also, it came out a month ago

*on steam

Right? Like there are 48 Assasins Creed games, sequels are their bread and butter.

Don't sequels actually cause new audiences to show up, who then go back and play the first game?

As a company pushes people away it gets harder to pull them back, so that doesnt take away from their complaints. Also, I'm not sure that the same crowd who plays other ubisoft titles is the crowd that's interested in a 2d platformer.

The launch price is what killed it. In a genre dominated by AA games, games need to use AA pricetags.

There was also a little too much game. Instead of putting in every platforming challenge that they could think of for a given set of mechanics, it would have been paced much better if they just picked their two or three best. I'll bet it doesn't help that it requires the Ubisoft launcher on Steam either.

Xalavier Nelson Jr talked about this a few times over on Remap Radio.

Strange Scaffold (and many other indie studios) are literally doing what people are asking for. They are making "complete" games with no early access period and no DLC with shockingly high production values for the budget. And people are ignoring them until there is a massive sale AND still going full culture war over the stupidest of shit*. Which means it is increasingly difficult for them to secure any kind of funding even though they have an incredibly solid track record for both development and sales.

And... that is the sad reality. It has been true for decades at this point but it feels increasingly more true now. Games can't just release "done" because people will forget they exist by the time they are willing to buy them. Look at your steam wishlist and (please don't actually) tell me if you even remember what all of those are. Instead, people see that Caves of Qud is finally going to hit 1.0 or that Pathfinder 2 has a new DLC or that Fortnite has fucking Goku and that simultaneously reminds them that game exists AND has "new content" so that they can feel justified in being a "patient gamer".

I can't speak to this PoP. I know that it is a games media darling and is INCREDIBLY well done but I also tend to not want to give ubi money until yves is gone due to his role in enabling and protecting sexual misconduct which continues to this day. But it is a solid reminder of why so many major publishers refuse to do anything that is not a major franchise (and apparently Prince of Persia no longer is) or has high enough production values that it bypasses the "I'll wait for a sale" mindset.

So... Yeah, as consumers it is not our job or responsibility to protect the people trying to sell us shit. But, if you can afford it, consider buying fewer games overall but prioritizing newer ones that actively do things you think are awesome. From a selfish standpoint, you are more likely to actually play it rather than one of the five games you got for a dollar in a fanatical bundle. But it also REALLY helps those studios to be able to report solid first quarter (or even day one) sales and many games are already launching in the 20-30 USD range anyway.

Like, I don't know if "really well done metroidvania" is a particularly solid reason. But there is a reason all of us squad tactics sickos went crazy buying nu-xcom and the like back in the day. Because we had gone from such a lack of games that even frigging UFO: Afterlight was worth playing (it isn't. But Aftermath or whatever the first one in that series is is the best SG-1 game ever made) to suddenly having options. And, a decade later, we have enough options that... paradox fucking murdered HBS because they weren't pulling projected nu-xcom numbers.

*: Paraphrasing since it has been the better part of a year, but Xalavier was joking that he caught so much hell for basically parroting Swen's stance that Larian's BG3 was atypical and can't be reproduced. Yet people ignored all his VERY leftist takes on economics and social justice. Although, I assume that has shifted if he is still on twitter.

I just refuse to support Ubisoft. I don’t like their practices, or most of their games. I don’t feel I’m missing much by skipping whatever they make. Hopefully they go out of business and a better company can pick up their IPs and make good games, for a decent price, without crazy micro-transactions, 30 different special packs, and a required secondary launcher

They released on steam in august, but yeah, by then people already forgot about it.

They didn't even release it on Steam

OK but did it really flop or where they expecting it to sell a morbillion units weekly?

From another article:

Sources say that Ubisoft was expecting The Lost Crown to sell similarly to the biggest Metroidvania’s in the market, with millions of units sold in a relatively short space of time. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has sold approximately one million units at the time of writing.

It's actually a really good game, though of course it has some problems. The real issue is the fact that most people weren't even aware that it existed.