Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t sell as well as Square Enix expected upon its launch last year.
The publisher shared its disappointment in a financial results briefing earlier this month, but pledged to “make up” for the slow start through further sales in 2022. It’s a shame for Guardians of the Galaxy, which GamesRadar+ rated four stars and deemed to be up there with the best the Marvel movies have to offer. But if developer Eidos Montreal is freed up from making a sequel, that could spell good news for fans of the studio’s other series, Deus Ex.
“Despite strong reviews, the game’s sales on launch undershot our initial expectations,” said Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda. “However, sales initiatives that we kicked off in November 2021 and continued into the new year have resulted in sales growth, and we intend to work to continue to expand sales to make up for the title’s slow start.”
Eidos Montreal was asked to apply its talent to Guardians of the Galaxy after 2016’s Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The game had been the first major product in an intended Deus Ex Universe - “an ongoing, expanding and connected world” that would span several Deus Ex games. But as Square Enix redirected the efforts of its top Western studios towards the Marvel license, Deus Ex fell by the wayside.
It’s fair to say that Square Enix’s Marvel initiative hasn’t been the immediate pop-cultural slam dunk it had hoped for - but the publisher isn’t struggling. While net sales in the ‘HD Games’ segment that included Guardians of the Galaxy and Outriders were lower than during the same period in the previous fiscal year, the company benefitted from the “sharp growth” in Final Fantasy 14 subscribers that surrounded Endwalker.
Perhaps now, with Guardians of the Galaxy in the rear view mirror, the publisher might look to revive its Deus Ex Universe. The series enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the wake of Cyberpunk 2077, which sold players on a similar kind of non-linear transhuman fantasy.
The Guardians of the Galaxy find their way towards the top of our list of the best superhero games.
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