The Comparison of Hi-Fi Rush and Forspoken

I've recently noticed this unofficial comparison of the games Forspoken and Hi-Fi Rush. The first time I saw it in the feeds was in this article (Khayyat). I kind of get why it's being compared by its sales; as one is a small unexpected indie while the other is a large and somewhat expected AAA title. I also found another article (Scullion) that continued this comparison. I can admit that it is very surprising to see a game announced and released the same day overtake one that had hype and marketing among its strengths. I haven't played either yet but I can already see from the trailer that Hi-Fi, in my opinion, does look a little more enjoyable. Any thoughts?

Bibliography

Khayyat, Mehrdad. “Hi-Fi Rush Outperforms Forspoken during Opening Week on Steam.” DualShockers, DualShockers, 30 Jan. 2023, www.dualshockers.com/hi-fi-rush-outperforms-forspoken-on-steam/.

Scullion, Chris. “In Their Debut Week, Hi-Fi Rush Reportedly Outperformed Forspoken on Steam.” VGC, VGC, 2 Feb. 2023, www.videogameschronicle.com/news/in-their-debut-week-hi-fi-rush-outperformed-forspoken-on-steam/.

It's a bad comparison from a game perspective, but business-wise it's pretty interesting because we've been hearing about Forspoken for years and it failed, while Hi-Fi Rush came out of nowhere and was a great success.

There are some good arguments to be made that lower-budget games with little to no advertising might be the way to go. Advertising makes up a large chunk of the money spent on "development".

I'll just take people talking about Tango GameWorks. Because by default that means more people will try The Evil Within 1 & 2 ツ

Probably going to try Hi-Fi Rush at somepoint too. Seems to share a lot in common with Devil May Cry and Bayonetta but with a rhythm twist. I love 3D Slashers and I use to be an addict for DDR so should be a game I would enjoy.

Don't care about Forspoken. Marketing reeks of overspending for a mediocre product. Its development hell is proof of that. A game that looks expensive doesn't equal a good video game.

Yeah, I've seen some of those comparisons. I don't know if it makes much sense, there was already great scepticism surrounding Forspoken.

One thing that worked in favour of Hi-Fi not having a marketing campaign was that if Microsoft had announced this colourful game with this kind of character, the internet and the idiots that populate it would have spent the incoming months just shitting on the game and the team working on it and by release it would be an uphill battle. Something Microsoft should learn from I think.

I find it ironic that a surprise outperforms an expectation. The art style and soundtrack (The Black Keys are amazing) definitely helped in the trailer, but I was shocked that the game managed to gather so much recognition on the first day. It's really cool to see Indie games stand on the same platform as AAA titles.