Did Lawbreakers have the worst marketing ever ?

So while Cliffy B is desperately trying to keep his new multiplayer game alive, one has to wonder: where did it all go wrong?

Because from a mechanical standpoint, Lawbreakers looks absolute ace.

But then you see trailers like this:

And then you remember Lawbreakers was maily marketed through 'Youtube personalities' and you wonder: who is this even aimed at ?

I didn't even know it was marketed in the first place.

If he was relying on word of mouth, as most indie developers do, he didn't have enough people talking about it.

That video is funny. I like it. The actual game is too chaotic for my tastes though. I played the beta and it didn't do it for me.

Cliffy should just join The Coalition and work on Gears 5 and make it the bestest Gears ever. :P

Always looked interesting to me, would have bought it if it came out on XOne but alas it did not. Maybe they'll change their minds with the XOneX launch and try to piggyback on its launch window hype to get a boost in awareness. Seems like they were focusing on the E-Sports/Arena atmosphere with that trailer, something I am fan of and I enjoy these fast paced shooters & I heard good things about this one.

There is so much competition in this space though, if I was a PC gamer I would probably not care about this game with Quake Champions on the table, and games like Overwatch & PUBG are very successful and have tons of players there all the time. I'm surprised Lawbreakers did so bad though, I read they were at peak 100ish on Steam recently, good luck to them if they have a good game on their hands they need better marketing and could still salvage something out of it.

Psn+ for free next month... Get on it Clifford. Can't save an online game if no one is playing it.

The problem is that there are tons of competitive online games like Overwatch, Warframe nowadays. It's a lot of competition.

I think it was the fact Cliff Bleszinski was trying to directly compete with Overwatch and that the gameplay is very different from what people are used to may have hurt it. I tried LawBreakers Beta and kinda liked it but something just felt really off about the way it controlled and some Characters felt noticeably underwhelming/Overwhelming. I was really hoping it would do better than I expected but Cliff kinda shot himself in the foot upon announcement. Also making LawBreakers for PC/PS4 was a stupid idea and the fact that he kinda said screw Xbox One, he sure wasn't thinking like a Businessman should do, release your games on every platform for maximum profits. But hey, this is all on him.

Looks like LawBreakers is getting the "Battleborn" treatment. If I had to pick which one to save, it's Battleborn the most and I actually prefer Battleborn then LawBreakers.

I wanted this game. The only reason I didn't get it was because no one else did. It looked awesome, but it isn't awesome without other people.

Maybe start selling it for 10 bucks instead?

I'm sure people who've played it will vehemently decry any attempts at comparing it to Overwatch, unfortantly to average Joe, it looks like a off-brand Overwatch.

He came late to the party and was wearing the same dress as the hostess.

He still got abit of help as well from being in-bed with the industry. IGN/Gamespot gave it coverage, meanwhile TOXIKK is yet to even be reviewed (or noticed) by the majority of outlets.

Also Greg Miller advertised it so they're bound to fail.

Among other things, sure.

Cliff handled things in the worst way possible. Didn't help that the only people giving a **** about Cliff, were Xbox gamers, and he decided to flip them off.

And the world wasn't asking for a game like Lawbreakers.

No, cause it didn't have any marketing.

Tell me, I'm interested to know your thoughts.

Gameplay looks solid as far as I'm concerned, I'm just not in the mood for a Quake/UT style arcade shooter at the moment.

I'm having way too much fun in Day of Infamy, Rising Storm and Battlefield.

Really the main problem seems to be this game's marketing.

Well since they DO indeed pay people for this kind of marketing... yes, I would call it marketing.

I have the exact same issue with Mirage: Arcane Warfare.

Wanted to like and buy the game so much... But people just didn't go for it.

The only ad I saw was an overlay on a website and it said how this game was for pros only. Not sure how thats working out...

But I think the market is super-saturated with these multiplayer only shooters. They all look the same and only appeal to a certain group of fans... who are already trying to master another game.

Just like fighting games, these games take time to just be serviceable... and a lot more to get good. How many shooters can a gamer master any given year? You need to pick a few and stick with em.

It's has one too many similarities to Overwatch (for the record I think Overwatch is a damn good game), yes LB is a different game, and a good game mind you, but the general mass audience isn't going to be juggling too many mp games. If they are already invested in Overwatch, alternative Overwatch isn't going to swing em. Think about how many games aped Halo n CoD, how many of them were actually able to be successful? Not many if any, because if I'm already playing Halo, why would I want diet Halo?

It's aesthetically busy. Like technically it's fine, it runs great, it plays great, but every thing is over done a bit visually, the personality of the game is borderline cringe. And gameplay doesn't sell unfortunately as much as "the experience" or whatever the ****, Overwatch is pleasant. Blizzard's art team knows their shit, Lawbreakers art team comes off more over designed. Lot of needless angles, lot of harsh character designs.

