Earlier this year, Square Enix admitted that Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy had suffered a slow start despite releasing to high praise in late 2021, and that was followed by the game joining Xbox Game Pass about a month ago.
Speaking to Eurogamer earlier this week, Senior Narrative Director Mary DeMarle praised the effect Xbox Game Pass has had on the game, stating that "it's great that it's finding its audience" after a rough period sales wise:
"For me, it's all about creating the game. What I love right now is that people, especially with Games Pass, are playing it and they're sharing the experience. We make games to touch people, we make games to hit an audience. And it's great that it's finding its audience, and it's great that it keeps going forward."
The game's Senior Creative Director, Jean-Francois Dugas, also had a few things to say as part of the interview, admitting "we did everything we could but that's the reality of the market" in regards to the poor sales figures at launch, and refusing to state either way about whether we could expect a sequel to the game in the future.
Despite the rough start, it's been suggested that Microsoft paid around $5-10 million US dollars to get Guardians of the Galaxy on Xbox Game Pass, and the Pure Xbox community has definitely been enjoying it so far, voting it the best Xbox Game Pass addition of March with a whopping 49% of the vote, beating the likes of Tunic and Crusader Kings 3.
Happy to see GOTG getting the attention it rightfully deserves on Game Pass? Tell us down below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 17
Ha!! What a joke…..
Guardians of the Galaxy part of the MONSTER marvel cinematic universe owned by the one the biggest entertainment companies in world finds an audience because of the gamepass……
Says more about the PR around the game than anything else….
It reviewed well.
I’ve seen some spin on the impact of Gamepass but this is a stretch
Such good game that I pretty much feel the need to comment how awesome this game is whenever there's an article about it
Currently playing this game and it's absolutely amazing.
Of course it did poorly.
It was a Marvel tie in hot on the heels of the dumpster fire that was Avengers.
I'll admit I skipped this game for the longest time due to that alone.
Turned in out to be a pretty good game. And it is sad how it got hampered by someone else not knowing how to make a game.
I played it recently thanks to Gamepass and thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t usually go for games like this so Gamepass was the perfect excuse to try it.
I'm surprised this needed gamepass to "find an audience", I started this on gamepass last weekend and so far it's been pretty good and I don't see why this game didn't sell well.
Yeah I understand it didn't sell on the Nintendo switch as it was a £50 cloud only version that run like crap, but on the PlayStation and xbox (pre gamepass) it should of sold well for being part of one of the biggest franchises in entertainment (marvel) especially after the success of other marvel games such as spiderman and the lego marvel series.
Maybe square enix gained a bad reputation for marvel games after the atrocious avengers game and that made people wait to either rent it or pick it up second hand, which wouldn't count towards sales.
Also I honestly think this will be part of the revamped playstation plus extra line up as well so hopefully even more people get to play it and bring the numbers in it deserves.
whilst on the topic of guardians of the galaxy heres hoping that telltale make a season 2 for its episodic adventure.
Playing it as the monthly gamepass club game and it's great.
I think it didn't do as well as it should have because of square abd their failure with Avengers. I'm still looking forward to playing Avengers as i heard that the campaign is supposed to be great.
So glad it came to Gamepass. If they made a sequel I would definitely buy it.
Only a few hours in and loving it. I was actually going to cancel gamepass as there's been nothing for me for a while but this keeps in the game
After the dumpster fire of The Avengers including Sony being eejits about Spiderman only being on the PlayStation version and then GOTG characters not being the film ones or same voices I think these are what mainly severely hampered sales.
@UltimateOtaku91 what you said about avengers was the reason i didnt buy this avengers was ok just not great so i was like meh ill pass on this... that damn raccoon needs to shut up though he pisses me off always yammering on.....
Don't care about Marvel films, LOVE this game!
@InterceptorAlpha quite right. Avengers didn’t help.
Also the initial trailers of GotG weren’t great, it looked very average and missable. It surprised most reviewers.
Doesn’t help with Square Enix calling sales disappointing after just a few weeks. Thankfully this seems to have a long tail and Game Pass will help sell more copies too.
@Stocksy there are several reasons you are wrong.
One major fact - this isn't part of that 'massive' cinematic universe - like the Avengers game that also 'flopped' in sales. These are independent 'Marvel' based games that have nothing to do with the Cinematic universe, don't tie in to the movie 'canon'.
Also, people were 'burned' by buying the Avengers and paying $60+ for another Square Enix published Marvel game, a company who was talking about NFT's as the future, was not an easy 'sell'. Many were completely unsure of this game and therefore it wasn't that big of a seller and was 'heavily' discounted within a month of release. I picked it up for £30 brand new a month after release.
