PS Store Sales Charts: Nothing Can Top Call of Duty, But Phasmophobia Came Close

Played phasmophobia and literally had no clue what was going on in it.

Call of Duty is by far the best on its class...no wonder is the world's most profitable franchise.

Nice to see the Veilguard far away from the top. I was worried that a lot of people who enjoyed the franchise a decade ago would have been fooled into buying it.

@FutilityInExcellence I enjoyed Inquisition and picked Veilguard up. Took awhile to get going, but I’m really digging it now! And with the state of the industry these days, it seems odd to root against a developer.

Bought locoroco after being inspired by astrobot.

@Hoodie718 I am not going to get into it on this forum as comments get removed, but this developer is in many ways against gamers. Also, the game's writing is abysmal and it removes all of the grit and intrigue of the past games.

@FutilityInExcellence veilguard is great though ,i don't really see what the actual problem is with this game ,and why all the hate, people are easily influenced by some bloke on YouTube, telling them how they should feel about something these days, it's quite ridiculous, what didn't you like about it ?

@lazarus11 Veilguard is the furthest thing from great to many. That's why it flopped despite taking over 8 years to be developed. Ouch.

People hate this game for very justifiable reasons. You might disagree, but pretending that the launch went smoothly will not fix the issues.

@FutilityInExcellence “Against gamers” – I’m guessing you have political reasons for disliking the game. BioWare fans know that the developer has always been at the forefront of representation in AAA games. And it’s no secret the game had a protracted and difficult development. Considering the way these things can go (Suicide Squad), I’d say they pulled it off!

@Hoodie718 Dragon Age Origins vs Veilguard is the perfect example of how to do inclusion correctly vs incorrectly. Origins still had racism, slavery and morally grey main characters and didn't shy away from making a realistic game set in medieval times. Nowadays you can't have both due to toxic positivity.

Just because the game is not dead on arrival doesn't mean that it didn't bomb. It's far below the top just a month after launch on PS and big RPGs from Skyrim to KGD to BG3 have more players daily than it on Steam.

Yikes.

Only thing that will take GTA 5 off the list for the first time in 12 years would be GTA 6

@FutilityInExcellence A game can bomb and still be good, though. When I say they pulled it off, I mean they have made (in my opinion) a good game despite what I assume were shifts in direction and scope over the course of a very long development. It’s the first good BioWare game in the 10 years since Inquisition. AAA development is so dicey these days, it seems in poor taste (and agenda-driven) to root against a beloved AAA franchise and developer.

@Hoodie718 You seem very misinformed. Most of the people who made Bioware a great studio are long gone. The director of Veilguard used to work on the sims. Don't feel bad for them. They are just suffering the consequences of their actions. Unless the next ME is great they are done. I guess that they got lucky that the ME LE didn't disappoint financially.

Nice to see Veilguard still on the charts.

@FutilityInExcellence It’s not about feeling bad for them. It’s about hoping that a franchise I enjoy can continue. And calling out people who are somehow offended that a game that doesn’t cater to them exists and want to gatekeep this hobby.

The no-life Veilguard haters out again I see. Obsessing over something you hate so much is quite impressive. It makes me actually want to buy the game to see what drives such obsession.

@Hoodie718 It's funny you say that because a lot of the vocal 'haters' of this game feel that many game developers are trying to gatekeep us out of this hobby by making awful sequels to our favorite franchises on purpose. Just like Hollywood.

You could say that there are 2 sides to every conflict. This time the 'haters' won.

@ChrisDeku Good products need praise just like bad products need criticism. Can't have one without the other.

@FutilityInExcellence "I'm not going to get into it but....". proceeds to make 7 comments about the game

@LordAinsley 1. When someone replies to me of course I will respond. You will probably respond to my post as well.

2. We haven't discussed at least 80% of the talking points about this game because this forum is not the right place for it. So yes. I didn't get into it.

@FutilityInExcellence Veilguard's writing is awful. It looks like they're targeting the casual MCU crowd or something (modern audience stink again?). The gameplay might be good but I can't get past the low quality dialogue. It was funny seeing animals in BG3 having higher calibre writing than anything in Veilguard.

@FutilityInExcellence so what's your reason for hating a game, that you clearly haven't played , that's just madness,the launch was only hampered ,because a few people cherry picked a couple of cutscenes and tried to make out it was some big wokefest , and the gullible and easily led lapped it up, and then everyone followed that narrative ,like the good little sheep they are.

@FutilityInExcellence Nobody is making bad games on purpose to ruin franchises. That’s nonsense. And if they were, and the game is as unsuccessful as you say, then wouldn’t they be the ones who won?

It seems like a lot of your problems with the game are things you aren’t willing to articulate here. To which I’ll just say, there are tons of transgender and gender non-conforming people who are into gaming and fantasy. This hobby belongs no more to you than it does to them. And nobody’s stopping you from playing Kingdome Come if that’s your bag. The only anti-gamer sentiment being expressed here is rooting for the failure of a game.

@JohntheRaptor Yes, I think that the development started around the time Marvel got popular and they thought that everyone who went to see those movies will enjoy the game as well. That's the major flaw when your dev cycle is 10 years long.

