LogFAQs > #941150515

Aculo posted...

The boycotts and review bombing of TLOU2 totally worked, ok?

You guys shut the game down, and really taught naughty dog a lesson, ok?

Boy oh boy, Neil duckmann will sure think twice before ever messing with gamers again, ok?

Oh wait.

https://www.vg247.com/2020/06/21/the-last-of-us-part-2-sales-fastest-selling-ps4-game

The early sales don't actually mean much in that context. Because that's not how any of this works.

Most of the people buying the game in the first few days are going to be people who, for the most part, know absolutely nothing about TLOU2. They're people who loved TLOU1 enough to buy its sequel sight-unseen, or people who were sucked up by the pre-order hype and ads without really being aware of anything about the game. They're not people who were going to be reading articles about why some people were pissed about the game (some of them may actively have been avoiding any and all articles to avoid spoilers), and they weren't going to be reading reviews or checking scores. Why would they? They already knew they were buying it regardless.

Early reviews don't mean much either, considering how hard most professional review sites will fellate pretty much any major title (so as to not burn bridges with powerful publishers), and how quick they are to grab their own ankles and whistle whenever a game looks pretentious enough to pull out the old "WOMG YOU GUYS, GAMES ARE TOTALLY ART!" card so they can feel like actual respectable journalists and critics. So even early purchasers who DID go looking for reviews were going to get a lot of fluff pieces that encouraged them.

But the real telling statistics are how well the game sells in the weeks to come (once overall perceptions of the game become more widespread and the fencesitters actually start seeing what other people's opinions are). That's where we see whether strong initial sales remain strong over time (like the original TLOU, or games like GTAV), or if the bottom drops out and everyone starts feeling embarrassed about the whole thing (or start asking for refunds).

Keep in mind, Mass Effect: Andromeda sold amazingly well at first, too. So did No Man's Sky. And then people played them.

The critical savaging those games got after the fact was enough to drastically tank later sales, and in Mass Effect's case, almost torpedoing the entire franchise for good. The only reason they're thinking about reviving it again at this point is because Anthem blew up in their faces so hard they're desperate to salvage something out of the smoking ruin that Bioware's IP is rapidly turning into.

Meanwhile, No Man's Sky has apparently been turned into something almost resembling a worthwhile game, but most people will never realize that, because the initial response was so powerfully negative that it basically became little more than a punchline.

Even Fallout 76 sold much better at launch than you might have expected, knowing what sort of game it was and what it's turned out to be (and in spite of all the warning signs leading up to release). The real hate, backlash, and financial collapse didn't come until after the first week or two, though, once pretty much everyone on the Internet was screaming about how terrible it was.

I have no opinions about TLOU2 (I didn't give a fuck about TLOU1, I give less of a fuck now). It might continue to sell strong forever and the only people who complain will be a loud minority on the Internet that everyone ignores. Or it could be seriously fucked as sentiment universally turns against it and all hope of eventually cranking out TLOU3 with the same level of expectation and praise goes up in smoke.

But either way, I wouldn't point to the first few days of sales and try to definitively call it a triumph. This could eat a LOT of shit from a LOT of different people over the next few weeks/months, and could radically shift the perception of the franchise as a whole.
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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family