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Is Below the biggest indie flop of this generation?
- Thread starter Vire
- Start date
Since a few people have mentioned it here, We Happy Few isn't a flop. From a Gamasutra article after launch: "I think if we hadn't done Early Access, I don't think We Happy Few would've been as successful." And looking at Steam, the game has over 3k user reviews. The rate of user reviews to sales varies greatly from title to title, but I think it's safe to say that the game has sold in the 6 digits (and SteamSpy estimates it at 100k-200k) which isn't bad for single platform sales of a studio's first major release after only a few months.
Yes. Most people are able to understand the concept of something flopping with a Webster's dictionary definition. If it doesn't meet your criteria, then so be it.
My pick is Tacoma. It released last year coming off a critical and relatively commercial smash with Gone Home, and severely underperformed compared to its predecessor.
Here is a PCGamer interview going into more detail. It's a shame too because I just played through the game recently and felt it was in the same ballpark of quality as Gone Home. But it just didn't connect and seems to have basically been forgotten at this point.
Other than possibly the Rogue Legacy -> Full Metal Furies progression, I haven't seen another real contender yet in this thread. Below itself went straight to Game Pass and is a divisive, not bad, game (critically speaking). So I think it's dubious to call it an outright flop when we really don't know how to treat the commercial performance of something that debuted on a streaming service.
On the other hand, Gone Home sold 700k+ and Tacoma sold 10k. Those are some hard numbers and they are flop numbers.
Also, buy Tacoma:
Here is a PCGamer interview going into more detail. It's a shame too because I just played through the game recently and felt it was in the same ballpark of quality as Gone Home. But it just didn't connect and seems to have basically been forgotten at this point.
Other than possibly the Rogue Legacy -> Full Metal Furies progression, I haven't seen another real contender yet in this thread. Below itself went straight to Game Pass and is a divisive, not bad, game (critically speaking). So I think it's dubious to call it an outright flop when we really don't know how to treat the commercial performance of something that debuted on a streaming service.
On the other hand, Gone Home sold 700k+ and Tacoma sold 10k. Those are some hard numbers and they are flop numbers.
Also, buy Tacoma:
Calling it BS when your argument is "he didn't lied a lot, he lied a few times" isn't the best direction to take.
Especially when you're dancing around some of the lies. He didn't "go along" with what IGN brought up. He lied. They asked him a question and he lied.
Once again, some ppl have a weird definition of some word, lol. This time its flopped.
Pillars of Eternity 2 might be the bigger commercial flop. It's a damn shame because it's one of the best indie games of the generation, and certainly one of the better RPGs. Even more confusing is how bad it sold considering how well Pillars of Eternity 1 did.
Both of these instances really hurt. And I always find myself wondering how things would've gone if those studios had worked on Rogue Legacy 2 and Gone Home Again instead of focusing on fully original projects after their respective breakway successes.
Below was a big deal for the first few months it was announced. It definitely had a hype train that rivaled games like Rime or Cuphead before they released.
It is easy to see why the op was disappointed and I wasn't even interested in xbox games back then.
This is where I am at. I bought my Xbox One for Cuphead and Below. Cuphead was the secret GotY of 2017, so I need to see if Below is similarly great. I guess it is time to finally plug my Xbox One in after having moved a year ago?
Indie games are still generally pretty underrated. The indie games that get a lot of hype tend to deserve every drop and more. Many other great indies are never given any attention at all. Meanwhile, big budget games get endless press even when they are mediocre every step of the way. In order for an indie game to get attention it has to be genuinely excellent. Even then, shitty people on the internet will just dismiss it because it is an indie game.
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There is just no real definition. What if it got 7,5 overall. Was this thread made then? That's the problem of the words flop and bomba that gets thrown around. Like it has some specific point it reached.
I was looking forward to Below... in 2015. When it's finally released last month, I kinda felt nothing. I bailed out after reading the impressions that it's too hard with little variety.
I'm surprised that it's doing that well, tbh. Good for them.
kinda wish I had known about this while the Christmas sales were still live, oh well
FMF was broken a week into its launch, is what I recall. Kept barfing up on PC and console. People couldn't get online games working for way too long.
Also, that name is terrible. Every time I said it out loud when talking to friends about the game, someone would stumble over "furies" and ask about "furries." And it doesn't evoke anything about how the game feels to play. Four Femme Fireteam. Boom. I just made my own dumb name up and it's better. (Doesn't mean mine is good. Anyway.)
The game really needed more story and characters. The gameplay itself is okayish, but not enough to carry it. I ended up refunding the game because I couldnt care about anything and I was sure the ending would feel hollow because of that. So whats the point? Play 20 hours of mediocre gameplay, when there a dozen of better games for me to play atm. Just wasnt worth the trade IMO.
Below was hyped for years but a lot of interest was lost in time, and when it arrived it just failed to impress. That, for some people apparently, means it's a giant flop even when we don't know player numbers or sales. The game sits at 70 on OpenCritic, far from a disaster reception-wise. It's mainly a very divisive game, some people love it, others hate it. But you know, there's indie studios closing over a game that sold hundreds of copies lifetime. There's shit like The Culling 2 which was retroactivelly cancelled days after release because for a Battle Royale game you would hardly ever have more than a few dozen players online at the same time on any platform (and was also trash to begin with). There's Full Metal Furies that failed to make the slightest impact despite being the spiritual successor from one of the biggest indie games of the decade, Rogue Legacy. And there are countless of indies that were never even namedropped by anyone on Era, guess how those game must have sold.
