A former manager of Nexon has announced a talk at a developer conference. It was supposed to be about the biggest gaming flop of 2017, into which he sunk millions of US dollars in advertising budget. This was the failed shooter LawBreakers. The talk has now been canceled.
Who was supposed to speak? The former Vice President of Marketing of Nexon America, Vlad Coho, was to give a presentation at the DevGamma conference.
This was to be the title of his talk: The name of the talk “LawBreakers: How I Blew Millions Marketing the Biggest Flop of 2017” translates to: “LawBreakers, how I sunk millions of dollars marketing the biggest flop of 2017.”
What was the reaction to this title? When the name of the presentation became known, people virtually put their hands over their heads. It was clearly recognized as a bad idea by almost everyone, except for Coho himself.
At Destructoid, it was said that such a shortsighted title would appear hostile to any future business partner. Coho will certainly find an audience for his talk, but then realize that no one wants to do business with him anymore.
Some people used the announcement of the talk to take another jab at the controversial head behind LawBreakers, Cliff Bleszinski. He responded relaxed and as usual accommodating.
Better to have a different title for the talk
Talk canceled: Shortly after the disastrous feedback, Coho canceled the talk.
He assured Destructoid that he has the utmost respect for the team at Boss Key Productions. One always takes risks in game development, and Boss Key did their best.
The talk was supposed to revolve around what lessons Coho learned from his own mistakes, rather than the developers’ mistakes. But out of respect, Coho is now withdrawing the talk. He will not mention Nexon or LawBreakers when he speaks at the conference.
LawBreakers was indeed the biggest gaming flop of 2017
What happened with LawBreakers? LawBreakers was the brainchild of star designer Cliff Bleszinski. He wanted to create a fast-paced shooter for “Unreal fans”. For this, he won the South Korean publisher Nexon as a partner. They wanted to make a stronger entry in the West anyway.
LawBreakers was originally intended as a free-to-play title but then became a buy-to-play title and was delayed. Despite good reviews, LawBreakers sank immediately upon release in the highly competitive market against titles like Overwatch.
Meanwhile, the game has been shut down and the studio behind it is also Nexon has written off LawBreakers as a loss.
Given the high expectations and the disastrous results from the very start, LawBreakers can indeed be considered the biggest gaming flop of 2017.
