Tales of Kenzera: ZAU Dev Surgent Studios Puts Game Team on Hiatus

Game looked boring to me, just too many metriodvanias nowadays.

In a crowded metroidvania market, unfavorable release window and with a lack of originality, it was always going to have an uphill battle.

Competent game from a competent team. Even if this game didn't speak to me I'm kind of sad they won't get a second chance.

Was a pretty looking game but it just wasn't good enough to sell. Sad to hear about another dev on the ropes but you just can't keep putting out mediocre titles and hoping the blind faithful will purchase them.

Games was decent, we've just had a really good year of metroidvanias which overshadowed it. Wonder if it going to Plus hurt it as well

@Vivisapprentice I would imagine launching on the ps plus extra tier didn't help sales either. I was interested in the title but after reading the review and the unresponsive control issues helped make my mind up for me and it was a no brainer being an extra subber.

The game was alright. It looked and played exactly as Prince of Persia : The Last Crown. Except it’s not as polished (obviously, since the budget is not the same), neither as captivating. But you could feel the developers were mastering their craft, it’s a shame they won’t be able to follow up on this experience.

As a marketer I’ve had an interest in this game. Its struggling sales didn’t come as a surprise.

Unfortunately the game was just ‘average’ in a Metroidvania market whose hardcore fans require ‘good’ as the minimum.

But I don’t think that was all its problems. No game is marketed simply to those who like a certain genre (most gamers don’t even know the word Metroidvania and cross pollinate with lots of genres). It had a wider appeal, but failed to grab the audience.

For many neutrals. It wasn’t being marketed for its gameplay or story. But it cropped up a lot due to an apparent DEI agenda (which we know puts some people off).

This game had a lot of help in marketing. It was given a big platform by the industry. It was announced at the Game Awards and regularly pushed by Sony/Xbox in their stores and in their email marketing etc. I saw it pop up regularly and it was particularly highlighted at various points of the year for Indigenous People’s events and so forth.

It really had every opportunity to succeed but it wasn’t enough. And DEI doesn’t sell games, in fact, it can hinder them - a portion of gamers avoid them entirely.

I think if the game had a bit more polish and if it was marketed more for the game than its representation, then it could have done better.

Countering my own point somewhat, I think the angle that drew me in was the game being an homage to his father and the creators love for games. I wanted the game to succeed for those reasons alone.

But it also felt the presenting of the game was a bit more about the main guy (who played Bayek, from my favourite AC game, Origins) and clearly he’s an actor so enjoys the spotlight. It was his first game. He’s new to this marketing stuff. So I felt it could struggle even though I wanted the guy to do well. I felt for him.

Headlines often though have been more about him and his comments than the game. And we know there is a political war (or 20) going on and the last thing you want is for people to associate your game with that. Especially when it hasn’t had a chance to gain a fanbase.

Anyways, I know I’m gonna get hate just for mentioning DEI, but I’m just hypothesising as a marketer based on my observations.

I thought it was decent myself, I thought the way it handled grief in the story and the layout of the land sets it out from other similar games. I even got the platinum, which is rare for me.

Some of the backlash this game received was truly baffling. The trolls were certainly on form and and really pathetic.

It's a shame to see another studio go but not a huge surprise to me. Tales of Kenzera was unfortunately a pretty mediocre metroidvania.

I bought it after hearing Abubakar Salim talk very passionately about it on a couple of podcasts, and I truly believe he was being genuine. While that did come across in the game's setting and story, it definitely didn't in its design.

@Kienda What I don’t understand is how people thought this game was DEI in the first place. It’s based on an African setting because it was inspired by the creator’s African roots and his dad. Since when is that a bad thing? (This isn’t directed at you by the way, I know you’re just referencing this as part of your point).

We’re getting to the point where we may as well just stop putting minorities in games or referencing other cultures because of the anti-“woke” mob that’s out there. I saw Abubakar Salim on Twitter yesterday responding to a video by a bunch of closeted racists on stream just attacking his character and the game for no valid reason. It’s an insane obsession from a bunch weirdos and it must feel awful for creators. We’re cooked as an industry if we allow this to happen.

@ShadowofSparta It’s getting truly depressing. Some of the comments on recent articles suggest gamers are getting worse for this “everything is DEI” rubbish. Particularly the Unknonw 9 review here and the Alan Wake 2 a year on article on Pure Xbox. As a mixed race man I’m getting very close to just completely disengaging with the gaming community because what I thought was a vocal minority seems to be a much larger subsection who are gathering confidence every time they see someone else post some ridiculous “it’s woke” comment.

@ShadowofSparta I agree.

This is the problem I was trying to highlight. It seems that if a game is perceived to have an agenda there is an aversion to it by certain crowds.

And often times when there is political toxicity, the neutrals also stay clear to not get involved.

I don’t think this game had a big campaign against it (although clearly some very racist folks as you pointed out). I think it was likely more a lack of experience from the creator in marketing and the game failing to capture people.

But I do think that since it was promoted quite well, and yet failed commercially, there are lessons to learn there.

@GeeEssEff I think it’s important to remember that people online are a subsection of society as a whole, so try not to be too discouraged.

PushSquare regulars, for example, buy and play far more games than most gamers. So when we see a poll about if we bought the latest Sony release it is skewed massively compared to the average market of PlayStation players who’d have a lower purchase rate on new games.

The same happens online. There are echo chambers. Communities geared for certain topics. And even if you’re in a community that supports your views, you likely will be talking about the community that’s anti your views and putting your arguments forward. And it can become draining.

The majority of people though are good people. And the industry needs to try to focus on them and not the extremes.

