This has to be one of the biggest bombs of the generation thus far (joining fellow Unreal Engine 5 showcase Immortals Aveum which bombed so hard 2/3 of that studio is out of a job)

May was a brutal month for game sales in Europe. With fantastic games like the System Shock remake on consoles, Hellblade 2, and the Rogue Prince of Persia all missing out on the Top 100. There are mitigating reasons, but the market remains challenged https://t.co/UU0a62OjRy

— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) June 24, 2024

MS paid $120 million for this studio and it's rumored the dev cost for a very short game (5-6 hours) was like over $80 million on top of that. 

Massive disaster, not making the top 100 is like even the biggest bomb of a movie not even making the top 10 in its opening weekend. Even mega bombs like Ruby Gillman at least do that. This game is a nuclear bomba.

MS are not selling anywhere near enough consoles to be releasing console exclusive content. The console war has been well and truly lost so why are they still launching games console exclusive to Xbox. All it's doing is hurting their studios and by the time it launches on PlayStation no-one will care about it even more than when they didn't care about it when it launched earlier on Xbox. Launching on PS a year late didn't save Tango did it, so it's probably not going to save Ninja theory either.  

The game is available on Steam also but it bombed there also. 

Well, I would say that this can't be a suprise considering the price management. 50 EUR for a 5 to 6 hour game?

From the standard commercial venture perspective, yes, this is bombing even harder than a game like Hi-Fi Rush which was considered a success on all account. Now that we know all that ended up, I don't know if Microsoft will be willing to speak on the Gamepass performance of Hellblade 2. Like maybe, it was a decent success there.

But obviously, it'll be quite telling only in the next year or so, if something happens to the studio in charge, Ninja Theory. They are currently working on other projects, seemingly helping their case to stay alive. Though it certainly feels like the higher management could at any moment peck in the hammer and end the studio for their underperformance.

I mean, it's available on GamePass too. So who knows how MS will judge its performance? That being said, I literally had no idea this game was coming out until a couple of weeks ago and for some reason, my stupid brain kept reading it as just Helldivers 2 on the rare occasions it was mentioned.

Anyway, after reviews came out and it seemed just like the first Hellblade instead of the GOW competitor that MS made it look like in that 2019 trailer (which was just a studio pitch) I lost most of my interest in it.

To not even make a top 100 in your launch month is hilariously bad. Like there's "bad sales" ... this is way worse than just "bad sales".

Also calls into question how much average gamers even give a crap about Unreal Engine 5 graphics features. 

Gamepass is a disaster lol. Forza also bombed so bad. Hell blade 2 looks lame though. A walking stimulator, yea no thanks.

Also prince of Persia the lost crown which looks like one of the best 2ds games with a budget in a long time bombed as well.

I don't buy the Game Pass excuse because plenty of Game Pass games chart easily, to not make a top 100 is laughably bad.

Take the shittiest movie you know that got an actual wide, studio release ... and it still would have in movie equivalent terms not have had a opening weekend as bad as this. Not even close. 

This is supposed to be a showpiece title for XBox Series X and PCs and MS was showing off to hype the XBox Series X unveil. It's technically probably the highest end game on the market right now, and the first game had some good buzz even going for it so a sequel should have some momentum, this is an epic disaster.