So disappointing

[Sage Pirotess]

Game has been live for 24× hours and not even 1 page of topics or discussion. And here someone thought this would sell as well as final fantasy 7.

[Durgha]

MJAndre の投稿を引用：

These people claiming "zero marketing" have objectively been living under a rock. Because there has not been zero marketing. Objectively.

If being terminally online was a requisite for hearing about this game then, yes, there may as well have been no marketing. The purpose of marketing is to reach people who otherwise wouldn't hear about a product. Unfortunately sales figures are abysmal. This is a flop. Claims that there was a massive ad campaign for this title are very hard to understand when measured against the apparent lack of players.

Name-dropping SE's social media director doesn't seem relevant to the discussion. Steam didn't promote the game. Lots of people ditched Twitter and are on alternative platforms now. I'm on Bluesky but SE's official account never mentioned the game once so far as I can tell. No influencers on Youtube were hyping it. I never saw a banner ad anywhere.

It's great you heard about it, but that doesn't help the game succeed.

[MJAndre]

Durgha の投稿を引用：

MJAndre の投稿を引用：

These people claiming "zero marketing" have objectively been living under a rock. Because there has not been zero marketing. Objectively.

If being terminally online was a requisite for hearing about this game then, yes, there may as well have been no marketing. The purpose of marketing is to reach people who otherwise wouldn't hear about a product. Unfortunately sales figures are abysmal. This is a flop. Claims that there was a massive ad campaign for this title are very hard to understand when measured against the apparent lack of players.

Name-dropping SE's social media director doesn't seem relevant to the discussion. Steam didn't promote the game. Lots of people ditched Twitter and are on alternative platforms now. I'm on Bluesky but SE's official account never mentioned the game once so far as I can tell. No influencers on Youtube were hyping it. I never saw a banner ad anywhere.

It's great you heard about it, but that doesn't help the game succeed.

Then you have been living in a metaphorical bubble, and have been oblivious.
FFXIV's Instagram, FFXVI's Instagram, SquareEnix's Instagram, FinalFantasy's Instagram.. All posted about it. It was on FFXIV's Lodestone website (because CBU3 worked on it), it was showing up via FFXIV's game launcher (which is linked to Lodestone's posts), it was in SE newsletter emails, it was ON A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NINTENDO DIRECT, and then was reported about on multiple gaming news outlets that reported on that Direct.
Steam is not the only gaming platform. It is especially abysmal compared to Switch and PS5 in Japan. In no way is it a "flop". Steam doesn't need to promote anything, it's a DRM storefront platform, not an advertiser.
To claim there wasn't any marketing for this is objectively wrong. People on Steam forums are just notoriously oblivious to the outside world that isn't exclusively Steam.

[PhaseJump]

I still can't get over the over the top nerd rage here. He is completely flying off the handle.

[PhaseJump]

"Objectively living under a rock" "living in a metaphorical bubble"
I wonder how it feels, when your brain figuratively falls out and runs away on you, over other people not being exposed to Square Enix's low key instagram and twitter hustle. Gotta roll out the No True Scotsman criticisms and condemn their statements in the most superfluous and over the top way possible, I suppose.

Seriously though, me being a big JRPG fan, haunting Youtube, gaming sites, forums like GAF, being on all kinds of discords, I knew about this game and I also completely forgot about it more than once.

I feel like any hype for it has been buried due to Apple exclusivity, and now with the remake it isn't standing out via any of the ads I would normally see. They threw it out there with Nintendo, and it is getting buried by the hype around all the other recent games, especially JRPGs.

Bland or generic presentation, "mobile", and higher price are a big turn off for some, but it is what it is.

I won't get around to buying or playing this until next year, if at all. I sincerely might forget about it again no matter how much nerd rage shill drama is flung about.

[Durgha]

MJAndre の投稿を引用：

Then you have been living in a metaphorical bubble, and have been oblivious.

This is a needlessly hostile statement. Being rude doesn't get us anywhere. I can appreciate your frustration at the game's lack of success, but you don't know me or anyone else in this thread. Passing judgement on how strangers engage with marketing efforts or a lack thereof is irrational.