@Hoodie718 But they don't want the game to fail. They think that they are doing the right thing because they are in a bubble. And reality then hits them in the face. If you have been paying attention to movies tv shows and games you know that a lot of those projects flop.

Yes, articulating it all here is not productive because this is not even a post about the game. It will get deleted lol. Keep in mind that the problems with the game have nothing to do with the premise or the inclusion. It's the execution. BG3 won over even the biggest doubters because Larian turned out to be the best developer currently active. DATV couldn't do that because Bioware are a shell of their former selves. The director used to work on the Sims...

@lazarus11 I played the game for about 6 hours and returned it. The writing is just lame. If you disagree then you are in the minority. The low sales and player numbers speak for themselves.

@FutilityInExcellence so you returned a game because you thought the writing was awful ? You must return a lot of games then, most video game writing is awful and it's not something I mentioned , surely the gameplay is whats most important ,and dragon age has that , great graphics, great gameplay and great writing in a video game ,are somewhat of an anomaly.

@lazarus11 I thought that the gameplay was just fine. Felt like a much less impactful God Of War 2018. And almost every reviewer mentioned that there is no variety later on.

To be honest with you I don't buy a lot of modern games because as you said most have bad writing. It's almost as if this is the reason there is a video game crash. BG3 did well. Elden Ring did well. Just sayin. No crash for studios that make good games.

@FutilityInExcellence skyrim I believe has also done well, its story and writing are atrocious though.

@lazarus11 A game that revolutionized the RPG genre in 2011 gets a pass. You can't compare it to DATV in any way. Unless you are comparing the active player counts on Steam to laugh at modern Bioware lol.

Anyone know if the VR version of phasmophobia has been fixed? No way I’d play outside of a game like this.

Phasmaphobia is one of my fav multiplayer games right now. If they could just add some sort of voice recognition like the PC version it would be even better!

@FutilityInExcellence You seem to have a really big bone to pick with DA: The Veilguard and Bioware. I can understand not liking the game, the direction the franchise has gone, etc. and voicing your issues with it, but it's another thing entirely to actively want a game/developer to fail because you don't like how they went about adding social politics to the game. Not only that, but you seem to be patronizing other people here who just have a different opinion about what a "good" game is. It's all according to taste. No one here is objectively right or wrong about what makes a game good.

I haven't played the game, but I've seen plenty of coverage and think I broadly agree with the fact that I don't think they handled the social commentary well. The characters seem one-note and their identities seem intrinsically tied to these immutable, surface-level characteristics. That said, maybe they just didn't make the game for you or me? Do I wish they had? Yeah, probably. But I feel the same way about Star Wars and I'm not out here telling everyone that they're wrong for liking Star Wars today or that they "just don't get it" and if they did, they'd be on my totally-objectively-correct side of history.

@Hoodie718 Small bone to pick - ME: Andromeda is good. It's been fewer than 10 years since Bioware made a good game.

@wildcat_kickz The problem is that they didn't simply fail to make a game that appealed to gamers. They got rid of their experienced staff and completely butchered the lore of their franchises. If you spend some time researching the state of the gaming industry or Hollywood you will realize that vocal haters are not merely complaining that they didn't like a product. We are complaining about the way these studios operate because they are in a bubble and instead of listening to criticisms they double down and attack their fans. DATV was directed by a person who directed Sims. EA has enough money to hire an experienced RPG director, but they didn't. Just like Amazon could have hired experienced people to work on Rings Of Power, but they didn't. I'll leave it at that.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered so call "new crowd that didn't play the first game" is no where to be found.

@FutilityInExcellence Again with the patronizing. I'm actually well read on the state of the games industry (less so on the state of the film industry) and know full well that much of the staff that made DA: Origins is no longer there. But they weren't forced out. Many voluntarily left over time because the games Bioware are making aren't CRPGs anymore. A huge part of that exodus had to do with Anthem, not Dragon Age.

You've brought up the fact that the director worked on the Sims on multiple occasions now and while I agree that making an RPG is certainly different than Sims, the Sims is not a failure, by any stretch of the imagination, and I can certainly see a situation where someone can rise to the position of Director from across different EA studios. Clearly, EA believed in Corinne Busche and the work that she had previously done with the company. Was that belief misplaced? Maybe. I certainly think so. But, if you have a problem with the director and script/story writers, then advocate for them to get removed and replaced. You don't need to close an entire studio to do that.

@FutilityInExcellence Actually, what I'm advocating for is developers in the trenches not losing their jobs because some butthurt culture warriors can't handle the fact that not every game is made for them. I've been pretty clear that I don't like the way that Veilguard came out, but I'm also mature enough to not think that my opinion is so absolute and important that my disappointment mandates others suffer because of it.

@wildcat_kickz I think that you don't quite get what's actually happening in the culture wars. We have no power to stop these companies from doing whatever they want or regular consumers from consuming what they want. Consumers stopped consuming bad products on their own because they can only get burned by studios butchering movies, tv shows and games so much before they start rejecting it. And what do they do to pass the time instead? Go online and watch YT or listen to podcasts. I actually think that this is the main reason the youth has shifted to the right.

