From some interviews, it sounds like it was just an ambitious mess that didn't have good testers. IIRC, they said something about everyone pitching 5 ideas every day, and added a couple each time. And it really shows, it is some kind of franken-monster that combines all kinds of ideas that make a patchwork of meh. And then the testers they had either all worked on the game, or were friends with those that did, and nobody wanted to be a downer so they always gave positive feedback.

That's just the marketing cycle.

Is marketing a grift? I mean, kinda. But you'll get marketing on good games and bad alike.

Nobody seemed to mind the endless marketing for Expedition 33 or Eldin Ring or Stardew Valley or Minecraft.

It didn‘t sell so no, it‘s not simply a grift. It’s just that nobody wanted it.

No, it's a flop.

It's hard to believe that a company would spend hundreds of millions to develop a game, only for it to flop. But, that's how it works with live-service PVP only games. They depend on network effects. People want to play what their friends are playing. If a company gets this right they can be like Minecraft or Fortnite and it's the game everyone plays, bringing in billions of dollars. If they miss, it can be a complete flop that nobody plays.

It’s a PvP hero shooter + siege + looter + capture the flag + demolition all in one game, if that’s your alley.

You think the responsible will be made responsible? No they will receive parachutes and bonuses as they swap to the next shorting mafia target

Seriously, I didn't even realize it was the name of the game. I thought maybe a dev studio was shutting down.

2 million players gave the game a chance thanks to Geoff. I doubt the game would even get 1000 players if they decided to shadow drop it like they originally intended.

The fact that they laid off most of their staff just weeks after release shows that they couldn’t afford a slow ramp up.

I agree completely. There's only one chance to make a first impression. The final ad slot of TGA needs a worthy game that the audience can be excited about, and putting the most generic, most corporate-looking game there felt like an insult. Kind of like this absolute flop.

Idk if they had the time or money to quietly release it and ramp up over time, Tencent was likely asking where's their return on investment after years of funding and live service games kind of depend entirely on launch success to springboard future development.

Me neither, had to look it up. It launched on the 26th of January. That's an impressively short run.