What did Returnal do wrong to sell so poorly?

@Pedro: Moving goalpost now, cute I guess. 🤭

Cows have spoken with their wallets,and they say returnal is shit

They were gambling on being able to sell an overpriced niche game on a console that close to no one had, because they just thought that the PS5 owners will be desperate enough to buy any PS5 exclusive.

Considering it should have been sold at half the price, those sales numbers are almost the same as selling 1m.

That's the impression I got.

Risk Of Rain 2 on PC for about 1/4 the price. Better game?

Gmanlives has a good review on it.

I'm intrigued by it, but as it is a coop game, I'm not buying it solo.

But they're both difficult and heavily gameplay focused, hence why your narrative is foiled.

Explain how? 😎

New IP exclusive to a console no one can buy.

Not sure why people here are talking about price, the game deserves its price.

You're so predictable. Knew this was you before clicking. What did Xbox exclusives last gen do to sell so poorly to the point where MS has to give them away this gen. We all know you're a Lem in disguise. Stop hiding behind a Nintendo handheld.

Why?

@hardwenzen: Why didn’t it?

Why wouldn't it deserve to cost 100 bucks?

Because it's fucking insane, that's why.

Game is hard as hell for someone. And rogue like games aren't so mainstream

the cows really have no taste. This game, along with demon souls remake and ratchet are the only games that I have ANY interest in for the ps5 at this point. But yes, returnal does sound a bit too difficult. If theres no save point, and no way to make upgrade when you die, then that really sounds brutal.

Hades is also a rogue like, but the game does get easier as you accumulate upgrades. There not huge upgrades to make you OP, but still its there to give you a boost.

NES was full of rogue like games like mario bros, and thats only because it didn't have the ability to save. That made mario bros super hard. One mistake and you're screwed.

@casey-wegner: So Returnal sold 560k by July (last sales figures) and had probably 10 million ps5s sold by that point, while Dread sold 850k with 90+ million Switch's sold...that's not a good look for Dread. 🤔🤭

@mysticaldonut: Shhhh...it's funnier when he continually moves goalpost and acts confused (maybe it's not acting though)? 🤭

I asked you first. You can't answer with a question lol. But ok.

1- The game is way too short. You can run through the whole of level 1 and half of level 2, and be powerful enough to skip most everything from the other 4 levels without even fighting anything. Six worlds is way too low for a game that charges this amount of money. For $70, with the kind of generic'ish level design that looks like its 100% randomly generated, they needed a minimum of 14 words for that $70 to be worth it. That way, leveling up weapons would also be worth your time, but instead, you beat the game before you barely had the time to level up anything.

2- Animations and facial expressions. The animations in this game are straight out of a low budget indie game. This is not what i am used to from a Sony exclusives. Another way of saving money is by hiding the main character's face with a helmet, so they don't have to motion capture the face. Another reason that tells me that the budget for this game was very low (higher than their previous titles, but nowhere near what Sony uses for their exclusives). Low budget game with a $70 price tag. That's the kind of ripoff i expect from Nintendo, EA and Activision.

3- The level design. Even tho the levels weren't fully randomly generated, it sure as hell felt like it. Super generic and samey looking. I don't remember stopping even once to look at the cool environment because its all looking the same but changes color from one world to another.

So, you can't explain. I figured as much. 😂

It's a well made point. Going from the type of games that evolved from those early interactive CD movie games on the CD-i like Dragon's Lair, to something like Returnal must be very jarring for Playstation gamers.

Or we can twist it like this, its the best selling 1st party new IP of the gen.

Indeed. Been saying for years that Housemarque should release their games where they are appreciated. But nah. Selling yourself to Sony, being forced to sell your 30 dollar game for 70 dollars for a console no one can get is apparently better for business.

Space Karen game should of been 30 bucks max

1080Peturnal was a flop. Oh well.

@hardwenzen: Literally nothing about that invalidates its price point.

Game length has never been a justification for price (and it was never a good one to begin with), neither has decisions like hiding a character’s face behind a helmet nor AI generated levels.

It does. While we don't have the exact amount on the production cost of the game, this is an "Indie Plus" as i call them. No way it was expensive to produce, but they still charged the same amount their juggernauts are worth. It makes no sense. Ori2 feels less of an indie game than Returnal, and its MSRP was far from being $70.

@hardwenzen: Returnal is not indie.

And it never will be. Classify as an AAA.

STOP. Its an indie. An indie+ if you want to call it that. Its real far from the AAA in production and everything else.

They did try with Nex Machina and probably saw that they are too niche for everybody. They were about to try chase the br trend. Stopped and decided better to continue with the relationship that pays the bills. Sometimes thats the way shit goes.

@hardwenzen: The price of a game is only reflected by its value. The budget of the game only reflects the cost to develop the game, not the value of the game. A low budget game can be $70 and a big budget game can be Free 2 Play if the publisher and/or developer believes it is worth the price and/or will target the desired audience. Ori2 was a lower price because it's competitors were in the same price range and Microsoft wanted to strategize to get more people to play it.

Whether it is "indie" or "indie+" or any other made-up qualifier is irrelevant to that.

I edited your comment to be more accurate.😎

For me, I just didn't want rogue-like. Also, I'm tired of 70 dollar price tags. I refuse to buy Sony games new until they drop their prices.

Disagree. If $70 for something as budget looking as Returnal is making sense, then lets just sell it for $100 or more. There is a reason why indie titles are much cheaper, and Returnal should've been in the same category.

Might also be that PS5 gamers are above gaming at 1080p now.

They're like "yuck, grubby ass 1080p game".

Unappealing protag. No one wants to play as an ugly old woman

Returnal doesn’t even look budget!

It looks like the Chalice Dungeons from BB. As generic as it gets. But because the enemies design and gunplay is great, its less important.

@hardwenzen: Budget doesn’t buy unique art styles. In fact, it usually is the inverse.

If the dev team is trash, yes. If they know what's up, look at something like gow2018. And its not only about a unique art style the issue with Returnal. Its how samey everything looks. This is exactly how randomly generated worlds are created.

Still sold better than Gamecube & Wii_U combined....lmfao!!!!!!

yet forza on three platforms and returnal on one console.

funny how fortnite and cod are still top sales for ps brand.

yet sony fans only like movie games.

yet software sales is twice as much as xbox software sales.

game like this people were not sure about it and are waiting for sale price.

life time sales will be good. once it goes down in price.

I know I am. I am not good at hard games so I never pay 70 for it if Im not going to play it because its to hard.

well when i get a ps5 again i will cop it #facts

Launched at $70 on a platform with a small userbase in a niche genre. It should have been a $30 game and then more people would have been open to trying it.

lol wut??? You gonna be ok there??