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Was Avowed a Success? - Laura Fryer
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while i do agree with your reasoning i still think a 6x difference in concurrent players on steam says something about a game - especially on launch day/weekend. if a game is a big success it's a big success everywhere but then since avowed's budget was probably not as overblown as other current titles' budgets it might not be all too bad.I do think it's reasonable to assume that STALKER 2 sold, in all likelihood, far more copies than Avowed. But for anything other than multiplayer games that rely on retention and monopolizing all of your time, I'd say Steam charts are a bad way to try to get an apples to apples comparison. Number of reviews has been the metric that I always hear devs using as a point of comparison. It still won't be a very accurate picture of how many copies it sold until you get far enough out that enough of the game's players have had time to finish the game, since that's when they're most likely to leave a review, but while I doubt Avowed's <7k reviews will catch up to STALKER 2's 82k by June, it doesn't mean Avowed is unsuccessful just because STALKER 2 was more successful.
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I really haven't understood the reactions I've seen to the game. To me it's a really tight, interwoven, streamlined action-RPG that checks so many boxes for me that other games haven't tried to touch for years. 9/10 from me personally. It's been wild seeing the incredibly lukewarm reaction everywhere else.I'm with you, I'm having a blast, but I think the reactions are because of the idea that it would be a Skyrim type game and... It's not really even trying to be that. Like you said, it's an ARPG, the roleplaying is basically just dialogue and most of the game is really well done exploration and combat.
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it's not really an indication considering it's a gamepass titleIts also available on battle net where they keep advertising it to me
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May be diluted by that too.
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"Good enough for game pass" Laura brings up some excellent points - Obsidian shipped on time, after being acquired - Obsidian already has outer worlds 2 in the works - Obsidian gets the OW team back together Avowed may not be a win on its own, but in the context of a MS studio it's a win, and they cleared their plate to focus on OW2.I hope MSFT sees it like Laura does. However it does look like they've been kind and patient with Obsidian so far (pentiment, grounded, Avowed pivots from dark live service to rainbow RPG, and sequel to Outer Worlds, an ok release). They're definitely happy with regularly shipped games of diverse genres and audiences for GamePass. In a way, a perfect studio for a subscription service.
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I hope MSFT sees it like Laura does. However it does look like they've been kind and patient with Obsidian so far (pentiment, grounded, Avowed pivots from dark live service to rainbow RPG, and sequel to Outer Worlds, an ok release). They're definitely happy with regularly shipped games of diverse genres and audiences for GamePass. In a way, a perfect studio for a subscription service.Their other studios on the other hand, oofh. * Rare: Ever wild (sea of thieves helps tho) * Undead: State of Decay 3 (almost half a decade since announcement) * Initiative: Perfect Dark (vertical slice looked good, but maybe that's all they've made so far) * Turn10: Forza Motorsport (reboot didn't do anything it seems) * 343/Halo studios: ...
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All well and good with the pyrrhic victories for obsidian but, after paying 70€ for Avowed and returning it because it is a bargain bin RPG at best, the only victory Obsidian achieved was shedding yet another supporter of them pre-acquisition (kickstarters included). I will likely ignore TOW2 till it is heavily diacounted and Obsidian has been moved to the unreliable developers pile. Looking at steam stats, size of team and estimated sales numbers, I'm not alone in this. It appears Warhorse, Larian et al have something that was lost in US studios. Avowed had a 6y development cycle under the umbrella of one of the wealthiest companies in the world, there are exactly 0 excuses for it to be this meh.As per interviews Awoved pivoted in 2021 from dark multiplayer to what it is now. What that tells us is that it could've been something like Suicide Squad/Gotham Knights/Veilguard, but they successfully pivoted in the end.
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As per interviews Awoved pivoted in 2021 from dark multiplayer to what it is now. What that tells us is that it could've been something like Suicide Squad/Gotham Knights/Veilguard, but they successfully pivoted in the end.That's 4y after the pivot and completely ignores the fact eora has been crafted, a lot of lore and worldbuilding already exists. They had 2y of production leading up to the pivot (assets et all) and, again, they are supported by one of the richest companies in the world. It's not a bad game, it most certainly isn't a good game, it's just mediocre. Fine for gamepass I guess but 70€ for such a poor delivery is asking too much. 15-30€ would be more appropriate. Probably will give it another shot at that price in less than half a year.
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That's 4y after the pivot and completely ignores the fact eora has been crafted, a lot of lore and worldbuilding already exists. They had 2y of production leading up to the pivot (assets et all) and, again, they are supported by one of the richest companies in the world. It's not a bad game, it most certainly isn't a good game, it's just mediocre. Fine for gamepass I guess but 70€ for such a poor delivery is asking too much. 15-30€ would be more appropriate. Probably will give it another shot at that price in less than half a year.Actually I don't disagree with your premise. I definitely think US studios have either sat on their laurels or have had troubled development. I was just mentioning that it took 7 years since conception but the single player version is rather new. And pointing that out isn't some save, just an acknowledgement that the game did go through some crisis in development.
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Actually I don't disagree with your premise. I definitely think US studios have either sat on their laurels or have had troubled development. I was just mentioning that it took 7 years since conception but the single player version is rather new. And pointing that out isn't some save, just an acknowledgement that the game did go through some crisis in development.My point after the edit was one cannot and should not take Patel's words at face value, that story is a marketing campaign to deal with the poor reception for the game. I only realised that when I went looking for the story you mentioned and found nearly identical headlines from over 20 outlets at the same time. That's the same pattern as an AP or Reuters story so it's highly likely it was a distributed press brief as part of an MS campaign to recover the image of the game on the face of the underwhelming reception. It has dropped from [the top 100](https://steamdb.info/app/2457220/charts/) and now sits squarely in the [Grounded](https://steamdb.info/app/962130/charts/) or [New Vegas](https://steamdb.info/app/22380/charts/) corner less than a month after release. It "Is" an Obsidian game and yet completely lacks any staying power...
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My point after the edit was one cannot and should not take Patel's words at face value, that story is a marketing campaign to deal with the poor reception for the game. I only realised that when I went looking for the story you mentioned and found nearly identical headlines from over 20 outlets at the same time. That's the same pattern as an AP or Reuters story so it's highly likely it was a distributed press brief as part of an MS campaign to recover the image of the game on the face of the underwhelming reception. It has dropped from [the top 100](https://steamdb.info/app/2457220/charts/) and now sits squarely in the [Grounded](https://steamdb.info/app/962130/charts/) or [New Vegas](https://steamdb.info/app/22380/charts/) corner less than a month after release. It "Is" an Obsidian game and yet completely lacks any staying power...It is plausible, fair enough. I still think reaching the finish line is still good, as mentioned in the original post.
