Forspoken was primed to be one of the biggest game releases of the year thanks to a good bit of marketing by Sony and publisher Square Enix. Hell this shit was teased in the State of Play and clearly had a good amount of eggs in the basket. Unfortunately for everyone involved in the development and release, the sales and reception did not pan out as expected. Square Enix came out and flat out stated that the sales were “lackluster” and that the failure of this project will likely have a significant negative impact on their earnings this year. To make matters worse the team behind the game, Luminous Productions, was immediately dissolved back into Square Enix and will be working under them directly after the merger completes on May 1st. Until then, they plan to finish preparing the DLC content for the title. While Square Enix didn’t say “fuck you guys” publicly and paint the blame all on them, the undertones here suggest we won’t be seeing a Forspoken 2 anytime soon. 

So we know what happened and the aftermath, but why did this game perform so poorly? A myriad of reasons but a few immediately stand out. First, the performance issues with this game were notable. It’s clear it needed more time in the oven as I saw video tests where frames would drop when even the most minor of combat effects appeared. Secondly, when I saw gameplay it looked to be a bit too open world. Everybody loves a new world to explore until they realize there’s actually not that much to explore in it of merit. Third, the writing in the game was often criticized for the unlikable main character, Faye. Kinky and others talking about Forspoken described it as “Japanese people trying to write an American character” and I absolutely see where they’re coming from. The clips I’ve seen depict Faye as brash, abrasive, annoying, and moody. In other words all teenage rebellion, no self reflection. It takes so long for Faye to improve at all that most players feel disconnected from her and her cringey dialogue. Lastly, I think the competition in the market didn’t help. A key factor this game lacked was innovation, and right around its release the world became obsessed with Hi-Fi Rush, a game dripping with style and fresh concepts for the rhythm game genre. Usually music-focused games underperform, but Hi-Fi Rush was able to revolutionize the idea and breathe life into that title which made it a much bigger hit than I believe anyone expected. All these factors came together to make Forspoken a failure that never found its footing.

You're right, I'm afraid it's a dumpsterfire.

Welp, the book has shut on the story of another major release. These days you never know what kind of quality to expect from a game until people are actually capable of getting their hands on it. God bless anyone who pre-ordered this game. Hopefully they still managed to squeeze some fun out of it despite the glaring flaws. Did you play Forspoken? Is Square Enix officially beginning to struggle after this and their president’s NFT debacle? Are you looking for any major releases this year to NOT be failures? Be transported to another world, gain magical abilities, and then drop your frames to ruin the immersion in the comments below!