With only a few days away from the release of the final episode of Life is Strange 2, I wanted to share my thoughts on the possible reasons why the game wasn't as popular as it ought to have been. So here we go....
1. It ain't a true sequel
As most folks are aware by now, Dontnod Entertainment made it clear since June 24, 2015 any future installments of the Life is Strange series they'll be making would feature "other characters, other locations, but still keep the identity of the game, the themes of the game." In theory, there should be no problem with this approach. Star Trek was able to go beyond the adventures of Captain Kirk and the USS Enterprise, after all. If DC Comics aren't all about Superman and the city of Metropolis, surely Life is Strange can more than just Max Caulfield and Arcadia Bay, right? Turning the Life is Strange series into an anthology series though wasn't a decision going to be left unquestioned by fans. When the marketing campaign for Life is Strange 2 was under full swing last year, there were always a couple of curious onlookers who would bring up the inevitable question of "Where's Max and Chloe?" Besides being beloved characters, I suspect why at least some fans wanted to see them in a new game is due to the first game's lack of a satisfying closure. Because of this, its safe to assume that a sizable segment of fans want a continuation that properly closed the book on Max and Chloe's stories before moving on to new protagonists (and no, the mediocre comic series doesn't count). To borrow a quote from a Revenge of the Fans article on the Synder Cut of 2017's Justice League:
And know what comes with closure? A willingness to move on- which is something a vocal segment of fans don’t currently possess because they feel like they’re still waiting for the sequel... Give them [what they've been asking for] and they’ll finally be ready to turn the page and embrace what’s coming next.The absence of Max and Chloe proved to be the first major detriment that Life is Strange 2 had to overcome in order to recapture the success of its predecessor.
2. Poor marketing
Part of the reason why some gamers were asking the whereabouts of Max and Chloe is poor communication of Dontnod's intention to turn the Life is Strange games into an anthology series. This meant that some gamers had to be told about this plan on the spot by fans whenever a new trailer or video for Life is Strange 2 had dropped. I'd consider this as part of a larger problem: the marketing for Life is Strange 2 was lackluster.
Any concerns raised by fans clamoring for more Max and Chloe could have been quelled had Square Enix and Dontnod delivered a well thought out promotional campaign. Such a campaign ought to have effectively showcased how much "cooler" the new cast, settings, and power were all going to be. If there was something the AAA gaming industry has made into an artform, it would be fancy marketing campaigns with eye catching trailers at the forefront. Oddly enough, Square Enix ultimately went with a low key marketing campaign for Life is Strange 2. During E3, they decided it was better to showcase The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit instead of the next main installment of the Life is Strange series. It's as if that they had a bad feeling that Life is Strange 2 wasn't going to be worth the effort to hype up the fans, or that the return of investment wasn't going to be that large to justify spending a ton of money on ads.
3. Higher entry fee
Even though there was no grand marketing blitz about it, someone thought it was a good idea to price Life is Strange 2 double what its beloved precursor had charged (from $20 to $40). And what made it worse was that the price was disclosed as early as June 25, 2018, two months prior to the actual reveal in August 2018. An article on Cinema Blend pointed out, "As for what the game will be about, we're still not sure at this point, which is something of a miracle in this age of rampant leaks." Charging a fee before even telling fans details of what the game was even about could have been perceived as adding insult to injury. It also didn't help that the game's PC version also included the Denuvo DRM.
4. Controversy
While the first Life is Strange got the moniker "Tumblr the Video Game", the second game had it probably worse. Somehow, Life is Strange 2 went more political than the first game. Going this route felt like a case study to prove the phrase "Any publicity is good publicity." The rationale behind this was explained by game co-director Michel Koch in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz:
While Dontnod seemed to have good intent, their execution of the political themes in the game have been meet with mixed results. One fan commented:...since they are Mexican-American, for us it was important that they face real-world issues. They're facing racism, exclusion... We're living in a world that I think is getting more and more intolerant. With social media, most of the time we talk with only people that think exactly like us. And even if some of the world is really connected, we sometimes don't look at others enough.... Not talking about something is having a position, because you decide to not talk about it.
