“Better late than never” After a disastrous launch, these developers are happy that their video game is finally working

Gaming News “Better late than never” After a disastrous launch, these developers are happy that their video game is finally working

Check out Marvel’s Midnight Suns on Amazon

“A critical success but a commercial failure”

The world of video games is sometimes made up of surprising successes and incomprehensible failures. Despite an extremely popular license and undeniable qualities, the latest game from the Firaxis studio didn’t sell as well as it should have. Marvel’s Midnight Suns was released in December 2022 and offered a very different approach than comic fans are used to. With a combat system that mixes deck building and tactical role-playing à la XCOM, the game stands out enormously from other games in the same license such as Marvel’s Spider-Man or Marvel’s Avengers. In our columns it received the excellent rating 17/20 in a test in which we highlighted spectacular animations, a system as intuitive as it is dynamic and an adventure full of twists.

Despite all that, Marvel’s Midnight Suns wasn’t exactly a hit, and even the teams behind the game admitted as much:

Some news: Marvel’s Midnight Suns was a critical success but a commercial failure. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told me in an interview this afternoon that it was “possible that the release window wasn’t perfect,” but that he believed the game could work in the long run. , like other Firaxis games. – Jason Schreier, journalist at Bloomberg

This statement is from February 6, 2023 and history did not immediately prove him right. As a matter of fact, Sales remained very disappointing throughout the year, leading to a wave of layoffs last summer. In fact, 10 to 15 percent of the studio’s workforce was laid off as part of a restructuring effort aimed at refocusing on the most promising projects. However, in recent weeks the game seems to be picking up momentum again.

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The developers are happy that the game is gaining momentum again

While we thought the game was doomed to remain in the shadows, it turns out that Marvel’s Midnight Suns is currently enjoying an unlikely resurgence in popularity. While there were rarely more than 1000 players on Steam at the same time at the end of December 2023, In the last few days it has reached its peak with over 3000 players. The reason for this new dynamic is difficult to explain, although it is true that the game is among the games included in the monthly offer Modest bundle selection. On Twitter, some game developers expressed their pleasant surprise:

Hey, better late than never. I’m glad so many people are enjoying Midnight Suns. As a developer, that’s all you could ask for.

On the game’s official Reddit: We also find some players keeping up the hype by releasing some unofficial images of what a sequel to the game could look like.

The user NathanRider For example, published a black and white image, supplemented with the fictitious title “Marvel’s Midnight Suns 2 – Triumph and Torment“, taking up a series of comics that fit very well with the universe created by Firaxis. Jake Solomon, author of the above tweet and designer of the Marvel game, even responded to this image by saying that Triumph and Torment is “one of the best comics in the Marvel Universe and one of his personal favorites.” Apparently, despite the game’s slight resurgence in popularity, It’s almost certain that Marvel’s Midnight Suns won’t have any sequels. However, we recommend you play it if you ever get the chance.