The argument you've presented revolves around a belief that more players should have heard about this title, but that simply didn't happen. We can't go back and change history. Only a handful of people on Steam bought this game. Of those, some of us didn't hear about the release until the last minute. That's an important message that the developer and publisher should hear.

The Dragon Quest 3 Remake sold extremely well on Steam, and it targets the same demographic as this title. That means there are fans of turn-based RPGs buying games on this storefront, yet Fantasian only has 327 concurrent players. I'm not happy about that, but we need to engage with the reality of the situation. It didn't sell well, and getting mad at other posters will never change that.

[semp]

This guy doesn't understand that most people have no idea what square enix even is.
If you have to be a fan of their games already, it doesn't count as a good marketing campaigh.
And bringing up nintendo direct isn't relevant neither, because we can only estimate steam sales.

[Melodia]

semp の投稿を引用：

This guy doesn't understand that most people have no idea what square enix even is.
If you have to be a fan of their games already, it doesn't count as a good marketing campaigh.
And bringing up nintendo direct isn't relevant neither, because we can only estimate steam sales.

Multiple people have said "the game wasn't marketed enough" but yet haven't said what they expected SQEX to do to market it do them. The Nintendo Direct IS relevant because it's a huge....(what a shocker).....marketing outlet. If people are ignoring not just it but also the myriad of articles on gaming sites that go along with said event then that's hardly SQEX's fault.
And then adding Tweeting, newsletters and store ads.....what the helll else could they have done? No one's answered this, only raged about they never heard it because....I dunno.

[Ponder]

But Square says that they are "so pleased with the positive reception".

https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkx-Xz78yVnpNg5jFBm7QR9p_Q2DFVlfwJC

[MJAndre]

Ponder の投稿を引用：

But Square says that they are "so pleased with the positive reception".

https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkx-Xz78yVnpNg5jFBm7QR9p_Q2DFVlfwJC

Almost as if Steam forum users are not Square Enix's target demographic... ;P

[MJAndre]

Melodia and Ponder put it best. Steam is NOT the be all and end all. Steam forum dwellers are the most self-obsessed gamerbros of all. Completely ignorant of the fact that consoles exist. Many others bought it on Switch, PS5/4, or Xbox. Steam is NOT inherently THE platform for everything. Grow the ♥♥♥♥ up. PC is NOT the only gaming platform. It sure as hell is NOT the dominant platform for JRPGs. That's Nintendo and PlayStation. ESPECIALLY in Japan. The ignorance and self-obsession is wild.

[MJAndre]

semp の投稿を引用：

This guy doesn't understand that most people have no idea what square enix even is.
If you have to be a fan of their games already, it doesn't count as a good marketing campaigh.
And bringing up nintendo direct isn't relevant neither, because we can only estimate steam sales.

"Most people have no idea what square enix even is"
Yeah sure, buddy. Millions of players of FFXIV. Millions of downloads *each* for War of the Visions: FFBE *and* FFVII Ever Crisis. Square Enix is not an indie company.
What a delusional, dismissive take.

Using player count as a metric is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bonkers. If you're going to restrict your horse- eye-width goggles on solely Steam, no wonder you're so pedantic.
Majority of the comments on the post Ponder linked are from people saying they were aware all along and bought it immediately, or are just holding off buying until next weekend or "later", because they have a backlog or finance budgets.
Not everyone buys games ON release day, and you terminally-on-Steam-forum-dwellers all constantly assume if it's not millions on day one it's "dead" or a "flop".
That's not how games work.
Just because YOU weren't specifically marketed to, doesn't mean everything revolves around YOU. That's so petulant and childish. Grow up. There are plenty more who take your place, and honestly? Good riddance. I love it when the purist/nasty whiners unsubscribe from FFXIV instead of just ranting about doing it. Nobody misses their toxic asses. For every one FFVII OG fanboy that whinges about the remake trilogy being different, there are always two (or more) others who'll replace them in the community, and nothing of value was lost.

