Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy "Undershot" Square Enix's Expectations

thegamer.com:

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy was, for many, one of 2021's best games, scoring 13 GOTY awards worldwide. Yet the project still failed to meet Square Enix's expectations.

The company mentioned Guardians of the Galaxy's unsatisfactory sales during its recent financial results briefing. We don't know the exact sales figures for the title yet, but according to Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda, "the game's sales on launch undershot [...] initial expectations" — even despite the action-adventure title from Eidos Montreal receiving strong critic reviews.

Related: Guardians Of The Galaxy Lifts The Curse Of Sad Video Game Dads

"Sales initiatives that we kicked off in November 2021 and continued into the new year have resulted in sales growth, and we intend to work to continue to expand sales to make up for the title's slow start," Matsuda said, hinting that things might change during 2022 and beyond. While the company's HD Games sub-segment launched several big titles like Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Outriders, its net sales were lower than in the same period of the previous fiscal year, when Marvel's Avengers launched.

According to SteamDB, Guardians of the Galaxy has an unimpressive all-time peak of less than 11,000 concurrent players on Steam. For comparison, it's about three times lower than Marvel's Avengers current record. However, judging by the user reviews, players seem to enjoy the first far more than the latter, which presumably leads to sales growth over time.

There are many reasons for Guardians of the Galaxy's slow start, including its launch at a generally busy period for the industry. The game competed with Far Cry 6 and Back 4 Blood among others, at the same time presenting its own unique look