Board 8 > What game were you an early adopter of that wasn't guaranteed to succeed?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Where the game ended up being successful in the long run. Or didn't, I guess, if you want to use this topic to complain about people's bad taste. I'm personally still annoyed no one bought Bleed 2.

Anyway, I distinctly remember getting Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on release day. Also got Nier 1 shortly after it released because I liked TheDarkId's Drakengard LPs.

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I bought Bleed 2!

I was also super hyped for TF2 and pre-ordered The Orange Box so I could play in the beta. I remember spending the day waiting for the beta to unlock since I don't think there was a specific time given (or the time was wrong because Valve time)

Although I guess TF2 could have been guaranteed to succeed on the basis of being bundled with HL2 Ep 2 and Portal, but it was 10 years into development and there were a good number of vocal detractors due to its artstyle at the time.

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Dragon's Dogma! Probably not the most crazy blowout success but it seems to have done well and has a healthy following.

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That's a difficult one to answer because a lot of series I got day 1 including a lot of series that debuted on NES

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rabi ribi is a good one for me i suppose

says a bit that it flat out didn't even get successfully crowdfunded at a time when *anything* anime-adjacent did

it still fell short of mainstream and gdq refuses to ever show it despite its speedrun scene but it still did way better than i expected

(not to mention anything with attempted crowdfunding actually coming out should probably be considered a success in its own right)

Kingdom come deliverance. Early backer of that and it did really well in the end

I played 1.0 FFXIV throughout it's entire lifecycle

Outer Wilds with it's demo in like 2013

TF2 is a good one since I played on day 1

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I played Trails in the Sky back on the PSP in 2011, before anyone really knew what it was before it became more popular with its PC release and via word of mouth.

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Phantom Dust

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Closest I can get to is Fall Guys I think. I had it wishlisted very early on. However, I only played it for about a week after release and a game that launches for free on PS+ has a really good foot in the door, though I guess doesn't guarantee success (remember Disc Jam?).

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I played Slay the Spire in early access, and it was great! Seems it has only gotten better, too.

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I pre-ordered persona 3

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Was Kingdom Hearts guaranteed to succeed? Or Pikmin? Or Animal Crossing? Or Pokemon? Can't really think of anything too niche that I was an early adopter of.

Although I guess I got into Pokemon after the anime so it was already big.

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only board games, not video games, to my knowledge

i guess i got animal crossing pretty early on
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Earthbound back in the 90's.
Suikoden 2 the day it came out.

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I suppose most (all?) Kickstarters fall under this category.

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Kingdoms of Amalur

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Yeesh, there's been so many. I use to look for games that were rare or not well known, though that's more difficult these days.

Culdcept Saga was a big one, I heard the premise of that game and fell in love, and the game itself didn't disappoint. Never very popular though.

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I bought Fata Morgana near release date. That turned out pretty well!

I backed Indivisible for $75, which turned out... Less well.

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I remember waiting for Dangan Ronpa translations on SA and thinking "man shame this is never getting localized"

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KamikazePotato posted...

I'm personally still annoyed no one bought Bleed 2.

I bought Bleed 2, and I kind of like it, but I hate how it feels like every stage is just a series of boss fights. There are hardly any enemies or terrain to navigate. It is far inferior to Bleed 1, whichI'd consider one of the 10 best games of the last 15 years.

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bought Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars day one

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I guess demons souls kind of counts? It was niche successful when I got it in early 2010, and it was a while before dark souls made a splash.


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Like a few others said, I was super interested in Animal Crossing after Nintendo Power's 3 month coverage of it over the summer, so I finally bought it on day 1 in the fall, then it became a hit later.

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Splatoon, which sounds silly because its a first party Nintendo game that went on to be one of the highest selling games of its respective console twice. However, if you go back to when it was announced up to its release, loads of people were so certain it would fail. It was a new IP on the Wii U (after the last Nintendo attempt at this, The Wonderful 101, failed spectacularly even though I love it), and was an online competitive shooter from a company with little experience with either. So that was a fun one yo come in on and watch it explode in popularity.

