Why did this game fail?
You could feel the lack of hype behind this game from the second it was announced. It was hard to find a single person that was excited for this next Telltale adventure. Odd looking animation and a fairly weak trailer certainly didn't help. It kinda reminded me of Tales from the Borderlands in its first days. The community HATED the idea of Telltale turning a dumb fun shooter into a story driven adventure when games like WAU 2 and TWD S3 were being tossed to the wayside. You couldn't find a single person that was ecstatic about it. Borderlands fans hardly cared if it didn't involve shooting crap and blowing stuff up and Telltale fans were annoyed they weren't getting the games they wanted instead. It's a wild contrast considering today many consider Tales From the Borderlands the best game that Telltale has ever put together and arguably even one of the better games ever made.
Except, here's the difference between the two. Tales grew a following. Guardians never did. The lack of hype remained throughout the series. Few Youtubers that started the series ever finished it and the ones that did were met with abysmal views beyond the first few episodes. This discussion thread on this site is smaller than the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park threads. Steam Spy estimates that Guardians still has yet to sell 100000 copies on it's platform, something unheard of from modern Telltale.
But why did this game fail? Why was so little hype behind it from the start? I don't think it's mainly because the game was poor, as it has positive reviews on Metacritic and a 89% on Steam, although admittedly I think it played a small part as the reviews were much more positive for Tales. I don't think it was because of the poor trailers, as the hype was nonexistent from the beginning. I think it comes down to two words: Telltale fatigue. Most people knew what this game was gonna be, and therefore there was nothing interesting about it, and so few people felt compelled to share it, and even less to try it, preventing a Tales like explosion of people realizing how good this game was. Now I'm sure that plenty of people would love a Guardians of the Galaxy game of any kind, but when you're Telltale and your marketing is almost completely centered around spreading through word of mouth with almost no advertising, it's clear to see why many who would be interested never knew that this game existed
I believe this game would have been much much more successful if Telltale put more money into advertising. Like I said, I think there IS a market for this game, but unfortunately it was never realized
That's just my opinion. I'm curious what y'all think
Comments
I think the first trailer and the PAX East screenshots turned everyone off.
People just don't get interested in products they don't find visually pleasing, and Guardians looks like it's a stop motion movie made with ripoff five below action figures.
Telltale Fatigue is why nobody bought ANF, MCSM S2, and GOTG.
That and the lack of marketing.
Seriously, they revealed MCSM S2 with A TWEET. And then it sold like crap.
I was just never personally interested in guardians of the galaxy in the first place. The game felt like a blatant cash grab; an attempt to get on something that was wildly successful. And they failed.
The poor reception of ANF definitely had something to do with it judging from the people I've spoken to. In addition to that, most people found it bland which was the case for me. It was bland and didn't interest me.
Yeah, I'd have to say the backlash Telltale got from ANF turned most people off from Telltale for a while. Unfortunately Telltale decided to go ahead and release it during the backlash ANF was getting rather than after. If the game came out now instead of a year ago I think it would have done better.
It was the timing at where telltale was at the time. Their games consisted of just story’s with quick time events and small areas to move around the choices were just a gimmick to keep appeal to their games even though they barley did anything. In this game I feel this is where telltale tried changing but since it wasn’t a sequel to a beloved franchise and after all the criticism is why it failed. I’m glad I played this one it showed telltale trying to improve without this change I would probably abandon telltale after twd s4.
I don't know what you guys are talking about. Bought it, Played it, Enjoyed it. If they make a sequel or not. No Big Deal. Plus i never cared for any of the Walking Dead games and series seem to go on for far too long. Kinda like the TV Show. At this point 30% of all TellTale catalog is waking dead games. Besides George Romero's Dawn of the Dead was better anyways.
Well first of all that's a strange comparison...Guardians of the Galaxy sold very poorly and never gained an avid fanbase, so I'm just asking why? Because as far as I can tell, most people enjoyed it
enjoyed playing it myself. havent looked too much at how it was marketed etc.
I mean, I played it because I love Guardians of the Galaxy, and it honestly wasn't the best game ever, but it wasn't the worst. I still enjoyed it.
Same I was excited from the moment they announced this game and have loved it and still love it and I really hope the after credit scene leads to another season!
Also, the ending is probably one of the vastest, excluding Batman: The Enemy Within, a long while of telltale games. It doesn't have a whole complete different ending but it does do something amazing and depending on choices, you wouldn't even see if you made the wrong choice.
Mostly due to the abomination that was ANF, prior to ANF I bought every single Telltale the moment it was available for pre-order. This was the only one that I decided to get because I had nothing to do for the day.
I actually enjoyed the game.
Pretty happy with it i think it was ok at least
I initially never cared bout guardians of the galaxy before playing this game , although I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end.
I think it also had to do with the choice of Marvel franchise, like if it had been a Spiderman or Deadpool adaption, then it most likely would've seen more success.
Coming fresh off of ANF and the very poor reception of it and fans distrust and unsatisfied with Telltale certainly attributed to a degree.
The game itself was a rather nothingness product with poor animation and models failing to obtain the appeal every other modern telltale game has.
Telltale miscalculated the fanbase is all. The game was clearly rushed out at first to tie in with the second GOTG movie. That probably resulted in the ugly characters and shoddy voice acting. But a movie only needed attention for 2 hours whereas a telltale game at first release needs months of investment.
No one gave a damn about the guardians game because Telltale clearly pumped it out for a quick buck and it clearly became more of a dull burden for them.
You use the TFTB comparison, and that's definitely accurate. Borderlands clearly started because Telltale smelled money, but the team on that pumped energy and creativity and genuine joy into that. The game started off creative and fun and it's arguably the only Telltale game to really consistently build on and on right up until the final end credits.
Borderlands could have been a series of still images and it might have still worked because the voice cast alone pumped their heart and soul into their characters. Episode 4 should be when a series is grinding to a stop creatively, but Borderlands kept upping the ante with that genius "back to the top" opening song a d the glorious finger bang sequence.
For what it's worth I (stupidly) bought the guardians complete season when episode 1 launched. But almost immediately regretted it and never bothered to play past episode 1. Its probably harsh to say, but an elevator scene in episode 1 probably soured me. A group of ugly characters awkwardly standing in an elevator making weak jokes. Loader Bot could have made that funny.
Honestly, this game wasn't even that bad. I bought this game in May 2017, not knowing anything about Guardians of the Galaxy. The first episode's ending made me tear up and cry. I bought the season pass but have only played 2 episodes, haven't gotten around to finishing the rest.
I think a big problem with this game is that nobody wanted it or asked for it. I remember being pissed off that it was even announced in the first place when there were so many other games we could have gotten instead, like GoT s2 or a different unique IP. I went to the GotG subreddit and asked the actual fans of the franchise if they were excited for it and literally nobody gave a fuck. The game itself wasn't terrible, it actually made improvements on choices and dialogues mattering, but it was just uninspired and not necessary at all.
Pretty much this. I rememeber the complaints and outrage over what could have been given and some even celebrating the failure of the game due to the timing and the whole ANF debacle and what was going on at the time.