What did Returnal do wrong to sell so poorly?

It's only sold 560 k which is pitiful for a first party title.

I don't remember the last Nintendo game that sold so poorly.

Increased its MSRP by 16.7% and released exclusively on a platform with less than million units in circulation.

As a game it’s excellent.

It did nothing wrong... Housemarqe is one of sonys best dev teams and they make incredible games.

People still play cod and assassins creed games every single year and ignore fantastic new ip. Gamers don't have the best taste in games from a macro perspective.

😴

Nothing. The problem was the price, that the devs had no control over. The game will sell fine once the price comes down.

Just wasn't interesting to the market. People weren't really talking about it. So it went unnoticed.

They tried way too hard to make a complete game. Should have worried less about visuals like Dread.

@casey-wegner: I have never played it, but I do have friends who have played it and LOVED it.

I believe it boils down to this: do you like roguelike games? If you do, then Returnal will be a great experience. If you do not, it will be a frustrating nightmare that will leave you throwing the disc across the room.

Nowadays, most gamers seem to not like roguelike games anymore. So, to avoid breaking stuff, they just opted to not play it.

I dunno. You should research that some more and report back to us.

$70 rougelike sp game playstation 5 exclusive

its not worth $70 and not many PS5's out here and the ones that are out here are being used to play COD, fortnite, 2K and madden

Yeah it got a lot of hype from Cows but the game awards snubbed it for a reason.

Your sales number is three months old but either way, Rogue-likes aren't that mainstream.

Even the most popular ones like Dead Cells, Hades etc. take years to sell a few million across multiple platforms.

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Returnal honestly just needs a price cut at this point since they added the one-time save feature.

@TheEroica: do they actually make incredible game though?

@thedork_knight: incredible is in the eye of the beholder I suppose... Alienation was more fun than Uncharted 4 and people think that game is "incredible"...

I have Returnal and really like it, I think it's my GOTY this year, BUT

Game is hard as nails dude. It's going to be a turn off for a lot of players, add in the fact that it didn't launch with any kind of save feature, it's going to scare away more players.

And it's a new IP that launched at $70 on a new console. Hopefully the game has legs

I don't think those are excuses to say the game is bad, it's far from being bad and Reviews and player reaction proves that.

Sometimes good games go un-noticed, Okami didn't do well when it first released and that game is considered a classic now.

God Hand is an under appreciated hidden gem as well.

Most people are fine playing COD and sports games, and whatever flavor of the month game is popular

Being a gamey-game on a platform for movie-game non-gamers.

It's a Roguelite game with no replayability and no co-op.

That put it very much in the 'maybe later' category for me. Also being exclusive to a console didn't help.

70 bucks + exclusive + niche genre.

do you remeber how many broken rogue like games there where.. i stop caring about them. when basic bugs ruin the games.

To be honest, a first party MS game sells that much in a week. No need to mention nintendo, there games sell that much in an hour. The cows are waste gamers who only like movie games, fifa, nba 2k, and fortnight

Just as an example, forza 5 was completely free on gamepass but 1 million people still bought the dlc before hand.

I'd be pretty surprised if it sold more than that. That kind of game? 70 bucks? PS5 exclusive? Tough sell for most. Had it been on PC and about 30 bucks instead of 70 on both platforms? Would probably sell a shitload.

My guesses are

• The price was stupid for the type of game
• The game is very gameplay focus and is in the higher spectrum of difficulty. This goes counter to the general gaming audience that makes up the PS base.
• The game was tarnished with the lack of a meaningful save system which also goes against the general gaming audience that makes up the PS base.

I watched three full playthroughs of the game and it looked like a great game indeed but I think Sony priced it too high and it’s a pretty niche type of game.

The price was too high. At 20 dollars that's a no brainer I'd be happy to try out. For 60, Sony can eat my azz.

@Pedro: And yet Bloodborne sold 2 million by 2015 and Demon Souls Remake already sold 1.4 million...kinda ruins your narrative.

Nope! Because one is RPG in which you can level up and get stronger without any degradation and the other you ALWAYS start from scratch. That is the advantage of RPG games, you can always level up.

