter when i'm more inclined to play it. I'm busy at work and juggling games as is so unfortunately this one slipped by. I'm really looking forward to giving it my attention though. I really enjoyed HR so hopefully this will scratch that itch when the time comes.

 

[Sadist]

Pretty much all of the game news this month has been dominated by NMS and Final Fantasy XV.

What a shame :/

Oh well. Can't win 'em all.