Why did the Guardians of the Galaxy game fail?
You could feel the lack of hype behind this game from the second it was announced. It was hard to find a single person that was excited for this next Telltale adventure. Odd looking animation and a fairly weak trailer certainly didn't help. It kinda reminded me of Tales from the Borderlands in its first days. The community HATED the idea of Telltale turning a dumb fun shooter into a story driven adventure when games like WAU 2 and TWD S3 were being tossed to the wayside. You couldn't find a single person that was ecstatic about it. Borderlands fans hardly cared if it didn't involve shooting crap and blowing stuff up and Telltale fans were annoyed they weren't getting the games they wanted instead. It's a wild contrast considering today many consider Tales From the Borderlands the best game that Telltale has ever put together and arguably even one of the better games ever made.
Except, here's the difference between the two. Tales grew a following. Guardians never did. The lack of hype remained throughout the series. Few Youtubers that started the series ever finished it and the ones that did were met with abysmal views beyond the first few episodes. This discussion thread on this site is smaller than the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park threads. Steam Spy estimates that Guardians still has yet to sell 100000 copies on it's platform, something unheard of from modern Telltale.
But why did this game fail? Why was so little hype behind it from the start? I don't think it's mainly because the game was poor, as it has positive reviews on Metacritic and a 89% on Steam, and I just enjoyed it quite a bit. Admittedly I do think it played a small part as the reception to Tales was much more positive, and many did not enjoy the experience, Jacksepticeye admitting in his Batman playthrough that he simply had no desire to continue. However I still don't believe that is the main reason this game failed, I feel it could have been successful even with the somewhat lukewarm response. I think it comes down to two words: Telltale fatigue. Most people knew what this game was gonna be, and therefore there was nothing interesting about it, and so few people felt compelled to share it, and even less to try it, preventing a Tales like explosion of people realizing how good this game was. Now I'm sure that plenty of people would love a Guardians of the Galaxy game of any kind, but when you're Telltale and your marketing is almost completely centered around spreading through word of mouth with almost no advertising, it's clear to see why many who would be interested never knew that this game existed
I believe this game could have been much much more successful if Telltale put more money into advertising. Like I said, I think there IS a market for this game, but unfortunately it was never realized
That's just my opinion. I'm curious what y'all think.
Go easy on me, this my first deep analytical discussion. I just noticed a lack of hype around this game during its release and did some research to figure out why, and how Telltale could have fixed it and created a more successful game. Thanks for reading
Comments
Why it 'failed'...
People who thought it meant TFTB2 would never happen hated it.
People who disliked the graphics choice even though it made it more comic'y hated it.
People who felt it was too much like the movies even though it made sense to have elements of the movies because they were popular hated it (and were idiots for doing so).
And yes, TT and Marvel didn't promote it as well as they could have done. But it's definitely the most underated game in Telltale's library. Anyone who tries it tells to think it's actually a good game with genuine character changes and explorable environment hubs many had called for.
There's just nothing to make it stand out as anything other than an extension of the films. It's essentially a Guardians movie without James Gunn at the helm. It's not a bad game, but it pales in comparison to both the movies and Tales From The Borderlands (and yes the two are worth comparing.) Nothing extraordinary is done with the IP to warrant any considerable acclaim, unlike Borderlands. You can't just kill off Thanos in the first 10 minutes and call that innovation. More needed to be revamped to make the game shine on it's own, especially with the backlash before it's launch.
I feel it was because it was coming right hot off the heels of a new frontier.
And the fact guardians vol2 didn’t make as much of a splash as the first didn’t help much either.
I don't actually know, people just didn't really like it I guess. Ever since the first episode of the game came out it wasn't enjoyed much by the fans, I didn't have much of a problem with the first episode, I didn't even have much of a problem with the game as a whole to be honest. The part that bugged me the most was when all the Guardians left the team at the same time, that part just seemed a little out of place with me for some reason, it's a pretty big coincidence that they all just decide to leave at the exact same time. Another part of the game which a lot of fans hated was the death of Thanos very early on in the game, when the first trailer dropped for Telltale's GOTG I saw Thanos and instantly I thought he was going to be the main villain but you would have to face other Guardians villains on the sidelines, unfortunately that wasn't the case and Thanos didn't play a big part in the story at all. Again, I'm not exactly sure why people didn't like it, the main reason is probably because it didn't meet their expectations.