Unknown 9 Labelled a 'Failure' as Dev Cancels Project, Moves to 'Existing Bandai Namco IP'

The gaming market is becoming very cruel. The crisis this industry faces is only growing.

And once again, another week more cancellations and layoffs. Different articles, but still! The industry is honestly looking very grim more and more, even if nobody wants to admit it.

Funny how everyone saw this coming in the comments section of the game’s review.

It's £20 on Amazon for PS5 right now. I may give it a go.

It looks intriguing but heard it's very flawed.

AA games are doomed unfortunately. They rarely sell and many review average or badly.

We're destined for AAA and indies only.

As a large proportion of gamers only buy FIFA* or COD each year some AAA games suffer too it's not good for the industry

*Or whatever it's called now

Bamco's seriously gonna let this team work on their existing IPs? Are they high

Problem they had was trying to make a full on franchise, instead of focusing on capturing the audience with a decent game. If they made the game more enticing and enriching and focused on marketing the game as a game. Then start to release lore via other media.

It's sad to hear, but predictable. Games supply vastly exceeds demand. The industry has ballooned over the last decade, but the audience hasn't increased along with it. On top of that, so many gamers have been funneled to the live-service behemoths that never end.

There are simply not enough gamers/hours to justify so many releases.

@TheFakulty this is exactly what happened with concord. They signed a full on promotional deal with UK fast food chains and the game wasn’t even out. Unknown 9 wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the hit the studio seemed to be expecting, which indicates they were very much over confident.

It's sad to see, we basically now have a situation where if a game fails then it automatically means either lay offs or studio closure.

@Excess The very first 2 comments seemed to nail the failure on the head - https://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps5/unknown-9-awakening
The game just didn't look interesting to me.

Well that's sh1te, unknown 8 ended on a huge cliffhanger...

The devs were in lulu land with the amount spin offs/comics/movies they had planned for this "franchise" without seeing how the first game faired...

@Unit_DTH lol i’m a genius

We will look back on this generation as a disappointment, but also the one which had to exist in order for the industry to finally find out that mediocrity, arrogance, and sheer nonsense wont be rewarded. And mark my words: there are still some catastrophic failures coming down the pipeline...

Not sure I’ve heard of this one before. Looks like a sequel to Forspoken from the pic. Checked the review, didn’t even know who wrote it and their profile says they’ve been here 8 years, which seems to somehow make sense in this scenario. 😂

@nessisonett had a nice comment which works for me:

“ This is a game from a fake poster inside a Call of Duty map. “

I guess Unknown 9 was unknown to the buying public, amirite?

…I’ll see myself out.

Remember the good ol’days when a bland game would release and flop and there wouldn’t be a bunch of misogynist slithering about. Good times.

@rusty82 I bought it for the xbox for a tenner , held my attention for about an hour then couldn't be bothered with its jankiness, it may have got better, but couldn't be fussed

@Fartingale There is not one single misogynistic comment in this entire comment section. I have no idea what you're on about.

Well... it looked good in the trailers but in the end it was just a mediocre game. Tried it for a few hours and stopped, as I found it lacking in several main areas (story, characters, animations, combat etc).

@RagnarLothbrok Don't you hide that gift under a bushel basket!

@Gr8VngnzN4esAngr The 1980's called and they seemed so familiar, I can't quite put my finger on it, but this may help -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983

WOW!
This gaming generation is the WORST!

@Kriandis I actually think it's been fairly good, obviously not on the PS4 level but still.

@RagnarLothbrok @Reform @Johnnycide ...Am I missing something? Why do you three seem to know exactly what each other are talking about without specifying anything?

I don't think there's anything particularly apparent about this game aside from generic art style and its stupidly 'nothing' name. So, unless that's what you guys are implying will disappear, I don't think anyone really knows what you're on about.

...I honestly wonder if you three are even on the same page.

@Art_Vandelay So now four of you are on about the exact same thing? But you can't say it because of possible persecution, or something?

If you guys are talking about what I'm assuming your talking about — trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here — than maybe you should consider the myriad of other reasons a game called 'Unknown 9' might've failed.

@RoomWithaMoose they’re all saying the game failed because it had a woman protagonist, and someone not-white at that, they’re just all too insecure and pathetic to say it.

It failed because it had poor marketing, and didn’t look inspiring or interesting, it looked too much like Forspoken. People don’t have much disposable income now, so a fun-ish but bland game just doesn’t cut it like it used to.