@Kienda Believe me I am discouraged with society as a whole as well. Gaming is meant to be an escape from all that. I am old enough to remember when gamers themselves were marginalised for being weird nerdy loners and as such it seemed to be a much more accepting and liberal community. This seems to have gone out the window with the gaming boom.

I think my point is I’m here to talk about games not to talk about whether those games exist to push some imaginary agenda. When you see more and more games ridiculed, criticised and their failures celebrated simply because the main character is a person of colour it stops me feeling like a member of the community and more like an outsider. Tbf the Push square team is great at moderation but when these people’s comments get deleted they see this as a validation of their views rather than an opportunity to reflect on their relationship to race.

@themightyant Agreed mighty, well put.

@GeeEssEff I’m in the exact same position. I used to quite like this site when it was more niche, with everyone just talking about the games. Now every time I see an article about a game with a minority or cultural aspect in it, I dread looking at the comments, and have even started avoiding them most of the time because I don’t really want to feel depressed first thing in the morning when I check the news. Doesn’t always work because I still bump into that mindset on seemingly innocuous articles. There are some fantastic people on here but it hurts to think there’s still a chunk of the community who would be happy to never play a game with someone like you in it, or who feel the very presence of someone like you is a political statement of some sort (insane way of thinking). You start feeling like you’re not really a person to them, and as such you can’t belong to a community.

@GeeEssEff Sadly it seems like it's become almost impossible to simply talk about games. Almost every discussion gets hijacked by shouts of woke or DEI or whatever and it's exhausting. I honestly don't know what the best way to deal with them is. Ignore them and hope they go away? Or call them out and contribute to the derailing of topics?

It's a sad state of affairs. I'd like to think we're witnessing the death throes of a movement that's fighting a losing battle and therefore getting louder and louder. No idea if that's accurate, but I'm trying to stay optimistic.

I enjoyed the game, completed it and platinumed it. Don’t get me wrong, wasn’t up there with the heights of the genre for me but for a first attempt by a new studio was decent! Sad that they might not get a chance to do more.

@ShadowofSparta As a middle aged white man I completely agree, the comments section (over the last 6 months especially) has become very depressing!
Just too much negativity when it just used to be like minded gamers talking games but hey ho as you elude to, it reflects society itself I feel

@ShadowofSparta “You start feeling like you’re not really a person to them”…this is the heartbreaking realisation that put into words how I feel when I look at some of these comment sections nowadays. When people assume a minority character can only exist in a game entirely because of a tick box that group ceases to be human and instead becomes a tool. The thousands of years of history or the vast culture get reduced to an idea that these characters can ONLY exist to support white straight males rather than in their own right.

@Ainu20 I hope you’re right that it’s in the death throes. The younger generation are way more accepting of people’s differences nowadays which is awesome. It’s just a lot when you just want to log in to see what is the latest gaming news and instead are faced with a barrage of hate. Your right it’s almost impossible to know whether it’s better to try and educate or just ignore but I’m moving towards the ignore option because I just don’t have the energy.

@Northern_munkey the fact that even as an extra subscriber (for now) I couldn't be bothered to even download it. Too many better games to play - and heavy-handed pathos sales-pitch felt to me that we were being guilted into wanting it to succeed. More attention should have been given to why it was a good game, for gameplay reasons.

@GeeEssEff Are the majority of people saying that 'diverse' characters can ONLY exist to support white straight males...". I think the problem with the game is that it wasn't an interesting enough game to entice people to play. I think it's fair to say there are some haters... but it's like you're saying the entire gamer-community is somehow hateful. I would guess that 80+% of players just want to play a fun game.

@Kienda I think the fundamental problem was the marketing seemed more founded on Salim himself, and not the game... the Game Awards spot actually turned me off; because I felt that I was being told that Salim's story somehow was more important than the gameplay... or the enjoyment of the player. Maybe it was just me - but when a game dev starts trying to pull at heart-strings from the get-go, it makes me feel they aren't that confident in the game. Though I suspect he may have been given bad marketing advice - which is a shame.

@Ainu20 Totally agree! Design and characters was generic looking and really failed to convey the depth of the lore and emotional story.

There is to much competition and there are way to many games I can't even keep up. I'm always baffled when people say they have nothing to play.

I think all the hate just came from the involvement with Sweet Baby, I have seen that is a recurrent comment in some games where studios has paid for their services...

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare If you use a black character because that is the only thing that is diverse now why put so much emphasis on it.

Make a game with a fun or good, likeable character put the emphasis on the character as a whole not what color he is and just release it.

Why say yes we made a game with a black character make a game first that is fun to play and if it has a black character let the character speak for itself. Or do they want a medal because the character is black.

Sad news for the studio. I was cheering for this one. But the gameplay just didn't rise above "okay" to me.

From the art design to music and gameplay this game can not be more boring. It deserves to fail and we should spend our money on better games.

@ShadowofSparta I hope you and all who hearted you actually bought said game, you know.... Support the dev.

@ShadowofSparta As I wrote above the motive why people is linking this game to DEI is because of Sweet Baby, maybe I'm naive but I think that this game wouldn't have received all that heat and hate if Sweet Baby wasn't involved... Of course there will always be people complaining but maybe that was the turning point...

@ShadowofSparta That's their agenda... anything with women, minorities, sexuality the "anti-woke mob" comes after it and stirs shyt up to the point where gaming companies wont want to put anything like that in their games for fear all the trouble they would stir up. See what happened to the new AC Shadow.

@Blackmagehobbit just because you find it boring does not mean everyone will find it boring.

@Kienda you are completely on target, sir. DEI programs still fail to notice that people, ANY people, don't like to be talked down to and lectured.

@Blackmagehobbit Damn! lol I wouldn't have been so harsh but yeah, this game looked SO average for how it was being pushed in showcases and previews.