And people will get fired because their products no longer sell.

@FutilityInExcellence yes because as we know only good games sell well and all the bad sales sell bad. Flawless logic.

@FutilityInExcellence I'm sick of literally everything being funneled through the lens of politics. People on the right and left are equally irritating - nothing is more pathetic than a victim complex.

@naruball A game having good marketing is a given. Just how hard is it to make a trailer and then send it to IGN, Steam, Sony etc

@FutilityInExcellence You’re not willing to have an actual discussion about why you want the game to fail because, as you already said, the majority of your actual reasons are things that would get your comment removed. And without straying further off topic, I don’t think the election went the way it did because of the cultural issues you’re so fired up about. And the outcome was not a shock - it was always extremely close.

@wildcat_kickz Keep in mind that the art director of Avowed publicly admitted that he wants to hire black people to work on games. No mention of skill or experience. Just skin color. There are real victims in all of this.

@FutilityInExcellence what are you even trying to say?

@Hoodie718 Yes, it will get removed because this is not the right place for it. And it's too long. It's proven to be true many times over tho.

It actually did play a major part. The quality of the products dropped too much.

@naruball The problem wasn't the amount of marketing. The problem was the content of the marketing. And the game itself.

@FutilityInExcellence [wishlists Avowed]

@Hoodie718 Boycotting bad games is a lot easier than getting a lot of people buy bad games. That's why our side is winning.

@FutilityInExcellence What side is that, exactly?

@FutilityInExcellence And these are the people who will decry censorship if their waifu’s sideboob gets patched out.

@FutilityInExcellence Well, it doesn't sound like you're living up to that ideal. Based on what I've read today, you don't want diversity of thought. You want your thought.

@Hoodie718 You have to admit that censorship is annoying. Only old people who will never play games get upset over stuff like that. That should be a bipartisan issue for all gamers.

@wildcat_kickz I disagree. I don't think that you read my posts and reached this conclusion. You simply chose to remain closed minded instead.

@FutilityInExcellence You just admitted to trying to suppress games that don’t conform to your cultural agenda.

@FutilityInExcellence I never said anything about marketing. Were you trying to reply to someone else?

@naruball When you said that not all good games succeed I thought that you meant that not all games have good marketing. I suppose that the genre matter a lot also. Can't expect an indie game made with RPG maker to sell all that well regardless of reviews.

@FutilityInExcellence weird I’ve probably already sunk 30 hours into this “bad product” and I’m a lifelong gamer in my 40s.

@wildcat_kickz I also explained why I didn't like the game. I knew that you weren't reading my posts!

Why would I care about the future of a studio that makes bad games? 3 in a row. I feel bad for EA because Bioware is bleeding money and they will get a lot of bad PR if they shut them down.

@Hoodie718 I am glad that you enjoyed it. Most people didn't. The market has spoken. I sincerely hope that ME5 will be a good game for many, but that depends on the upper management of Bioware and the decisions they make going forward. If they double down.. You know what they say about the definition of insanity.

@FutilityInExcellence “most people” don’t play any game! Is there any game in existence that reached more than half of gamers? This metric is meaningless! For what it’s worth, Veilguard is the highest-ranked single-player game on the US chart.

@FutilityInExcellence Dude, you explained that you didn't like the game because of bad writing, repetitive gameplay (that you yourself didn't experience, since you returned the game after 6 hours), and pandering social commentary. Am I wrong?

Again, for like the 4th time, I agree with a lot of that. But I'm also not really put out by a game being released that doesn't appeal to me. I'm so effing tired of the "us vs. them" mentality.

I don't like hero-shooters either, but I'm not calling for the closure of Blizzard unless they start making more Warcraft games. There are an awful lot of people that do actually like this latest Dragon Age game. It's just that you don't and likely lots of people in the circles you travel in. Gamers are not a monolith.

Only bought Phasmaphobia because it was effectively half off with Stars points (the only game I've ever seen where it cost less in Star points than the regional equivalent).

I only play kids games on my PS5 so I don't even care with those games above.
I still like my Barbie: Project Friendship PS5. 😊

This entire comment thread is basically a bunch of people trying to talk sense into that one guy who starts every sentence with 'I'm not racist/homphobic/etc..., but...'

@FutilityInExcellence I love skyrim played every version including the vr , but you can't give it a pass because you like that game more, and i think your confusing it with morrowind which is the far better rpg experience, janky as it is by modern standards, DAV was set upon because it featured trans scars and some fantasy creature that didn't want to be known as a woman , I mean it's a game who cares , also it's all optional you don't have to partake , I'm no woke activist or anything, far from it , but seriously,stop listening to those generic youtubers.

@FutilityInExcellence our side ? Come on now 😂

@wildcat_kickz on your point, I played the game and just thought it was kind of bland and unfun to play. The action set piece at the start was well done but once you're in the open world I found it not great to explore.

All the so called "social commentary" stuff was probably the most interesting stuff in there, at least it deviated from generic fantasy "we must stop this evil elf" stuff that ive seen done a hundred times

@FutilityInExcellence nope. I meant good games with good marketing that don't sell anywhere near as much as bad games.