@MikeOrator This guy gets it!

Puns aside... I've just only now heard about this game... didn't have a clue what the headline even meant so had to click through 🤣

@RoomWithaMoose "you should consider the myriad of other reasons a game called 'Unknown 9' might've failed"

Now, you're missing the forest for the trees.

I heard that bandai namco bought the studio before it release a single game, just like concord studio. I'm beginning to think that sony, bamco and other gaming publishers are being tricked by bad developers 😅

I could have told them this the day they released the first trailer. You can't make a generic game with no personality and expect people to flock to it.

@Art_Vandelay Mmm, ya sure that's not the other way around...?

Reference all the other comments giving reasonable theories on what this game most hardcore gamers have never heard of before failed.

@RoomWithAMoose I think it’s fair to say that something as central as the character that you’re playing can be a major factor of why a game doesn’t sell well.
I know personally when I want to immerse myself in a game I want to play as a character that shares similar attributes to myself.

@wiiware A lot of it has to do with too many people in these companies being buddy buddy, ‘You scratch my back, I’ll scratch your”. Reflector Entertainment CEO worked at Bandai Europe for 10+ before leaving, founding Reflector Entertainment, before returning to be CCO for Bandai Europe and CEO of Reflector Entertainment. There is probably a lot strange inside stuff going on.

Is this really a AA game? It seems to have extensive voice acting and environments, both on a high level and therefore expansive.

Real AA for me is RoboCop: Rogue City. A bit rough and not always pretty, with great humor, always punching a bit above its weight and being self aware of it. A great game!

U9 wants to be AAA and taken so serious (at least what I‘ve seen in videos), outright unsympathetic.

@Kitsmith Sure. But was that really THIS game's biggest problem?

@MikeOrator Don't worry. I'll know. I'll know.

Arnold Palmer pours one out

I've watched 5-10 minutes of gameplay video and the combat looks really rough, even compare to AA games from PS3 era like No More Heroes or Shadow of the Damned they looks a lot more fun to play than this game. Heck, despite the flaws, i much rather play Gungrave Gore over this game. At least Grave looks and plays like a badass over a wallmart version of Invisible Woman.

And the artstyle just looks bland and uninteresting.

I'm all for AA games but it's crystal clear the devs need to make sure that at least the gameplay is fun and interesting if they're lacking the resources for other areas like story, graphic, artstyle, music, or animation. A lot of people would give this game a try if the gameplay looks fun.

@RoomWithAMoose yeah there was a number of issues with this one. But I think the industry in general seems oblivious to their main audience demographics and paying customers…

@RoomWithaMoose If you can't see the trend by now, I don't know what else to tell you.

@Art_Vandelay You know Moana 2 made all the money, right?

Are we just talking about games? Metroid remains one of the most iconic franchises of all time. So... I dunno. What trends? A generic, boring looking game didn't sell? What's new?

@freddquadros i mean the western gane industry did it to itself honestly I feel no sympathy

@Kitsmith There's a lot one can unpack in this comment. But I think the most important thing to note is that the general demographics of gamers have absolutely no qualms playing as a character that doesn't represent their self-identity.

Does that mean I think companies do understand their audience? No. But this topic has nothing to do with that topic.

@RoomWithAMoose I’d say Moana 2 was an anomaly for Disney and was especially surprising given the panning it got. I mean take a look at their other recent output, The Marvels, The Acolyte…need I say more.

@RoomWithAMoose I think the topic raised has almost everything to do with this situation. I can only speak for myself and say that the majority of the time I want to immerse myself in a game where I feel like the character represents me, this adds to the immersive nature of it. The facts are there in the lack of sales and the number of shutdown studios…

@Kitsmith Don't forget Inside Out 2 also happened. The MCU and Star Wars are stagnating as franchises (mostly because of too much mediocrity). Just like with this game, there's a lot more that went into their failures than the perception of their protagonists.

And, indeed, a lot more than went into Moana 2's success than its protagonist.

The non-existent marketing and terrible name don't help. FIFA, CoD and Fortnite and all the other live service titles with booming player bases leave very little left over for anyone else, when you add in the high costs of making a modern game it's little surprise that the AA market is essentially non-viable.

@Max_the_German I need to play Robocop: Rogue City. I watched some gameplay video and it looks fun, from the shooting to exploration like Robocop patroling the city and interacting / helping NPC's.

