10 million players in one week: This free shooter video game is a phenomenal success

Game News 10 million players in one week: This free shooter video game is a phenomenal success

Despite mixed reviews accusing it of a lack of originality and boring repetition, According to the announcement on the official Twitter account, The First Descendant apparently attracted over 10 million players in one week. A cooperative third-person shooter heavily inspired by “looter shooter” games like Destiny 2 or Warframe, The First Descendant offers an experience focused on action and free loot, an argument that partly explains its success. After an hour of online time, the software already welcomed more than 150,000 Steam players. The developers also know how to maintain popularity: to encourage players to follow game streams, Nexon and Twitch have set up a system of exclusive rewards that can be obtained by watching streams.

We reached 10 million offspring in just 7 days!
Thank you all for your immense support and love. It means everything to us.
We will do our best to provide you with great experiences. I can’t wait to continue this journey together!

In our review of the game, which was rated 14 out of 20, we said that the game has some strengths: it is quite pretty, the game mechanics are classic but effectiveand it offers a wide variety of weapons and equipment to collect, as well as regular content through its game-as-a-service model. However, the game follows the codes of the genre without bringing any real innovation, the missions are often redundant, and the gameplay loop can get really boring over time. Finally, if the game is free to play, it offers microtransactions to acquire cosmetic items, an aspect that certainly doesn’t please all players. On Steam, reviews are generally average, with one user calling the game a “farming simulator with no rewards.”

Technical problems at start

The First Descendant is set in a world where humanity is facing an unprecedented cosmic threat. The Vulgus, a technologically advanced alien civilization, launched a lightning invasion and burned the continent of Ingris to ashes within a day. In the face of this apocalypse, humanity cannot be defeated. A science fiction setting that has a lot to it, but it didn’t make it onto the Steam platforms without problems.

Due to technical problems, the First Descendant had a bumpy start. Gamers complained of significant performance losses, even in high-end configurations. The developers quickly recognized these problems and proposed a temporary solution that was quite annoying for many: reinstalling the game would affect players who had downloaded the game before launch. A situation that we detail in this article.