Mechanically it demands more of its players. Cliffy B to his credit said he wasn't making game with too many training wheels for the player, and unlike Overwatch it doesn't simplify the shooting with large ass hit boxes. You gotta actually aim, lead shots on projectiles like the arena shooter days, and play at a much faster clip while you're at it while working for your kills. The wraiths for instance fly around the map like its nothing. And that type of speedy shooter hasn't been successful in awhile. Reflex Arena and Toxikk never found a niche. Unreal Tournament 4 n the new Quake are doing okay, but For Honor has a more active community than those 2 do. And Unreal n Quake are legendary PC franchises.

It got completely gaped by the monster known as PUBG.

It's a busy ass market. Being distinct is far more important. We already have Siege, Overwatch, PUBG, CSGO, Battlefield that have active communities on PC as far as shooters are concerned. I'm probably missing something else, but how much room left is there for a more niche mp community? And on that front being distinct is important, so when people perceive you as diet Overwatch...the rest takes care of itself. Destiny 2 is around the corner that will have a large audience on PC probably, if Warfare n Borderlands are any indication.

Otherwise the game had plenty of betas, and it never turned me off as I would argue it's a good game (as the only mother fucker with taste), but other people didn't. So lack of interest in Overwatch's formula s well is a factor.

To me if you fix the marketing of Lawbreakers, maybe, it would have done a bit better, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I'm not completely sold that's the only reason the game tanked. Plenty of mp games come out n don't do well, just like plenty of single player games have come out n don't do well. It's a shame since the game is 29.99, has mechanical depth, and plays nicely while offering free updates like maps n stuff n constant patches, and type of game can't find an audience, but, that's the nature of gaming right now. With so many games out, it's hard to break out.

Throw in a year like 2017 as far as how many good, well received games came out this year, and it's like....well, it wasn't like people were lacking options.

Love the video for the new content. This is one of my favorite games to watch on Twitch. I think the art style killed it. The price tag killed. Cliffy B refusing to cater to his Xbox gears fanbase killed it.

People wanted to pay $60, open loot crates, and kill each other slowly like in overwatch.

memba when cows were bragging about this game?

cliffy b shot himself in the face going with the singleplayer station 4.

The only fanbase he had left was gears fans on Xbox. If he had cultivated and nurtured that relationship, releasing the game exclusively on Xbox one, it would have done better. Hell, a starved console like that would have adored lawbreakers.

I think ineffective marketing, the fact it looks like a second-rate Overwatch on the surface but without the personality-laden characters that people latch on to (even though mechanically it is quite different), the lack of proper tutorials/ability to practice offline, and a crowded market for MP games all contributed.

also, as Cliffy B pointed out, on the PC anyone can check out concurrent players and decide not to buy it based on their being a lack of a playerbase, so I expect after the slow launch, even though the game was fairly well received by critics, many didn't want to jump on board for fear the game would die off (a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy)

Interesting to see Day Of Infamy, a game with no marketing, not reviewed or generally acknowledged by major sites and without the media personality behind (The Tony Stark of gaming as he described himself) is doing infinitely better.

http://steamcharts.com/app/350280

http://steamcharts.com/app/447820

Master race, master taste.

to be fair, DoI had free weekend and 50% off sale last weekend

True, but if you look at the stats it's remained pretty high.

A lot of is this probably from the good rep Insurgency garnered, and other sources beyond big publisher ass kissing sites - 4chan, reddit, youtube personalities e.t.c...

Good times we live in.

Yea but atleast Clifford added gender-neutral bathrooms. /s

The worst marketing ever goes to the Wii U and most software on the console.

I tried the game out during the Steam Free Weekend and I enjoyed it. Lawbreakers simply came at a bad time with all the other shooters out and everyone kept comparing to Overwatch when all they really have in common is classes with unique abilities. The game was more like a mix of Tribes and Unreal Tournament. But people them as a bro gamer version of Overwatch and Cliffy kept calling his game a more hardcore Overwatch so the game was screwed.

Too bad Cliffy acted like an idiot again by talking down on the Xbox community when they complained about the game not coming to Xbox One. Did he think that would win him some brownie points with the PC and Playstation crowd? The guy burnt a bridge with a crowd that would of bought the game just from his name alone.

The game was marketed towards a userbase of a console it isn't even on. Lawbreakers is an Xbox game at heart and now nobody is playing it.

yea its player base has never fallen as low as Lawbreakers is right now. and Lawbreakers had considerably more hype/marketing than DoI ever did.

probably helps that is has some good options for playing with/against bots, co-op etc. not just PvP, and the devs have done a great job updating it with new maps and weapons.

I played both games and would say I enjoyed them about equally on launch but i've gone back to DoI more.

@with_teeth26: True that !