I think it's great. I mean, you're making a game about Mexican kids in 2016 USA, you can't not touch the subject of race. I'm glad they approached it head-on and didn't gloss over it, especially compared to the first LIS which, while dealing with a bunch of serious issues in its supporting cast, didn't really go into depth when it came to Max and Chloe's. (Chloe's mental illness, Max's social anxiety, their attraction to women.)Another fan however pointed out:
To me there is nothing wrong with having politics in a game, either side of the spectrum. It just comes off as off putting when it feels forced, isn't handled with some level of nuance and is used as a cover for lazy writing. Which in parts of the first episode it wasn't done well in my opinion.A fan on Youtube shared similar sentiments prior to Episode 3's release:
I appreciate DONTNOD for tackling these subjects, but how they've handled it so far has been poor. So far, we've seen the negativity of Life is Strange 2's politics rather than the positivity. Each episode has the same message: Americans mistreat Mexicans. Besides [a few notable side characters], every character in the game is hostile to Sean and Daniel. Maybe they could introduce a police officer who aids the Diaz brothers in their journey rather than discriminate against them. All I'm saying is that DONTNOD shouldn't make Americans look bad, because most of us aren't.What made this problematic is the fact that previously in a Life is Strange game, a good deal of the prominent side characters weren't shades of pure black and white. The bitchy rich girl who rules the school? That's just a facade to cope with difficult expectations from her parents. The good Christian girl? She's emotionally depressed and has some suicidal tendencies. The dictatorial step dad? He's a veteran struggling to adjust to civilian life. The geeky, shy guy who wants to protect his crush? He can be pushed to do some unpleasant things in the name of love. And based on my initial speedrun of Life is Strange 2, that unspoken requirement for side characters being more than who they are on the surface has been thrown out the window. All those racists in the game? They are intolerant bastards with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and are one dimensional cardboard cutouts whose only purpose is so facilitate this feeling of being discriminated in the game. Wow. Talk about regression. The uneven handling of the game's political themes didn't help cautious onlookers endear it to its cause.
5. The fall of Telltale Games
One external event that indirectly affected Life is Strange 2's sales was the closure of Telltale Games. This was due to Telltale being the company that brought episodic, point & click, choice driven adventure games into mainstream gaming this decade. The most notable of these was their adaptation of The Walking Dead. With the untimely demise of the studio that championed episodic games, it made a sizable number of gamers cautious to purchase any episodic games that still had episodes in production. What this meant for Life is Strange 2 was that some of its potential customers won't be buying the game until after its final episode is released on December 3, 2019.
6. Longer gaps between episodes
With Telltale Games' closure fresh in everyone's minds, it didn't help that players had to wait for a longer period of time for each episode. As one Eurogamer article puts it:
With all that being said, the Life is Strange franchise in its current state isn't in a good position to create its own superhero universe in the vein of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or even the DC Extended Universe. It doesn't have 80+ years of source material to directly tap into, for starters. The series' foundation of showing "relatable characters, everyday characters, facing social themes and everyday issues and with a little bit of supernatural stuff" is so broad and all encompassing that one can make the case that TV shows such as Stranger Things can be categorized as a Life is Strange experience. Hell, even the little known 2012 anime series Kokoro Connect feels more Life is Strange than LiS 2 or the middling comic series (perhaps more on this in a future blog post). With Life is Strange 2's disappointing financial performance, I hope that Square Enix and Dontnod realize that the promise of a new superhero universe doesn't guarantee success, as Universal Studios found out with its Dark Universe experiment. Scott Mendelson once again shares relevant some words of wisdom:
Where the original Life is Strange series released its five episodes over 10 months, Life is Strange 2 will roll out the rest of its episodes over 15. It's a significantly longer wait...Part of the reasoning behind this was disclosed in a post from the official Life is Strange blog:
The Life is Strange series is a project close to all of our hearts and one for which we do not want to rush development and thereby fail to meet the benchmark of quality and emotional impact that you, our players, deserve.... we want to ensure that we will be in a position to release something that we are proud of and that you will enjoy and remember forever. We understand that there are certain expectations that episodes will be released at a similar cadence as previous Life is Strange games have. The ambition of Life is Strange 2, however, means that the previous frameworks no longer apply if we are to meet the quality of play and storytelling that our vision for a game like this demands and that you deserve.A longer wait time however didn't prevent Episode 2 from being released in a rather buggy state. That being said, widening the time per episode's release was a double aged sword. Yes, it helped mitigate the number of game breaking bugs and improved the game's overall polish. On the other hand though, it ended up testing the patience of most fans.
