Too many games with good graphics. make something like red dead, GTA, or super hero game with those graphics and people will line up. a 5-6 hour game that's mostly  walking with lame looking characters of course it's gonna bomb. what's even the genre for this game? I Love me some nice graphics but i ain't buying a game just to look at graphics if it doesn't look appealing.

There aren't actually though? Pretty sure this is probably the best looking game on the market, if there are other games comparable technically you can probably count them on one hand. 

The first game was reasonably well received, it had to be for MS to buy the studio and greenlight a sequel, it's not even like this one has terrible reviews, the reviews are OK. 

Microsoft. Hey Tango you made a well-reviewed game and a break-out hit! You're all fired!

Hey Arkane you made a dud of a game even tho it's mostly our fault for not listening to your cries for help. You're all fired!

Hey Nina Theory you made a well-reviewed game that sold poorly. What will you make next for us!?

(not advocating NT gets shut down just MS us shit at managing anything)

Its the best looking game on the market but it's a walking simulator. if it was wasn't for the graphics no one would even care or talk about about this game. 

This is how the situation reads to me: Hellblade 2 is an XBSX/S/PC exclusive, and anybody who owns an XBSX/S almost certainly already has a GamePass subscription (though exact figures haven't been given, we know that 34mil Xbox users already have a GP subscription...but only 31mil XBSX/S have been sold? Not sure how this works, but I'm definitely missing something...). Therefore, if Microsoft were to have poured time and resources into marketing this game, then they would have only experienced a larger loss in net profits, for the only people who would be interested in playing an Xbox/PC exclusive are those who already own an Xbox (or GP on PC). And since most people who own an Xbox already have a GP subscription, then the only people who Xbox would be marketing to are those who would be playing the game "free of charge".

...So in other words, GamePass has been a complete and utter disaster for Microsoft. They want to focus on maximizing profits (as seen by their multi-platform strategy as of recent) all while "outcompeting" their competition via providing "affordable services" (specifically GamePass)...which kill profits. So they end up without profits and a dying hardware brand. (Microsoft is in desperate need of new leadership.)

Microsoft *does* have some incredibly solid titles releasing from their studios, and so they are entirely capable of returning to the hardware market as a heavy competitor. If they just (i) stopped releasing all their titles onto GamePass, and (ii) made more of those incredible titles exclusive to Xbox (with PC/PS5 ports later on), then I firmly believe that Microsoft have a growing Xbox brand mixed with far greater profits.

Aside: There does exist substantial evidence pointing towards the "Exclusive Now, Multiplatform Later" approach being far more profitable and successful than "Multiplatform Now and Forever" (e.g. Sea of Thieves, Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy, Spyro Re-Ignited Trilogy, TLOU1&2, Horizon Forbidden West, etc etc etc).

Hellblade 2 didn't even review that well. Hi-Fi would've probably scored well into the 90's if it was exclusive to any other platform i.e. not suffering the Xbox tax.

When you consider how much time, money and promotion MS has put into this, compared to Sony who found some random anime-looking game designed by some random Korean studio and slapped an exclusive tag on it, then see how much more successful Stellar Blade has been both commercially and in generating buzz; even if Sony never does anything original, at least they have a basic understanding of the market compared to whatever MS seem to be doing.

"Hellblade 2 was a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations. We couldn’t be happier with what the team at Ninja Theory delivered with this surprise release"

- Aaron Greenburg. Probably.

Phil Spencer a year later at Ninja Theory:

Yep steam sales are like ~60k by estimates.

I dont expect this to have sold more than like 200k total (if that), on steam/xbox combinded.


The first Hellblade did over 500k total sales within 3 months, and after 10 months it went over 1m sales.
It seems the 2nd hellblade is going to do well under half, what the first game did in sales (if things keep going as is).

The question then becomes, if the amount of people that played it on gamepass, or jump in subscriptions, makes it a success or profitable.

In Hellblade 2, going by achivements and apparently 90% of people that play it, didn't finish it.
This is a 5-6 hour long game.... and 9 out of 10 people, can't be bothered to use that much time on it.
(whats odd too is that on steam, the number is like 4 times as high (almost 40%))

I think its right to say it bombed, or preformed lower than expected with sales.
The game also doesn't seem to resinate with xbox players.

^ this.

Other gamepass games are top100, and sometimes top10 too.
This flopped compaired to those.

The thing with Steller blade is.... it didn't review great, by reviewers, its sitting at a 81 on metacritic.
Some of that lowered score, might be from people/reviewers deeming the characters as "too sexy" or whatever.

However the word of mouth by gamers, are all super positive.
The "core" game is great, and most guys arn't offended by a good looking female lead.
The user score on metacritic is like 9.2 !!  And thats also where users would review bomb it for haveing "sexy lead" ect.
Its just a good game for its genre.

If sony got that for the cheap, then smart on them.