@UltimateOtaku91 This goes for any industry though. I am not trying to minimize the state of the industry but it is hardly unique. In any industry the giants will be able to weather the storm but all the little to medium guys will fall away. I may be jaded or merely lacking empathy but this is the norm, especially for an industry that is a luxury and not a necessity to its consumers.

I could tell you nothing of what this game is about. I don't know the hook, I don't know the genre, I don't know the story, I don't know the setting

We all just knew Unknown 10 was gonna be lit

Yeah, I'm actually one of the persons, who had high hopes with Unknown 9 Awakening.
I was interested and even more interested after playing it at Gamescom and got a nice comic book as a reward for playing it.

I completed the game to Platin and sold it after that.
I had a pretty good time, but it had its flaws. It was a 7/10 at maximum.

@PorkChopExpress It is getting harder to stand out from the crowd, The public only buy 88+ rated games and even this is now touching the 90s. Anything below those scores that doesn't have an in-built audience is doomed.

New IP are even more risky now, It is why Capcom (unsurprising they say this after Kunitsu was DOA) and Sega running back into legacy sequels is not a good sign, it is proof that game companies are scared to build new games.

@somnambulance Money is one thing but I heavily agree on marketing.

To me even Greedfall 2 at the showcases of 2024 I was like, you can try explaining the game but the wider audience you want to sell to already zoned out. The RPG AA audience your targeting is already interested or not in the game.

Kind of reminds me how I watched a clip saying about another world/isekai anime and I agree. You can sell to gamers sure but you can't always go 'oh the audience gets how this formula works so we can skip world building' while a series with world building does it right. Imagine that. Not just a 'nudge you get this right, ok lets get to the rest in the first 2 minutes kill this (or no effort into the characters/original world or what they went through) and still make it a generic another world anyway'.

Not everyone gets the in joke or trend, you have to open it up well enough still. New audiences or old audiences won't always get the trend even if it's been around for 10 years.

They need a better approach to marketing sometimes. Not just a 'were a souls clone get it, buy us please' or any other type of angle.

Make us 'really' sold on their worlds, their characters, mechanics, whatever the case.

That or as if the AAs can be treated like 'I'm just playing this in wait for the next AAA game I was really waiting for', they'd hate to hear that but I mean..... it can be the case for some people then filling in their time with something else.

This is what happens when you try to launch a franchise based on an extremely niche book.

A better game would have sold, nothing more complicated than that.

The customer wasn't buying what they were selling. The game looked uninteresting.

AA will continue to exist, as it always has, but not everything will sell, funny how markets work...

@czDante92 some do push it but otherwise I think some say some valid things just 'it doesn't suit our narrative or don't be so negative'.

Both sides are valid of sides to cover and still apply to the topic whether we like them or not.

If they are off topic sure but we can't just go 'it's negative, tick box, inappropriate'.

You can't have a discussion without both sides and points made towards it. It can come off as 'only my point is valid or I"m screaming louder then you'.

While some can be too emotional or too 'social media this and that' like, some of it can be a valid factor to point out whether we want to acknowledge it or not.

Whether some of us even dislike PlayStation or others decisions or really care a lot about them and still talk the negative things and want things to be better, we are on this site because we still care in some way or care enough about topics to still visit the site.

@czDante92 won't deny that. Completely understandable. I mean it can happen anywhere of news sites or forums or whatever moderators.

Sometimes yeah the polls/quizzes are enough or just 'reading the articles and moving on'.

Nah I don't blame you/disagree. Couldn't agree more. Your points were still valid enough that I understand.

I brought the game and it was genuinely one of the worst games I have ever played. It's buggy, has early PS4 graphics and the writing is terrible. Even some decent acting couldn't save it. It made the Saints Row reboot (which I also played ) look good.

I like to give games a fair shot and only judge them after playing so if you value your time and money avoid this game and play wide selection of much better Indie or AA games.

Looked like trash. But fascinating that they got the green light for a whole cross media push. The pitch documents must've been pure fire. Too bad it didn't translate to a likeable game. 🤷‍♂️

@PuppetMaster I played this last year and it's a great game to pick up on a sale. Overall a very solid 8/10 game

@darylb24 This game looks like a 5/10 to me. But good for you if you enjoy it 👍

Edit: Wait. Are you talking about Robocop: Rogue City? If yes then yeah it looks like an 8/10.

@AverageGamer Oh now I understand, if he's good at his job at bamco maybe that's why bamco trust and bought his studio. Should at least wait for one game though, although maybe bamco think if the game is successful their studio will become much more expensive.

