Guardians of the Galaxy Game Sales Disappoint, Despite High Praise

screenrant.com:

Despite its critical acclaim and positive word-of-mouth, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy failed to meet Square Enix's sales expectations at launch. After years of uncorrobrated rumors, Square Enix and Deus Ex developer Eidos-Montréal announced their Guardians of the Galaxy game during E3 2021. The GOTG title had its skeptics following Marvel's Avengers' myriad shortcomings, yet many still viewed the new Eidos-Montréal project as a potentially promising experience.

Suffice it to say, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy's critical success proved its naysayers wrong. The storytelling and character work especially received high praise from reviewers and players alike; meanwhile, some of the gameplay design choices felt hit or miss by most standards. Still, the GOTG game managed to become quite the sleeper hit, finding itself among many a Game of the Year list and even taking home a few trophies during awards season. But that might not be enough for the lofty expectations of its publisher.

Related: Guardians Of The Galaxy Game Devs Explain Pac-Man, Nova Easter Eggs

During an earnings briefing, Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda noted (via VGC) that sales of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy "undershot [the publisher's] initial expectations." Such a disappointment came despite strong review scores, Matsuda mentioned. Square Enix apparently boasts high hopes that the Eidos-Montréal-developed GOTG project will enjoy a long tail of success, though. In the presentation, Matsuda said sales initiatives that began in November 2021 and continued into 2022 have worked wonders for "sales growth;" thus, the company intends to carry on its efforts of expanding GOTG's market performance to make up for the "slow start."

Square Enix has a