Board 8 > Gaming news

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https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/9/5/AAIpcmAAEZ7r.jpg

tl;dr - Guy on a podcast claims he has insider info saying that Hi-Fi Rush was considered a flop. His statement gets uplifted to an article, which gets spread around to other websites. In response, Microsoft releases a statement directly contradicting the claim, saying that Hi-Fi Rush was a big success. For context, there was also a leaked correspondence a few weeks back where a different Microsoft exec also says they considered Hi-Fi Rush a success. The corrections/retractions have gotten less exposure than the original wrong articles.

Bit surreal to watch misinformation spread in real time.

I really need to play Hi-Fi Rush. If it's really not making money, I'll go out and buy it right now. I really wanna live in a world where Xbox has good exclusives again

TomNook7 posted...

I really wanna live in a world where Xbox has good exclusives again

It's the fist time the Xbox has had a decent exclusive in over a decade and it's extremely frustrating. Really thought I could just let all thoughts of the brand die, but I really wanna play this game.

TomNook7 posted...

If it's really not making money, I'll go out and buy it right now.

It literally is making money! That was the whole point of the topic!

KamikazePotato posted...

tl;dr - Guy on a podcast claims he has insider info saying that Hi-Fi Rush was considered a flop. His statement gets uplifted to an article, which gets spread around to other websites. In response, Microsoft releases a statement directly contradicting the claim, saying that Hi-Fi Rush was a big success. For context, there was also a leaked correspondence a few weeks back where a different Microsoft exec also says they considered Hi-Fi Rush a success. The corrections/retractions have gotten less exposure than the original wrong articles.

Bit surreal to watch misinformation spread in real time.

Eh, it's possible that all of those are true, due to the way company financials work. Say you project you're going to sell 10 million games in the financial year, but you've only sold 5 million copies once your final game of the financial year is about to release. This means that for your original projections to come true, the final game needs to sell 5 million copies, even if you only expect it to sell 1 million. If it comes out and sells 2 million, it's a huge success by one metric, but a giant flop by another (stupid) metric.

This is what happened with Tomb Raider 2013, where it needed to sell a ridiculous number of copies to make up for previous games doing poorly, making it a "disappointment."

I'm personally glad we're largely living in a post-exclusives world, fuck locking good games to specific hardware tbqh

But yeah this game is exceptional, absolutely jam packed with soul to a crazy degree and feels incredible to play once you've got your arms around the rhythm/character action fusion.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

It's the fist time the Xbox has had a decent exclusive in over a decade

Hey, Microsoft Flight Simulator is pretty lit

Setting aside that being on Game Pass means the devs were paid fairly on the front end, theres no shot Hi-Fi Rush was a flop; you couldnt turn on a gaming podcast the 2 weeks after it released without hearing people gush about it.

Really thought I could just let all thoughts of the brand die, but I really wanna play this game.

Also this is just a really weird quote lol.

MacArrowny posted...

Eh, it's possible that all of those are true, due to the way company financials work. Say you project you're going to sell 10 million games in the financial year, but you've only sold 5 million copies once your final game of the financial year is about to release. This means that for your original projections to come true, the final game needs to sell 5 million copies, even if you only expect it to sell 1 million. If it comes out and sells 2 million, it's a huge success by one metric, but a giant flop by another (stupid) metric.

This is what happened with Tomb Raider 2013, where it needed to sell a ridiculous number of copies to make up for previous games doing poorly, making it a "disappointment."

Except with Tomb Raider the comments on it being a disappointment came from the devs and Square-Enix themselves. In this case, it's just an analyst on a podcast. Actual numerous statements from Microsoft have been directly positive.

Hey, that guy was Jeff Grubb

GANON1025 posted...

Hey, that guy was Jeff Grubb

Let's see what the man himself has to say!

https://twitter.com/JeffGrubb/status/1649420498411847680

I was just trying to say that I heard Hi-Fi Rush didn't make the money it was expected to make. But to be clear, I don't really know how Microsoft measures success. This was just a small, passing statement in a larger conversation. It wasn't meant to make people worry about HFR

Huh.

KamikazePotato posted...

Except with Tomb Raider the comments on it being a disappointment came from the devs and Square-Enix themselves. In this case, it's just an analyst on a podcast. Actual numerous statements from Microsoft have been directly positive.

And his source was a Microsoft employee. MS is just better in that their official PR statements don't make their games look bad lol.

MacArrowny posted...

And his source was a Microsoft employee. MS is just better in that their official PR statements don't make their games look bad lol.

Whatever. Im REALLY skeptical of anonymous sources lately, ESPECIALLY in gaming.

It's because Xbox at this point has started to piss off their fanbase so any doom and gloom will easily get blown into exaggeration. Microsoft does have a huge problem with their management of their gaming division. They had literally zero games worth playing for the past TWO years AND their flagship iconic franchise missed the launch of their new consoles. Can you imagine Nintendo launching any console without a Mario or Zelda game for a whole year?

Microsoft backed off their 360 ways when they bought studios and forced them to pump out games, which resulted in personnel leaving. So their current solution is to just baby their developers and let them make whatever they want. If I was Phil Spencer I would have told Todd Howard to put everything on hold and put out TES6 by 2024 and Fallout 5 by 2026 as soon as the ink dried on their Zenimax deal. It's so fucking stupid. Why is Arkane making Redfall? Should have told them to work on Dishonored 3 immediately.

Hi-Fi Rush was a pretty fun game that I'm glad to have had access to via Game Pass.

MacArrowny posted...

And his source was a Microsoft employee. MS is just better in that their official PR statements don't make their games look bad lol.