I was disappointed by Below. I did enjoy the atmosphere and theme but the execution was an anachronistic mess. It felt like it had a great idea going on, but implementing soulslike and roguelike elements actually went against the game's own gameplay loop (eg. slow exploration that clashes with the survival element of having to find food and water constantly, permadeath that adds nothing positive to the experience since you don't really level up after death like in Rogue Legacy, etc.), and in the end it was an alternation of breathtaking moments and crazy frustrating parts. It's still a solid 7 game at least, I personally gave it 7.5. Nobody can be serious that such a game is the biggest indie flop of the past 5-6 years, unless they have some figures we don't know about the game selling like 15 copies or something.
NMS didn't flop tho. It sold hella well. It just got panned on release, but it recovered even from that.
You can never predict what the market grasps onto, especially when devs want to make something else.
Tacoma was a disappointment sales-wise as a follow up to Gone Home.
Full Metal Furies.
Pit People sold well enough via early access, but got little buzz the entire year of 2018
Pyre at release.
Tacoma was a disappointment sales-wise as a follow up to Gone Home.
Full Metal Furies.
Pit People sold well enough via early access, but got little buzz the entire year of 2018
Pyre at release.
Fans always ask for Gone Home Again, Rogue Legacy 2, Castle Crashers 2, Bastion 2 (at least Hades feels more like that combat-wise). I kind of admire devs that branch out and want to do something new. For the record I love all four of the games list above as "flops".
Below hates visually impaired players, which is a real shame. I hope they patch accessibility options in down the line.
It's kinda crazy the developers didn't account for the fact that most gamers are illiterate.
Oh yes, the developers were laughing at how much they absolutely HATE people with impairments during the development.
They either did not think about us, or they neglected the issue. Either are sad.
Hate was obviously not meant at the developers per se, but at the game. Don't take it so seriously.
I'm just shocked nobody seems to give a fuck about this game since release. WoM seems non existent?
It was so hyped when MS announced it but that five year dev time must've drained away people's interest along with an awful xmas window release date.
It was so hyped when MS announced it but that five year dev time must've drained away people's interest along with an awful xmas window release date.
You can lie through omission too, which is largely what he did. He definitely had more than one opportunity to discuss the multiplayer - an interview with Game Informer, an interview where Geoff Keighley said something like "so you're kind of building an MMO, huh" and on launch day when those two guys tried to meet up in the same spot and everyone realised that the multiplayer was bullshit, but he still deliberately talked around it on Twitter.
The game is in a great state now but did a lot of stuff wrong at launch. I was so hyped for it and incredibly disappointed in the final product. You don't need to defend the guy or make excuses for its extremely poor launch, even though I fully disagree that it was a flop because everything suggests it did really well commercially.
It's not too late for them to make Rogue Legacy 2
I loved the first one to death, and I'd kill for a sequel that is just more of the same
Where did you get information that Tacoma sold only 10k?
Here are sales only from pc (Steamspy):
100,000 .. 200,000
Sequels aren't a sign of promised success either. A lot of indie sequels have faltered. It's hard to say why, but I think those initial successes owed a lot to a lack of noise in the indie marketplace. These days marketing is essential, but that's not something every dev can strive for.
Ive played it. I really love the art style and music is amazing.
I however can only play for short periods because I get bored going doing busy tasks such as collecting my body on a random level I died on trying to collect resources. This can take upto 20mins as you have to be careful not to die again.
Resources are difficult to find as well in later levels.
I feel like wth a few alternations it could be amazing.
It feels, looks and sounds amazing though.
Re the 'flop' part of the title. It's impossible for us to tell without sales figures. Anyway continued support could make it more popular, look at Hollow Knight. That really found its legs last year a year after it was released.
I however can only play for short periods because I get bored going doing busy tasks such as collecting my body on a random level I died on trying to collect resources. This can take upto 20mins as you have to be careful not to die again.
Resources are difficult to find as well in later levels.
I feel like wth a few alternations it could be amazing.
It feels, looks and sounds amazing though.
Re the 'flop' part of the title. It's impossible for us to tell without sales figures. Anyway continued support could make it more popular, look at Hollow Knight. That really found its legs last year a year after it was released.
What's odd is seeing people actually saying things like "yeah it sold a fuckton, but it's still a flop".
Like WTF ... ?
OP being disappointed != A flop.
It scored mjiddling reviews and definitely lost some WoM buzz that it had back at E3, but it's far from a flop. NMS is definitely not a flop on its initial sales alone, let alone it's phoenix-from-the-ashes story of constant updates and improvement..
There are dozens of indie games released every month that flop, deservedly or not.
Personally I think the game is great, and exactly the kind of thing I enjoy getting through Gamepass.
It scored mjiddling reviews and definitely lost some WoM buzz that it had back at E3, but it's far from a flop. NMS is definitely not a flop on its initial sales alone, let alone it's phoenix-from-the-ashes story of constant updates and improvement..
There are dozens of indie games released every month that flop, deservedly or not.
Personally I think the game is great, and exactly the kind of thing I enjoy getting through Gamepass.
Does anyone want a Gone Home sequel? It was great how that story unfolded in the exploration, but I never felt the need to continue that story once it concluded. If you wanted a new story with new characters and some advancements on their delivery for the sequel, well Tacoma checks those boxes.
This thread is an interesting exercise in goal post moving. Make sure to stretch your backs.