♥♥♥♥♥♥' hell... Every time I keep telling myself to never check the Steam forums because it's such a cesspool of filth. But some of you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ are truly insufferable jerks. In conclusion; Piss off.

[Durgha]

Melodia の投稿を引用：

Multiple people have said "the game wasn't marketed enough" but yet haven't said what they expected SQEX to do to market it do them. The Nintendo Direct IS relevant because it's a huge....(what a shocker).....marketing outlet.

I've posted several suggestions. Any promotion on Steam would have been helpful. As previously stated, I do Steam queues regularly and never got shown Fantasian as an upcoming title. Twitter alternatives also exist and SE should be marketing there too.

I'm not contesting that Nintendo Direct is a great outlet for Switch news. E3 is gone so maybe people should start following Switch news to learn Steam release dates. Seems a strange thing to ask consumers to do, though. Why would a PC gamer be getting their multiplat news from Nintendo? This isn't a Nintendo game.

[Melodia]

Durgha の投稿を引用：

I've posted several suggestions. Any promotion on Steam would have been helpful. As previously stated, I do Steam queues regularly and never got shown Fantasian as an upcoming title.

Is that something SQEX can pay for to get better propigation? I genuinely don't know how it works. If I would /guess/ it's more a combination of how many wishlist a game combined with its tags to get it to show up on the queue. But who knows.

Durgha の投稿を引用：

I'm not contesting that Nintendo Direct is a great outlet for Switch news. E3 is gone so maybe people should start following Switch news to learn Steam release dates. Seems a strange thing to ask consumers to do, though. Why would a PC gamer be getting their multiplat news from Nintendo? This isn't a Nintendo game.

I mean, that begs the question of where PC gamers in general get news then. The PC-only site I follow, Rock Paper Shotgun mentioned it when back in June as well as dropped an article on release day (no review though, granted). Also had a couple articles about them 'wanting it to be on PC' and 'could be on PC soon' in 2023.

[MJAndre]

Durgha の投稿を引用：

Melodia の投稿を引用：

Multiple people have said "the game wasn't marketed enough" but yet haven't said what they expected SQEX to do to market it do them. The Nintendo Direct IS relevant because it's a huge....(what a shocker).....marketing outlet.

I've posted several suggestions. Any promotion on Steam would have been helpful. As previously stated, I do Steam queues regularly and never got shown Fantasian as an upcoming title. Twitter alternatives also exist and SE should be marketing there too.

I'm not contesting that Nintendo Direct is a great outlet for Switch news. E3 is gone so maybe people should start following Switch news to learn Steam release dates. Seems a strange thing to ask consumers to do, though. Why would a PC gamer be getting their multiplat news from Nintendo? This isn't a Nintendo game.

This is blatantly dismissive. The Xbox/Microsoft "E3-replacement" Direct press conference now often has majority multiplatform titles announced at it *exclusively*, even though they're multiplatform.
Persona 3 Reload was announced *on their stream*, even though it was multiplatform for PlayStation, Switch, and Steam as well. Ignoring the public events really isn't an excuse. Steam is not an advertising social media platform, that's not where things get announced.

Steam is, objectively, not the top priority demographic for JRPGs. It's Nintendo and PlayStation. The Steam Discovery Queue only puts a list of 10 haphazardly grabbed from the THOUSANDS, if not hundreds of thousands of games, even the bottom-of-the-barrel slop of Unity or Unreal asset flip shooters, and just objectively ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ titles Steam is littered with (granted, Switch eShop has also been recently getting saturated with those dull ones as well, the myriad of "Simulators" and "3D PUZZLE HD SUPER GIRL GAME PLUS FUN TIME" ones).

The Discovery Queue is *really* not the place to be getting ALL of your Steam release news from, it's unreliable as all hell. Steam in general is not reliable for release news, because games are added *constantly*, and news of them being added is delivered by the publisher themselves, often by direct email newsletters or social media. Not directly on Steam, or even direct on Switch, or direct on PS5. That's not where news of non-Valve games is posted.

[semp]

bro, at least try using gpt to shorten your messages, nobody reading all that