7. The game lacks appeal
On top of all the possible factors I've listed, the final straw that doomed Life is Strange 2's chances of recapturing the success of its esteemed predecessor is that the game failed to stand on its own merits. When the game was confirmed to no longer feature the franchise's most beloved characters, some fans were optimistic. As a fan on IGN wrote:
I think the decision to jump to a completely different set of characters was a smart move on Dontnod’s behalf. As long as the same elements that made the first a true hidden gem are still present (the relationships, character depth, narrative, bits of supernatural elements.) I think fans will still flock to this title.In hindsight, such sentiments were a bit too hopeful. Fans haven't flocked to the so called sequel to one of 2015's most well received games. I'll be having a more detailed discussion on what made Life is Strange 2 less appealing in a future post, but here's one possible reason according to one fan:
LiS 2 is based on one-sided conceptions of reality, which eliminates the need for interpretation. Unlike the first [game], LiS 2 cannot offer any intellectual challenge and doesn’t demand as much explanatory criticism as the former. LiS allows us to construct non-trivial interpretations and concepts, for example, the concept of time and history.... LiS 2, on the contrary, doesn’t give the player the opportunity to add anything to what the game has already expressed.
[This is evidenced] by the lack of any discussion on LiS2. There really is nothing there, no intrigue, no mystery, even the previews at the end of the episodes are not enough.The Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde once said "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." Life is Strange 2 stands at an unusual crossroads where several factors prevented it from being "interesting even for folks who don’t care about the IP." To misquote a favorite news columnist of mine, "All due respect, Life is Strange 2 offered (almost) nothing for folks who didn’t care about Life is Strange."
Concluding Thoughts
We live in a day and age where hype culture reigns supreme, where Hollywood and video game publishers love pulling out brand new installments of beloved franchises in the hopes of earning more money. So it's fascinating that Life is Strange 2 is going through the opposite of what a normal sequel to a new hit IP should be facing. The game seems to be instead following the trend of box office disappointments such as Doctor Sleep, Terminator: Dark Fate, and 2019's Charlie's Angels, all of which are the latest installments of decades old IPs. Mind you, this isn't some critical flop, as its average score on Metacritic across PC, Xbox and Playstation for critics is 77.17%. The game got enough positive reception to give Dontnod enough confidence to proclaim in a press release that the game is an "award-winning narrative adventure that's inspiring real-world conversations about race, gender equality and much more." Life is Strange 2 failing to live up to financial expectations is evidenced by a search on Google Trends (using the "worldwide filter"):
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| NOTE: Google Trends doesn't consider Life is Strange 2 as a separate search entity from the Life is Strange series as a whole, so I had to use the latter for this screenshot. |
Interest in the first game was at an all time high when the fifth episode was released back in October 20, 2015. As of November 29, 2019, the second game has earned a mere 32 points at its peak. That was when its first episode was released on September 27, 2018. Whether or not the second game's final episode will go above the 40+ range remains to be seen.
The stats from the SteamDB website are also telling. For this post, the one stat we'll look into are the number of concurrent players. Due to the lack of solid sales numbers, the concurrent player count is a passable way of seeing PC users' interest in a certain game. One could make an imperfect comparison to the estimated number of tickets sold during the opening weekend for a film's release. When Episode 4 of the first game was released in July 2015, there were 13,076 concurrent players on Steam at the time. On the other hand though, when the fourth episode of the sequel was released back in August 2019, a mere 5,545 concurrent players showed up for its premiere on Steam - the highest it has gained thus far. Even the Farewell bonus episode for Before the Storm still had 5,707 concurrent players to boot in March 2018. Remember, this episode was locked away behind the game's deluxe edition, and still had 162 players more than the second game's fourth episode! It's interesting to note that SteamDB tells us that more people were interested watching someone else play Life is Strange 2 on Twitch as opposed to playing the game themselves.