DOI is in a great spot right now, and I feel the free weekend helped a lot because it seems like a game people need to play first in order to judge if it's any good for them.

Dude, I don't even remember nor have seen Sony fans hyping LawBreakers at all! I have 24 PSN friends and none of them have it, there all playing Battlefield 1, Destiny 2, and Overwatch. So yeah, show me were Sony fans asking or bragging about this game.

Also I totally agree with you on Cliff B. with is attitude on Xbox One community, he let is ego get the better of him and he was a damn fool for not porting LawBreakers. This is all on him.

I don’t even know what lawbreakers is.

If I didn’t come to this website or IGN, it would not ever be known to me.

All I know is that it is similar to overwatch which I hate so I won’t buy either. Not a fan of terrible PC games.

I know I haven't seen it marketed, that's for sure, and I go to a LOT of websites.

They were aiming at people who don't have money--kids with access to youtube. What could have gone wrong? Lol

There's more people playing Max Payne 3 multiplayer on 360 than people playing Lawbreakers.

But I absolutely loved Max Payne 3's multiplayer... Was I the only one ?

Seriously the only thing that turned me off playing it, was seeing how OP the weapons people who played more got. It was properly unbalanced.

Yeah people that don't buy games and just watch other people play them, tend to not buy your game.

It's weird.

@Bread_or_Decide: I think it’s mostly karma from all the shit he talked.

That and it was late to market. Putting your generic lore and character models up against a Blizzard juggernaut was a fail in the making.

Cliffy was simply late on this one.....he saw how FPS games like overwatch were popular and he wanted in.....he added is minor twists to it and it wasn't good enough, because people were sticking with overwatch, etc.

Well, you'll still be able to get a few full games in on the 360 version. I just played last night for shits and giggles.

I honestly didn't know Lawbreakers existed until News broke out that it was a complete and utter flop.

I believe its death was brought about by younger gamers who are unaccustomed to faster paced twitch shooters. The TTK was too fast for many causing them to just throw their hands up and rage as a result. The rage was typically punctuated by declarations of Overwatch's casualized superiority, etc.

I enjoyed the game and I would continue playing it if they didn't opt to go full retard and completely alienate their existing hardcore (manly man) playerbase.

"So to the few hundred of you that are currently enjoying this game. We've decided to make some changes. All classes have had their health boosted, we've slowed down some of the more agile classes, and we're introducing regenerating health in order to negate the need to use the existing repair stations. Guys? Guys, where are you going? Wait we'll give some of you some free skins. Please don't go!"

I also don't think it helped that their Korean publisher opted to try and cheap out on marketing by going the social media route.

That's actually very good to hear !

Gonna check if the PC version is still alive, might just jump into a round of Max Payne MP :P

@vickissv2: woah woah woah, Max Payne 3 had multiplayer? LOL

this is actually a great point, and something I bet most publishers/devs don't take into account when relying on paying popular youtubers as their primary means of promotion.

Mirage: Arkane Warfare is another failed multiplayer game from this year (from the devs of Chivalry: Medieval Warfare) where the marketing relied on paying youtubers to play their game and pretend to like it

Right. These screaming youtubers/streamers mostly just attract kids. Adults with money don't really put up with this nonsense; they just want good gameplay and/or chill people to watch. If they were smart, they'd go after streamers/youtubers with a more adult audience.

As for myself, I watch a few streamers, and I usually end up buying games that look cool when they play them, but I stay away from the screaming ninnies.

Pretty much how I felt. Whether it's overwatch or lawbreakers, it just feels like a FPS wanna be MOBA to me.....and I hate MOBAs.

Yeah mirage is another great example of a solid online game that couldn't keep its playerbase.

Honestly, I've never seen a Mirage youtube video pass by even once.

I just knew about it because I liked Chivalry.

they paid Angry Joe, TotalBiscuit and some others to play it together and seem like they were having a good time.

I actually think its a huge step back from Chivalry, the gameplay is fun but the game modes are not nearly as interesting as what Chivalry had with Team Objective. They literally gave the game away for free and slashed the price in half and the population surged for a week then died off again, its just not that great of a game which is really saddening.

Though the game modes are definitely fun in Mirage, as well as the weapons (I just love playing as that lady with the shield and spear, makes me feel like some ancient Greek soldier)

yeah, the game modes were not nearly as interesting as in Chivalry:

Mirage: Push this weird looking floating magic thing forward

Chivalry: Slaughter some villagers

I was one of those folks that got the game for free, after buying it and refunding it after the beta, because I was playing other games at the time.

And yeah I loved the surge of new players, but the game died of really quickly again. I played it a few weeks, maybe 2 and it was dead again.

I feel Lawbreakers is in a similair boat: the player base will rise through free updates and price drops and such... But it's never going to be an insanely popular game.