First Descendent loses 96% of playerbase in six months

The result? Since its launch in July six months ago, The First Descendant has gone from an initial peak of 264,860 players to a current peak on Steam of 9,781. That’s a loss of 96.4% of its initial playerbase. Forbes

With all the elements of success, I don't know how folks abandoned this game so quickly. The playerbase started to fall after a week and never recovered and it is free to play. What happened?😏

Another one bites the dust...

I played the hell out of it. The problems are is that it's wayyyy too grindy and the paid skins are super overpriced. I wanted to support the game and buy a few things but said F That when I saw the skin I wanted was $60!

There's a great game in there but the prices are insane

@uitravioience: $60 for one skin is insane.

Waifu sims tend to get old fast. Credit where credit is due, though: that's some subtle, well made camel toe.

This also seem to be happening more and more often with service-based games at a rate that makes me think it should almost be planned for. I mean this happened with Helldivers 2 even, and that game is actually good with a fair storefront and well-liked.

Would love to hear from the anti-woke crowd on this one, by the way.

I tried it when it first released and it is super grindy, like in a frustrating way.

Once Human is a much better game

Now that you mentioned it, I to would be interested in their take but I reckon they will be MIA.😏

Marvel Rivals just took me away from First Descendent. Oh well, back to the task at hand.

The only live service games that have hooked me are Helldivers 2 and Marvel Rivals. The rest are trash!

Game is absolute generic mush, lol. Like Walmart brand deviled ham mush.

Is that bad? Nearly 10,000 players still sounds like a lot to me. As long as the numbers drop slowly, that could keep going for a while.

I imagine/hope it'd go like this:

"Woke games fail because they have ugly feminist chicks. Games with hot chicks sell! Yeah!

...but this game failed and has hot chicks. I...I don't understand. How?

Unless...hot chicks don't sell games, maybe gameplay and other factors sell games! But that would mean games also fail for not meeting those other standards, regardless of hot or ugly chicks.

But....wait wait wait...no...have I...have I been blaming the wrong thing? Have I been manipulated by a far-right grifting apparatus that manufactured a counterfeit culture war to sell things and keep me engaged with ragebait Youtubers and writers? Oh god NOOOOOOOOO"

Nah, that's way too unrealistic to expect them to have any sort of epiphany. A guy can hope.

@mrbojangles25: 😂 Games fail for a lot of reasons but the way characters look, is definitely not one of them. It is so much easier to critique the actual game. However, "teh jaw", "teh small tits", "teh drinketh from straw like a trans".

It is a shame when so much effort is placed on the visual elements of a game but the most important element is ignored. The games with the largest player base on the planet are what? Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft and Roblox?

must be because too woke

I said right from the beginning, this game will live or die on the content updates. Everything else is a red herring. Apparently the first content update sucked, hence the player drop-off.

Not quite time to call this one dead and buried yet, but the window to turn the momentum around is closing. They need a big content update with a trailer that will wow the crowds back, like the Destiny 2 expansions and major Warframe updates.

Last I heard, they're busy going after CDPR and trying to pit The Blood of Dawnwalker against The Witcher IV.

The ridiculous part is a few of them going ballistic over one of Rebel Wolves dev Xhitter profile having a rainbow flag emoji. Meanwhile, everybody else is going "sweet, two yummy cakes," and the devs are congratulating each other and praising each other's games.

Never played this game nor was really interested in it...

They're too busy playing Stellar Blade over and over. It's the only game that offers them a safe space.

@madrocketeer: the content updates aren't what's killing this game, it's the prices on skins

Fapping only take 10 minutes, then feel exhausted and want to do nothing for the rest of the day.

Not sure that's the only, or even the main, factor. Other games like Overwatch 2, Apex Legends and Destiny 2 also had controversies over expensive cosmetics. They all still kept humming along.

Heck, even Warframe had a massive stink over the Frost and Mag Heirloom Skins. It's now arguably in its best shape ever.

Who knew that sex appeal alone isn’t enough to ensure a game’s success. 🤭

Fortnite has attractive skins. Ironically, Fortnite gets attacked by a lot of anti-woke gamers for being a live service games... Paladins and Smite are Western games with a bunch of fanservice, but they are far from being the most popular. And even then, Paladins is attacked because they have queer characters. 🙃

Roblox and Minecraft are very popular games, and their characters are blocky AF. Don't Starve Together, Cuphead, Hollow Knight, Mario, Terraria, Astro Boy, etc., are popular games that have a cartoonish art style. Almost like people don't care for characters that are sexy, they just want the gameplay.

I played five minutes of this over at a friends house.

I have a ton of respect for anyone willing to put serious time into any live service game, and willing to work a second job.

I already have a job, I have more than my hands full. When I come home I want to wind down, not work my second job.

You've motivated me to give it a try, don't think I've heard tell of it till now.

Oh no!

Anyway……

Add Valorant to that list as well.

Haven't even heard of it. Looks like something I wouldn't even consider trying.

Forget to go woke go broke I guess??

Apparently, many here seem shocked. lol :P

It's so lacking in content, I honestly can't think of any reason to choose it over Warframe

Oh no that's too bad ... anyway

Me too.

Never even heard of it. Does look crap though.

This is premium stuff not crap.😏

It's as if their complaints were never actually the reason why some games failed. lol

Are you all really that much in denial? The game had a peak player count on Steam of 270,000 and had nothing going for it other then good looking characters. The game itself was trash. Compare that to Concord which was also trash but had had designs made by " wokesters" which reached a peak player count of 2500 players during its open beta.

This shows a direct comparison between two shitty live service games but one had attractive characters while the other had terrible models and the one with attractive models had a peak player count 100x higher.

The moral to the story is its hard to make a successful game and even harder if your character's appeal to a very small minority.

Yes. We are all in denial. You and you alone are the beacon of truth here.

It's almost like they want to be upset, and won't be happy no matter what, because their brand is outrage and without it they cease to exist.

But who could live like that? Surely only monsters...

The fun thing about folks like that, they will inevitably turn on themselves because the desire to be upset can never be satiated.😂

I think you're getting legitimate criticism from consumers confused with YouTube grifter click bait. I have no brand. I'm not searching for subscribers on a dead forum..

The anti woke YouTubers have blown up in popularity because what they are saying resonates with many gamers. However if you're job is to create outrage then I'm sure they are going to bitch about certain things that are non issues to make sure the algorithm continues to push their content.

Not sure what issue anyone has about Fortnite as I don't play it so therefore I don't care but as someone who enjoyed Marvel and GI Joe as a kid their skins look great.

It's best just to use your own brain and think about why a product did or did not succeed. In the case of Concord I think the character designs were a major part of it. It's hard to get into a hero shooter when nobody wants to play as the heroes so it was DOA. In the case of this game it had a lot of people interested but it's lack of content and it's predatory business model turned many gamers off.

Played it on PS but just couldnt sustain the grind improving weapons, improving descendants as I also playing offline games. Took way too much of my time and in 2024 I was in impulse buying mode paid for many big name jrpg.