For the new hero shooter Crucible, the launch couldn’t look worse. The hero shooter interests only a few thousand players on Steam, which puts it on a similar curve to the biggest flops of recent years in the genre, like Lawbreakers and Battleborn. Those were hero shooters as well.
This is the situation: Hero shooters have had a poor run in recent years.
The genre looked like the new hype genre in 2016 with the release of Overwatch. The free-to-play alternative Paladins managed to become a stable hit on Steam until 2018 and maintained that position.
However, the games that followed Overwatch and Paladins, and aimed to go in the hero shooter direction, all came to a swift end, even if big names were behind them:
- Battleborn is considered a major flop. It sat like lead on the shelves in 2016. The game from the makers of “Borderlands” could never find the player base it needed – despite good reviews. Battleborn flopped so badly that it made Gearbox’s “death list”: companies that have to fear for their existence.
- Lawbreakers was supposed to be a strong alternative in the first-person shooter genre in August 2017. But it never worked either, sank like a stone, and took the studio down with it.
- The cuddly Gigantic was never on solid ground and drifted from negative news to negative news until it had to close.
- Even Paragon was hit: it was a mix of MOBA and hero shooter that actually looked outstanding. Epic Games shut it down in favor of Fortnite. Even Epic felt it was beyond saving.
All these games have been over for some time.
With the release of Amazon’s new shooter Crucible, the question was: Can the game succeed where others failed?
These are the highest player counts on Steam at launch: Hero shooters have had a poor run on Steam in recent years. Even the initial interest is low.
| Hero Shooters | Highest player count at launch |
| Battleborn (May 2016) | 12,070 |
| Crucible (May 2020) | 10,600 |
| Gigantic (July 2017) | 8,303 |
| Lawbreakers (June 2017) | 7,482 |
This is now alarming: These are the “highest player counts” on Steam, which typically drop hard and fast after release. Crucible’s numbers are down to just 3,518 in the 24-hour peak after a week.
The Steam reviews for Crucible only reach a 44% rating.
Most other hero shooters on Steam at least had PS4 and Xbox One versions. Crucible is now only on PC.
Even on Twitch, Crucible currently can’t gain much attention.
Everything points to the fact that Crucible, despite Amazon’s backing, cannot break the “hero shooter curse” that its predecessors fell victim to.
Hero Shooters – the genre that keeps flopping
Why is that? Hero shooters are based on players working together as a team, utilizing the abilities of their heroes and proceeding strategically.
The currently trending “battle royale” games do not do that at all. Here, players can even go it alone without regard for anyone else. Team play is optional. However, when playing in a team, every player has the same opportunities.
It is no coincidence that the solo trend in gaming coincides with the rise of Twitch. In team games like Overwatch, League of Legends, or CS:GO, it is not the individual players who are the stars, but the teams. In the new battle royale shooters, individuals are the clear stars and heroes.
Furthermore, team games often break down into multiple phases and gradually build towards a climax, whereas in a battle royale shooter, something can happen at any time.
Both characteristics, the spontaneous highs and the individual cult of players, seem to fit better with our individualistic zeitgeist than teamwork and a strategic match buildup.
The current Twitch hit Valorant also clearly tried to convey: They see themselves as a tactical shooter like the successful CS:GO and Rainbow Six Siege, not as the next hero shooter like Overwatch.
The question now is whether Amazon can improve and stabilize the shooter Crucible enough that the free-to-play shooter finds its player base and succeeds against the trend.
You can find everything about Amazon’s new shooter Crucible here.