Many reviews were 'surprised' by the game, that it was a 'good' game, which also shows the 'general' perception most had to this - they were very sceptical so weren't prepared to pay the upfront costs to find out if their scepticism was 'justified' or not.
Now of course, they don't need any upfront costs if they are already a GP subscriber and can now make their own mind up. With Game Pass, games are only competing for your 'valuable' game time - do they do enough to interest you, make you want to give it a try instead of playing any of the other choices you have available. Other games are competing for your time and money - do they do enough to make you want to spend £50+ just to 'try it' and see if you like it. Even if you have 'some' interest in the game, that doesn't mean you'll be willing to spend that much, more likely wait for inevitable sales (or wait for it to come to a 'Sub service like Game Pass/PS+/GwG).
Just because this has a 'licence' to use Marvel Characters, doesn't mean that Marvel fans rushed out to buy this when the game was at its most 'profitable' for SE having been 'disappointed', let down and overall annoyed at the way the 'Avengers' had turned out. Different versions of Thor, Iron Man, etc than the 'Cinematic' Universe!!
@BAMozzy you are wrong for several reasons.
Those of us old enough remember when pretty much all licensed games didn’t have likeness of “famous actors”
You are being pedantic to say this isn’t linked to the movies with its extremely close ties. It’s more of a stretch to say GPU is good for games like this than it is to say this is nothing to do with the MCU.
People are obsessed with what’s cannon and what’s not.
It’s all a bit sad.
The reviews were quite clear what was and wasn’t in this game.
Avengers suffered the same “bUt He DoESnT lOoK lIKe tHaT fAmOuS acTor!” Out cry. Sad.
Avengers as a solo player game was pretty decent and far better than the commentary from people that never played it.
I don’t need or like GaaS and so happily ignored all that grind and nonsense. The free story expansions were most welcome too.
Gamepass doesn’t make games compete for your valuable time it makes you ignore good games you would have bought.
This is a prime example. People didn’t buy it and now are enjoying it A LOT.
All games ever you pay £50 to try it. That’s gaming.
Your whole argument flies in the face of the official line that GPU is good for gaming. You are having your cake and eating it.
I have GPU and think it’s a good service but the PR spin and hype around it is massively overblown (correctly) by a very good MS marketing department… they have learnt from the 360 PR disasters.
It doesn’t mean we have to believe every word.
Re read my statement and it’s spot on.
The games audience here suffered because of its own PR - which included not distancing itself clearly enough from the PR disaster which was Avengers.
Me myself - will continue to form my own opinions - buy game I want to play and not be outraged that Hollywood superstars aren’t in a game or it’s not “official cannon” (boo hoo) I’ll enjoy it as you know….
A game….
@Stocksy You are wrong about Game Pass. ALL those games are competing for your time first and foremost and the only question they ask is 'Do you want to spend your gaming time with me?' - no obligation to purchase.
When GotG released at the end of October 2021, it was competing for your time and your money -as well as games like Far Cry 6, Fifa 22, CoD Vanguard, BF2042 and 'numerous' other new releases. Game Pass owners for example also had games like Forza Horizon 5, Back 4 Blood and all the other games they could play with NO obligation to spend money.
Why spend £60 on a game that you don't really know if its 'worth' spending money on when you can play FH5 or any of the 100's of fantastic games both 'new' and 'old' without spending any money - especially with Christmas coming etc.
The way I look at it is I could play any number of games that are all vying for my attention as much, if not more, than most of those games that expect me to pay £60+ for.
I can only play 1 game at a time and 'every' game I have access too, inc ALL those games in my backlog I bought are 'competing' for my valuable leisure/gaming time. I didn't think GotG was 'worth' spending £60 to play Day 1 when I have 'numerous' other games in my collection I was playing, finishing and have numerous other games via Game Pass I wanted to 'try'. It doesn't make 'sense' to spend £60 when other games were filling my time with 'no' extra cost. I can 'wait' until the price drops to a point that its the right price to compete for my time.
Some games do enough to warrant paying for first. I really wanted to spend my time in 'Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' and knowing the amount of hours and enjoyment I got from the Borderlands games meant that I did spend £80 (special edition version) to play on day 1 because its what I wanted to spend my 'valuable' game time playing more than GotG (or any of the other games I have access too).
If Fifa is your 'game' you'll buy it because you want to spend your game time in that game. If you want to spend your time in GotG, you'd have bought it (as you did) but that doesn't mean 'everyone' else felt it was 'worth' the upfront cost when they maybe had numerous other options, some of which may not require any outlay so opted to spend their time in those instead!!
The reason this game did not sell as strongly as SE would have liked because it didn't have online or MTX. I can image SE hated the fact they had to launch a single player Marvel game with no MTX. The sales figures were probably fine compared to other SE single player games with no MTX.
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