I can't even remember the last time a game company released a statement completely misrepresenting the success of their game to a point where it would be factually wrong. Here we have multiple statements from Microsoft and Tango (the devs) saying that the game is a success. And an internal correspondence. And news that Tango is starting to hire more people due to the game's success.

vs.

One podcast analyst who has since backtracked on his original claim.

Why are you getting suckered by in the equivalent of a facebook rumor?

GranzonEx posted...

They had literally zero games worth playing for the past TWO years

Imagine being an adult and typing something so childishly arrogant

KamikazePotato posted...

I can't even remember the last time a game company released a statement completely misrepresenting the success of their game to a point where it would be factually wrong.

Again, Square Enix on Tomb Raider, a game successful enough that it got two direct sequels.

When did Grubb backtrack his original claim? He still stands by him hearing that from the employee, just says that employee's statements don't represent all of MS.

serious question: if a game is only on xbox and gamepass, why would you not just play it on gamepass? how do games make money/move units in a situation like this?

KCF0107 posted...

Imagine being an adult and typing something so childishly arrogant

Oh I apologize. I misspoke. I meant to say Xbox hasn't had anything worth playing for the past decade with the exception of Ori and Forza Horizons. Imagine having the backing of a trillion dollar company and still have worse game output than a literal dysfunctional publisher like Square Enix who managed to dump out dozens of quality games in a weak decade like the 2010s.

colliding posted...

serious question: if a game is only on xbox and gamepass, why would you not just play it on gamepass? how do games make money/move units in a situation like this?

If you're on PC, you might prefer getting it from Steam, because of how garbage Microsoft's store is and to play it on Steam Deck.

Not many reasons to do so on Xbox, though.

KCF0107 posted...

Imagine being an adult and typing something so childishly arrogant

You're right.

It's been WAY more than two years.

Hasn't been a console purchase worthy exclusive since the 360!

Yeah its Jeff Grubb, a very established journalist whos had many, many accurate scoops and has real sources. It was an offhand comment that isnt necessarily in conflict with Microsofts statement either.

I said this on Discord but it sounds like to me that Grubb honestly shouldn't have said anything at all if he was gonna pretty much all but backtrack it with "This was just a small, passing statement in a larger conversation. It wasn't meant to make people worry about HFR." Like why even bring it up then if you acknowledge how insignificant it could be in the larger picture.

LightningStrikes posted...

Yeah its Jeff Grubb, a very established journalist whos had many, many accurate scoops and has real sources. It was an offhand comment that isnt necessarily in conflict with Microsofts statement either.

And as an established journalist he should have recognized that he clearly didn't have all the details to get people riled up about it lol

Unless Microsoft is doing some damage control, which is also possible.

MacArrowny posted...

Again, Square Enix on Tomb Raider, a game successful enough that it got two direct sequels.

When did Grubb backtrack his original claim? He still stands by him hearing that from the employee, just says that employee's statements don't represent all of MS.

I don't get why you keep bringing up Tomb Raider in this context. It's a completely different apples/orange situation that isn't comparable to this at all.

Grubb's second statement is pretty obviously him trying to minimize his original claim while covering his ass. He includes the "I heard" because you can't just come out and say you were wrong lol. That's PR suicide.

LightningStrikes posted...

Yeah its Jeff Grubb, a very established journalist whos had many, many accurate scoops and has real sources.

This is the exact opposite take I've seen of this person elsewhere.

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Unless Microsoft is doing some damage control, which is also possible.

It's absolutely damage control, but that doesn't mean they're lying. Companies can't allow bad press to foster. If this was about a more high-profile game than HFR their stock prices might randomly drop.

So just to clarify, do you believe Grubb made it up and he never actually heard anything of this nature from an MS employee?

He probably heard something, but that doesn't mean it was true or had the full context, because the comment he made on his podcast completely goes against comments by Microsoft and the devs both previously and currently.

https://www.trueachievements.com/n52956/shinji-mikami-leaving-tango-gameworks

In a company-wide email sent to ZeniMax employees seen by TrueAchievements and verified authentic by Bethesda...Vaughn called Hi-Fi Rush "one of the most successful launches for Bethesda and Xbox in recent years," adding that the rhythm-based action game has "generated significant positive momentum for the business and Tango."

The developers have also started hiring more people as a result of the launch.

https://twitter.com/tango_jpn/status/1646444264228806657?t=RgnbJIrVJYAFZfgaBInKDQ&s=19

Conversely, Grubb is trying to backtrack as much as he can while still retaining plausible deniability.

https://twitter.com/JeffGrubb/status/1649463739953938463

Bonus google search image that I thought was funny.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/4/2/AAIpcmAAEZ8a.png

Yea the more I see about this, the more I think Grub should just be taking the L and moving on

I heard from a user named KamikazePotato that apparently Hi-Fi Rush didn't do so well? Can anyone verify?

VintageGin posted...

I heard from a user named KamikazePotato that apparently Hi-Fi Rush didn't do so well? Can anyone verify?

It's true. I am Jeff Grubb

Elsewhere being?

Anyway having actually gone back and listened to the part of the podcast where he says it, it really is an offhand comment when talking about whether or not Hi-Fi Rush should have had a traditional marketing push rather than a shadowdrop and whether that would have helped. Thats it. Other websites just latched on to that part and took that as something that it never was.

I don't have Gamepass but it was well worth it to pay full price for the game on Steam.

MacArrowny posted...

If you're on PC, you might prefer getting it from Steam, because of how garbage Microsoft's store is and to play it on Steam Deck.

Not many reasons to do so on Xbox, though.

The built in Xbox App for playing PC Game Pass games works great btw.

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

The built in Xbox App for playing PC Game Pass games works great btw.

It works great for some people and terribly for others. I have to reinstall most gamepass games a couple times for them to work, for whatever reason, and I've heard of people having worse problems.