On July 18, the new action RPG “Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn” was released for Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X. The initial player numbers on Steam are catastrophic. This elicits jubilation from some people online who were already gunning for the game. Because it is said that the despised “Woke Factory” Sweet Baby Inc. had a hand in it.
How is Flintlock doing? Not well at all:
- The game launched on Steam almost without public notice. At its peak, it had 541 players.
- The reviews are “mostly positive,” which is not bad – 74% of the reviews are positive. But the fact that there are only 198 reviews paints a sad picture.
- Apparently, only a few want to take a look at the game for €36.
Sweet Baby Inc. is blamed for the flop
Who is pleased about this? The failure of Flintlock particularly delights some people online who have identified “Sweet Baby Inc.” as the source of all evil. This is a Canadian consulting firm that helps game developers pay attention to “DEI” in game development: Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion.
For a number of people online, this is “Woke Madness.” Allegedly, Sweet Baby INC ruins games. How exactly they change games so drastically that they become worse can’t be explained. In an article, GameStar examined Sweet Baby Inc. more closely.
Anyway, on Twitter, Mark Kern, a developer who likes to take the lead in protests against the gaming industry, is celebrating: He has already explained how the “Race Swap” of the protagonist ruined the game and how unnecessarily money was thrown out to promote diversity.
Sweet Baby Inc. may have left the game, but “Flintlock” has never recovered, Kern knows (via twitter).
“Nobody wants to play ugly women”
“KotakuInAction” is the unofficial reddit of the reactionary GamerGate movement. Here, Flintlock’s problems are seen in the dreadful “Woke Agenda,” but articulated more clearly: No one wants to play an ugly woman with a flat butt, explains one user. They should have chosen a “hot black chick” like in Resident Evil 5 as the protagonist.
The game would propagate a Woke Agenda.
Then someone asks if “Go Woke, go Broke” is true, how can one explain that Baldur’s Gate 3, the wokest game of all time, is such a huge success, shifting the discussion a bit off track. Well, most would be fooling around with the conventionally attractive Shadowheart – that pretty much shows everything.
Flintlock probably simply lacked the money for a better game
Why did the game really flop? In the reviews on Steam, it is said:
- The game gives the impression that the developers ran out of money – much seems unfinished and unimplemented.
- Flintlock feels too sluggish, the animations are almost ridiculous.
On Metacritic, Flintlock receives only 71% on PS5 and PC – the Xbox version gets 73%:
- Games.Ch judges: A solid action-adventure that offers nothing special.
- The GamePro only gives 60% and judges that Flintlock cannot compete with other games in the genre regarding story and gameplay. It seemed promising in trailers, but the final result lacks budget.
Flintlock apparently struggles to find an audience because there are too many strong alternatives in the “action RPG” genre. Flintlock lacked any hype at release.
This is what lies behind it: The argument “Games fail when they are woke” is entirely undermined by Baldur’s Gate 3. Most games fail because they are developed without considering the market. Flintlock likely hardly registered on anyone’s radar:
- Currently, Google interest in Germany is about 7 times lower than in The First Descendant, which was released on July 2.
- Furthermore, interest in Flintlock is 10 times lower than interest in Once Human, the last major release on Steam.
There seem to be some parallels between Flintlock and Forspoken; that action RPG also flopped, and some blamed the unliked protagonist, who was perceived as sassy: Forspoken: Actress receives criticism from gamers, being called “cringe” – This is what she says about it.