Also, I imported Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney from the states because I was confident it would never get released in Europe. It came out 3 months later lol, and I believe the initial release actually did better in Europe than in the US!

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Played quite a bit of XIV 1.0 and had probably close to 200 hours in Anthem. :(

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I tend not to follow hype or new releases a lot, so I also tend not to be an early adopter of things. I pick up things if I hear a lot of people talking about them or if it's a series I liked in the past.
Maybe...does Warcraft 2 count?
Also, I downloaded Mario Kart Tour within the first day or two thanks to a co-worker telling me about it and still play it, though not sure if that counts either.

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I got Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as a christmas present in 1997.

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I bought Crypt of the Necrodancer in early access completely as an impulse purchase having heard nothing about the game, while the community was still in its nascent stages, and it was the best choice I ever made

I guess Paradox games.
Did people play much EUIII?

Maybe Yakuza as well.

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kinda funny that people are mentioning sequels to popular games in here <_<

Don't think I really got into anything before it became popular. Like, I played Steins;Gate in Japanese before the anime started airing, but it was already popular in Japan.
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I played Fortnite back in 2017 when it was starting out and had no presence almost anywhere.

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I don't know if it counts as a success since I don't think it sold that well but it is highly regarded: I got Ogre Battle 64 at launch. It was free, because Electronics Boutique or one of those other stores that got gobbled up by GameStop was doing a deal where you traded in any 3 non-sports N64 games and got it for free. I gave them Mortal Kombat Trilogy, San Francisco Rush, and Turok 1.

Brawlhalla back when it was in beta

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Bought The World Ends With You on release which I had to look up was allegedly successful, even though it is only getting a sequel now, over a decade later.

I bought Demon's Souls a day or two after release because of word of mouth here and around the internet. It was so far removed from most people's radar that I was still able to get one of the special editions with the guidebook even though it had released already. The early days of Souls games before they became an industry staple and people didn't really "get" them were truly wild.

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tons of Atlus games from the PS2 era. SMT: Nocturne, P3, Devil Summoner, DDS, etc.
Atelier series. Iris was a very niche cult, Ryza now isn't as niche.

technically can look back and say Fate/Stay Night these days. same for Umineko. a lot of the board can point to those two, especially Fate if measuring success.

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don't think anyone here played F/SN before the anime aired, haha
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Wanglicious posted...

Atelier series. Iris was a very niche cult, Ryza now isn't as niche.

Oh yeah I had that one. Never stuck with the series though, I just liked the 2D art in that one.

I can think of two specifically that I got burned on: Starbound and Castlevania Judgment.

One I didn't, though- played the hell out of Dota when it was a lowly WC3 mod for years.

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Does being a Kickstarter backer of Shovel Knight count?

I think I picked up Smash Bros 64 on release. Probably a case where it was guaranteed some success but completely blew expectations out of the water.

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

Like a few others said, I was super interested in Animal Crossing after Nintendo Power's 3 month coverage of it over the summer, so I finally bought it on day 1 in the fall, then it became a hit later.

This too.

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Artifact

Long Haul baby

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I....don't understand the question.

wha

Blue-G posted...

200 hours in Anthem. :(

gaddamn

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Tom Bombadil posted...

I remember waiting for Dangan Ronpa translations on SA and thinking "man shame this is never getting localized"

lol this was my answer too, wasn't sure if that counted

i bought super smash bros less than 2 weeks after it came out

uh, also omori

oh, and tough love arena! toughlovearena.com

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Probably very few because I tend to only get sequels and such on release while often looking at user opinions at least for a few months on new stuff.

Looking through what's been mentioned here, I did get Splatoon on release, but that was partially due to amiibo craze.

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Umm, Ive played No Mans Sky since day one

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foolm0r0n posted...

gaddamn

The gameplay was just so damn good that the garbage progression and meh story didn't bother me. EA/Bioware did Anthem dirty.

Also Katamari Damacy: I walked to the mall every day for a week for the original one because their shipment of 1 copy kept getting delayed and I didn't want to miss it.


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