The slasher Friday the 13th: The Game has sold 1.8 million copies – despite many problems and bad press. An unusual indie hit that shows the changing times. Despite reviews in the 60s range, Friday the 13th has sold millions of copies. Now it is hitting the shelves. The release date is clear!
Friday the 13th is a horror slasher to watch and thus a hit on Twitch – despite poor reviews
It is probably the surprise hit of the summer that is not a battle royale shooter. But Friday the 13th relies on similar mechanisms. The slasher hit does not need good press, does not need good reviews, it only needs streamers and YouTubers for success.
However, the success brought difficulties, as the small team was not prepared for this surge. The sales success overwhelmed the small team, and with the money that started flowing suddenly, they had to meet the growing demands.
Surprised by the hit: The servers melted
In an interview with Gamesindustry, the head of publisher “Gun Media”, Wes Keltner, talks about the success. In just two months, Friday the 13th: The Game sold over 1.8 million copies.
It was a wild ride from the beginning. After all, they had a small studio, had to get by on a fraction of the budget of AAA titles, and everything was planned much smaller.
Gun Media looked at the player numbers from the beta for the launch and added a 30% buffer. The servers and database were set up for this player count. At launch, 100,000 players came in just the first 20 minutes and the servers melted down.
The first weekend was pure chaos; the team slept at their desks. They barely had money for testing beforehand and had to improvise. When the profits flowed in, they expanded the quality assurance. A “memory issue” on Xbox One caused a lot of trouble.
Despite poor reviews, a huge hit – Twitch instead of Metacritic
Friday the 13th is an unusual hit, as much spoke against its success. The 1.8 million sales are also due to the new era.
Keltner says: The game stands at 61 on Metacritic, some reviews went as low as 40 and the press has not been kind to Friday the 13th. But the game resonates well with the fans.
In the past, Metacritic was the “lifeblood” of purchasing decisions. Not as much anymore. Players’ purchasing decisions work differently today than just a few years ago. This is due to YouTubers, streamers, and early access. Now, influencers are more important than traditional media.
The weak reviews often hung on poor performance or server issues, but not on the gameplay, Keltner believes.
Reviews in game magazines don’t matter – as long as it looks good on Twitch
Keltner says: In the past, publishers would hire simulated testers to find out what value they would later get on Metacritic. Metacritic lists the scores from international gaming press, and an average is formed from the review scores.
Today, publishers have a meeting where they ask the team: “Does our game work well as a stream?”
The current 80s boost from Netflix series like “Stranger Things” might have helped Friday the 13th, believes Keltner.
Retail launch in stores – Release date
Friday the 13th: The Game will hit the shelves on October 13, 2017 – of course a Friday the 13th. The game will be released for PS4 and Xbox One. Those who want to play it on PC must stick with the digital version.
Two parallel gaming markets: Multiplayer for Twitch, Singleplayer for reviews
Mein MMO says: There’s a lot at stake. The type of game that works well on Twitch relies on “emergent gameplay”, meaning a drama that arises from the situation, random factors, rivals, and teammates. These are almost always multiplayer games. Traditional gaming press struggles with these – so do their readers. This is a generational issue.
“Classic games” that perform well in reviews are often based on a set story. These are mostly single-player games. Watching someone play a single-player game is only limitedly interesting because it ultimately is linear and always the same.
These are two parallel gaming markets: multiplayer and single-player. Those who love to lose themselves for 40 hours in The Witcher 3 or Civilization VI are not necessarily the target audience for 20-minute bites of “Friday the 13th” or “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” and vice versa. The games appeal to different instincts in gamers, satisfying different needs.
It is in any case a change that will accompany us in the next years.
In this article, we have examined this using the example of Anthem and Destiny:
Anthem wants to be like Destiny with BioWare story – Can this succeed?
Now that Friday the 13th is making so much money, Keltner wants to tell the fans: The money we make goes back into the game. We fix bugs and we bring new game content.
Friday the 13th: Fans fear, developer leaves them for another game