Just bad luck for bamco I think, they bet and lost on the game and studio.

Quite sad about this one, its not a bad little game as AA games go

@nitraM I finally got around to playing it over the weekend and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I was a bit worried after the tutorial level, but so far the rest of the game has been good fun. That being said, it definitely has that FF13 feeling of being a long series of rooms and corridors so far. Also, the combat is full of interesting ideas that don’t come together often enough because the game gets in its own way. Still, I’m enjoying my play through and am glad that the team was at least able to bring a small part of their vision to (slightly janky) life.

This game didn’t generate any hype nor interest among gamers was its biggest problem. So so generic. Nothing wrong either with A or AA games either. As I’ll gladly support something if I’m interested in it. There is still room from for more A or AA games.

@Art_Vandelay I'm sure GTA6 will be a sales disaster because it co-stars a Hispanic woman.

You just can't see your own biases and how you have to deform reality to validate them. There are many reasons products succeed and fail. If it was just about the protagonist, Mario & Luigi would sell at the same level as Super Mario proper. It doesn't. And if you can't explain why Moana 2 and Inside Out 2 did so well despite not starring white men, that really says everything about your ability to read the market.

Or, heck, how about this: why didn't famous fictional white guy Indians Jones blow up Steam charts?

@RoomWithaMoose "There are many reasons products succeed and fail."

Bingo.

I never said that culture is the only thing that matters. All we're saying is that it does matter. To what degree? We can agree to disagree on that, because time will tell.

And stop fixating on identitarian characteristics, man. It's not about that. In fact, it's the exact opposite. I'm freaking Latin, ok? Race, gender and so on should not matter at all. We need to look past this stuff and see each other as just fellow human beings.

@Art_Vandelay "And stop fixating on identitarian characteristics, man. It's not about that."

Theeen, what are you talking about? You never did actually say — nor those other three. If you're not taking about race and gender, what's the supposedly obvious reason this game failed?

EDIT: Also, I dunno what your Latin-ness has to do with anything. I'm part Japanese — WOAH!!!

You've yet to explain how these trends you speak of coexist with the successes/failures I've pointed out.

And, if you're saying there's more to a product succeeding than whatever it is you're talking about, cool. That means you're saying I'm right, as that's really all I've been saying. If you agree on this, what's there to disagree on? "To what degree"? If you're going to get that specific, what's important can completely change depending on the product and its intended demographic. So blanketed comments are a lot more meaningless.

@Hyena_socks funnily enough what I was referring to wasn’t a female protagonist, or her race. I’m all for diversity. BG3, TLOU2, Horizon (great game even if I wasn’t too fussed on the gameplay, I’m more into soulslikes), Uncharted Lost Legacy, Alien Isolation…. I mean I could go on. Many of my favourite game series and games have a great deal of diversity in them, and I love them because they’re well done and well written.

I watched a couple of trailers for this game and it came off as mean spirited and lazy. The writing for the main character seemed smug and arrogant, and when you do that (Hi Forspoken!) in a way that alienates a lot of potential players, it’ll mean you fail.

What I meant was that writers and developers need to up their game with writing and design, instead of just aping what they think will work and then screaming misogyny when nobody buys it.

@Johnnycide You should've said that to begin with, my man. That's a good, fair opinion to have.

I'm over here debating I-don't-even-know-at-this-point with people who took your vagueness as an excuse to validate and express their own — still uncertain — beliefs

@Johnnycide I apologise in that case, sorry I completely misunderstood. I’ve gotten too used to people talking similarly to hide negative views on media/entertainment for those views.

But I completely agree with you in that case - veilguard I thought was very lazy writing, uninspired and dull. And like you, this game looked similarly a bit unappealing story and character wise from what was shown.

There’s a way to do smug and arrogant protagonists, Nathan Drake for example (or BG3, a fair few of the party) where they mature and it’s their character flaw they have to overcome. But you’re right, done poorly it’s just unpleasant.

@RoomWithaMoose sadly though, if you criticise a game with a female or POC or both protagonist a lot of the time, people just think that’s the issue you have. It prevents valid criticism, and both sides really don’t help.

@Hyena_socks no need to apologise mate, I shouldn’t have been as vague as I was.

(please be .hack)

@Amnesiac Aye its quite the linear game but at the moment I really don't mind that with all the massive open world RPGs I have in the backlog.