Sounded like it wasn't for everyone, but was good for what it was, a very difficult rogue-like. Granted it might have done better had it not released solely on a system that is building its userbase while contending with production issues due to the silicon shortage. I have a feeling it will gain in popularity in time if they do a PC release. I don't really follow but I just assumed Sony will eventually, better if sooner.

They didn't do anything wrong. By all accounts it is a good game. With that said, I think there were some things that prevented it from gaining mass appeal, namely:

• $70 price tag
• 10-hour campaign; yes I know you can replay, but most won't.
• Exceedingly difficult; that appeals to some, not all.
• Lack of multiplayer; some people don't buy games if there's no multiplayer.
• New console, limited market.

It's a niche game, so naturally it won't sell well. Doesn't matter if it's "first party" or whatever.

Let's not kid ourselves, though, and pretend sales is indicative of quality.

???? - BB and DS aren't rogues.

It didn't do anything wrong. It was just a mediocre game. Most games are.

@Pedro: The mental gymnastics there...

@mrbojangles25: Nailed it.

Seems like you don't understand the basics of game genres. Why am I not surprised.

I didn't sell and is so much better than Dread could ever dream of being. Makes me wonder why? Why?

Sales, Metacritic, Open Critic and now the Games Award say differently.

Returnal didn't even get a nomination.

Let that sink in.

Sorry, dude, but we already spoke about this. The day Dread gets a 9 on GS is the day you will be allowed to even compare the two. Until then, Returnal is simply better. Since the gameplay is very Metroid'ish, you can pretty much consider it being a better Metroid game.

Hit the nail on the head...add the fact that play could not be suspended for a run also. BUT, I think even with those handicaps for sales....it still made good money back, as the development cost was not that high. So it didn't ever have to do over 1 million copies sold to see returns.

I don't think it received nearly enough marketing heat leading up to & on release either....But those stanky a$$ prices from Sony are purely disgusting & Sony need to pull their head outta their a$$holes with this $109-$120Au game price precedent they are trying to set!

Too bad you have to live in your GS fantasy world 24 hours a day for Returnal to be better, the rest of the world, fans (sales) metacritic all view Dread as better.

You are on GS. GS is all that matters. You can bitch n moan saying how GS doesn't matter, but you're factually wrong, so stop being wrong. Returnal is superior, and you need to accept that.

Can you imagine being this narrow minded? To have your entire view of gaming based on this shitty site?

I come here for the forums. The reviewers here have been a joke since the Kane and Lynch bribery scandal.

@casey-wegner: Stop damage controlling. On what site are you on? Gamespot. Which scores do you think matters most? Gamespot ones🤷‍♂️Its simple. Even a sheep can understand the concept of how this works. You can continue denying it all you want, but the fact is, Returnal is a whole 1.0 point higher, and there's nothing you can do about it. Your system has an inferior game, and its the only game that came out on the Switch in 2021. We can't change history, so it is what it is.

lol I know GS is your life but nobody else cares what their proven shill reviewers have to say when we have an entire industry that says otherwise.

Just because I use the forums doesn't mean I respect their bum reviews.

You defend your little Dread on daily basis as if you have never played another video game in your life (not surprising, you're on a system with no games afterall). Its time to stop, don't you think? Its just a fogerttable 8/10 game. You create more threads on this site than the amount of players who bothered finishing Dread, dude. Let that sink in.

You're just trying to save face after talking so much smack about Dread before the world fell in love with it.

Now it's up for game award's that the public actually watch's while Returnal sits on the sidelines with no love from the fans or the critics.

It didn't even get a single nomination, metacritic sub 85 indie rogue trash 🤷‍♂️

Nobody remembers this game was even released this year, dude. Its not an important game. Sidescrollers are outdated and belong to indie dev teams that don't have a budget to create a 3d title. 9>8 and you have to live with that.

I think it was a 10-20 dollar indie game that Sony decided to sell at 70 dollars.

Great game, however there was not enough content to justify the high price tag. I got the platinum trophy in two weeks. It definitely would of done better in sales if it sold for half the price.

It's very true, and what's funny about it is the butthurt it inflicts upon Sony fans when mentioned.

The correct answer. Everyone with a ps5 would've bought it for $29.99. Since they were selling it for a ridiculous amount, i bought it used and Sony got a fat $0 from me.🤷‍♂️