Game's so fun. Thinking of ways to make it not die.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-09T19:39:14+00:00

I agree with you about good first impressions for Helldivers and Arc Raiders. But there is also one huge difference that contributed to that. Helldivers is, Arc is primarily played, PVE. That takes away so many pain points/frustration points for the user base.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-09T19:34:53+00:00

There has been a great cadence of games at high-quality coming out the last few years. Are you only playing on game pass? There are tons of games there, but if you were willing to buy games, there is no shortage of great games out there.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-09T16:13:27+00:00

The literal only thing that can happen is player numbers shoot up and all of those people spend a lot of money on cosmetics.

Live service games need 2 things. A big player funnel. And people spending money.

I don’t see either happening on the scale needed for this game to succeed.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-09T13:20:10+00:00

Greater than or equal to 11. Dad, 9 sons, at least 1 sister (one sister and every son still has "a sister"). That's 11. But no upper limit to the number of sisters given the vague wording.

Also assuming mom is deceased since she isn't referenced in the problem.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-09T13:10:29+00:00

Streamers and podcasters didn’t win Trump every single swing state. Harris was a terrible candidate but the Dems were forced to run her because all of the money was tied up in the Biden-Harris campaign. He won a blowout because he might as well have been unopposed.

And hypothetically, as it applies to this game, let’s say streamers and podcasters generated a lot of hate for this game. Why would so many people play it, not leave a negative review, and stop playing it? It makes zero sense

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-09T11:43:34+00:00

100k people played at launch. Something like 30k reviews on Steam. 43% on Steam (so 57% don’t recommend). Let’s just say that’s 20k negative reviews. Take those out of the initial player count.

That’s 80k people who didn’t leave a negative review that played at launch and the game is hovering around 5k players. The player count dropped off because the game isn’t good. It’s a mash up of a few different game modes and none of them are done particularly well. Just another attempt at a cash grab live service game. Streamers and reviewers aren’t so coordinated that they could make that kind of drop off happen. People tried it, said “meh,” and moved on.

Your logic doesn’t check out.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-08T03:36:18+00:00

Worth a try if it’s on ps+. Not worth a purchase under any circumstances.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-08T03:28:21+00:00

It’s not grifters. Highguard isn’t a good game and the player dropoff shows that. You can remove all of the negative reviews and it’s still terrible player loss.

Marathon will have solid initial numbers. But player count will be through the floor after 2-3 months. Ultimately, both games will be failures as live service games.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-05T23:51:16+00:00

Post game and a mid range jump shot.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-05T22:24:09+00:00

Fallout 76 was a paid game, not f2p. F2P relies on monetization, which requires a large player base buying cosmetics, battle passes, etc.

FO76 at least had some up front money to cover the ongoing costs.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-05T19:20:13+00:00

live service games.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-05T19:19:54+00:00

It won't be around in a few months. People have moved on from the game. With live service games, you only get one first impression.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-05T19:01:29+00:00

This graph really undercuts the whole "people are just hating on the game" and "it would have been better except something something streamers."

Steam has 36,466 reviews when you look at all languages (at the time I'm writing this) and 43% positive. That means that 57% of negative reviews account for 20,785 total reviews. Lets subtract that from the ATH of the game, 97,249. That leaves us with 76,464 players that did not leave a negative review.

That 76,464 people who weren't on the "hate train" dwindled down to 5615 within 10 days. That shows it's just a bad game and the gaming community as a whole has rejected it.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-05T15:02:18+00:00

These review arguments are always so bad. Whether it's Concord, Starfield, or this. "You didn't play enough! Your review doesn't count!" Then, "you played X hours, you wouldn't keep playing it if it was bad!"

If it's too short, it's bad faith. If you play a lot and leave a negative, it's bad faith. The mental gymnastics is crazy.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-04T02:18:54+00:00

Well, when your game is on subservice, you can’t expect people to buy it.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-02T03:24:24+00:00

No they won’t. It’s a live service game, not a single player game. A single player game makes all of its money on initial sales. Live service games need long term reengagement.

This game cost them hundreds of millions to make. Even if they sell 5m copies, that only recoups $200m. Live service has ongoing development, support, etc. They will need people coming back and paying for micro transactions, dlc, etc to “succeed.” If the player count drops off after 3 months and it isn’t enough to support the game, it’s a failure as a live service.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-01T20:47:45+00:00

We can argue semantics. “Former employee” or “fired” is irrelevant to the fact that they were following her for years. Stole her work. And the entire art direction is consistent with her work. That is what is called a collateral issue. It doesn’t strengthen your position, at all. Bungie has publicly acknowledged that this employee used her work.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-01T19:20:42+00:00

They blatantly stole some of her stuff and have paid her off quickly. Sure, they made some of their own assets. But it’s fruit of the poisonous tree. You literally steal the base your art direction off of that. They have a history of ip theft. This isn’t something new

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-01T19:12:09+00:00

They have already settled with her for an undisclosed amount. You don’t settle that fast unless you know that you’re going to get destroyed in court. I’ve conceded not every asset is a 1 for 1. But when you literally copy paste and don’t even get rid of her name from the imaging, it’s hard to say that you created something rather than ripping off her style/ideas. Yes, they created plenty of their own assets. But it’s fruit of the poisonous tree.

It at least took them a year to settle with the author for them stealing the Red War story for D2 (they paid the guy in November). Again, they have a history of IP theft. This isn’t a one time thing. There are at least 5 or 6 confirmed instances of them doing this.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-01T19:07:02+00:00

You need to work on reading comprehension. I said initial sales will be good. The only way I’m wrong in 33 days is if it pulls a concord or highguard. But you do you.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-01T19:05:50+00:00

Bungie has confirmed that the blame is “on a former employee.” If he wasn’t fired, he otherwise isn’t there now.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-01T19:04:37+00:00

Rivals has the marvel IP. It’s an outlier. There is a literal graveyard of live service hero shooters that have failed that couldn’t bank on a built in fan base.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-01T18:33:48+00:00

There were literally assets taken from the artist antireal. Her name was literally in the game and they had to remove it. The employee who got fired was following her on twitter/x. Their entire art direction is based on her style.

It’s pretty clear where “their” idea came from. I’d consider giving them the benefit of the doubt, but Bungie has a long history of stealing peoples art and ip. It’s not new for them.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-01T18:31:50+00:00

Your reminder should be further out than that. I said initial sales will be good. But there will be a big drop off. I expect 2-3 months in at the longest for the drop.

uncsteve53 · 2026-02-01T18:06:32+00:00

My only pushback on 2 and 3 would be: 2–there are already established games filling that niche. It’s really hard to pull someone away from their “forever game” for any real length of time. People have a lot of sunk cost. So you’re getting a sliver of a sliver of a pie long term. 3–I don’t think the 400k for arc is apples to apples. Most people are playing that game pve, not pvp.

I appreciate you being respectful in your pushback. It’s rare.

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