Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy got off to a slow start and sales weren’t looking great. A year after the release, the number of players looks much better.
Just a while ago, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix weren’t so happy with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Despite all its qualities, the game fell well short of expectations in terms of sales. According to reports, the two Marvel titles from Square Enix are said to have caused losses in the hundreds of millions. It’s a pity, because it can hardly have been due to the game itself, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a well-staged, entertaining action-adventure with a lot of humor.
What was it? One does not know. Perhaps Marvel’s Square-flagged titles got a bad rap from the flop of Marvel’s Avengers. Maybe it was just a bad release time. But there is light on the horizon, because the player numbers look anything but bad a year after the release.
At least, that’s according to figures provided by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal CEO Phil Rogers in Embracer Group’s quarterly report (recall that Embracer Group acquired most of Square Enix’s western studios and brands). According to the report, eight million players have played Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy since launch, which is far from a bad number.
That doesn’t mean the game sold 8 million copies though. A significant portion is likely to come from Xbox Game Pass and more recently Playstation Plus. In any case, Rogers is optimistic about the future: “The team is very proud of the game they have developed and are also very excited to see how we will commercialize it in our own business unit.”
We wouldn’t mind a sequel, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy was definitely one of the best games of the past year. Colleague Sascha was certain in his test of the game: “You couldn’t have given the Guardians of the Galaxy a better game!”
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is finally another great single player game that’s completely focused on telling a great story. But can the Marvel adventure also convince playfully?