Supporting the notion that Life is Strange 2 has flown under the radar is that there is no press release that confirms how many copies were sold to date. Take note that as of July 23, 2015, the first game already sold 1 million copies - less than six months after its release! Interestingly enough, a press release dated October 14, 2019 that claims "the resounding success of the first three episodes of LIFE IS STRANGE 2" also has the following statement: "The full impact from royalties generated by this episodic game should be felt in 2020 after the publisher has recovered its marketing and production costs." So more than a year after the release of Life is Strange 2's first episode, Square Enix has yet to recoup the money it spent on the game's production and marketing? And it hasn't sold a million copies thus far? Most unusual for the latest installment of a critically acclaimed hit IP.
The stats from the SteamDB website are also telling. For this post, the one stat we'll look into are the number of concurrent players. Due to the lack of solid sales numbers, the concurrent player count is a passable way of seeing PC users' interest in a certain game. One could make an imperfect comparison to the estimated number of tickets sold during the opening weekend for a film's release. When Episode 4 of the first game was released in July 2015, there were 13,076 concurrent players on Steam at the time. On the other hand though, when the fourth episode of the sequel was released back in August 2019, a mere 5,545 concurrent players showed up for its premiere on Steam - the highest it has gained thus far. Even the Farewell bonus episode for Before the Storm still had 5,707 concurrent players to boot in March 2018. Remember, this episode was locked away behind the game's deluxe edition, and still had 162 players more than the second game's fourth episode! It's interesting to note that SteamDB tells us that more people were interested watching someone else play Life is Strange 2 on Twitch as opposed to playing the game themselves.
Supporting the notion that Life is Strange 2 has flown under the radar is that there is no press release that confirms how many copies were sold to date. Take note that as of July 23, 2015, the first game already sold 1 million copies - less than six months after its release! Interestingly enough, a press release dated October 14, 2019 that claims "the resounding success of the first three episodes of LIFE IS STRANGE 2" also has the following statement: "The full impact from royalties generated by this episodic game should be felt in 2020 after the publisher has recovered its marketing and production costs." So more than a year after the release of Life is Strange 2's first episode, Square Enix has yet to recoup the money it spent on the game's production and marketing? And it hasn't sold a million copies thus far? Most unusual for the latest installment of a critically acclaimed hit IP.
When trying to answer the question "what was the appeal of the Alien and Predator franchises", box office analyst Scott Mendelson had this to say:
... perhaps audiences liked Predator more as an Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie than as a movie about a (mostly invisible) alien bounty hunter. Likewise... the appeal of the Alien series was less about the scary creature(s) and more about audiences gravitating to Ellen Ripley and her “Get away from her, you bitch!” action heroics.So what does this have to do with Life is Strange? The way I see it, the series has yet to break out of the shadow of Max and Chloe. For better or worse, Life is Strange right now is a character-specific IP. Meaning, that as far as general audiences are concerned, Max and Chloe are Life is Strange. This shouldn't be used as justification for endless sequels focusing on our partners in time, though. Currently, the appeal of Life is Strange seems to be more about "The Adventures of Max and Chloe" and less about a (very thinly connected) collection of stories showing different teenagers experiencing various supernatural phenomenon.
With all that being said, the Life is Strange franchise in its current state isn't in a good position to create its own superhero universe in the vein of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or even the DC Extended Universe. It doesn't have 80+ years of source material to directly tap into, for starters. The series' foundation of showing "relatable characters, everyday characters, facing social themes and everyday issues and with a little bit of supernatural stuff" is so broad and all encompassing that one can make the case that TV shows such as Stranger Things can be categorized as a Life is Strange experience. Hell, even the little known 2012 anime series Kokoro Connect feels more Life is Strange than LiS 2 or the middling comic series (perhaps more on this in a future blog post). With Life is Strange 2's disappointing financial performance, I hope that Square Enix and Dontnod realize that the promise of a new superhero universe doesn't guarantee success, as Universal Studios found out with its Dark Universe experiment. Scott Mendelson once again shares relevant some words of wisdom:
The "cinematic universe" as an abstract concept which would appeal to moviegoers was always a fallacy. Audiences showed up to The Avengers because it was a unique (at that time) gimmick and because they had already grown fond of the specific versions of those respective Marvel characters, not because the mere notion of theoretical superheroes (or somewhat known characters) interacting was inherently appealing.If Dontnod and Square Enix wants to stick to the stubborn notion that Life is Strange should still be an anthology series, the franchise is in need of a game that can be seen as its Wonder Woman and/or Joker turning point. A theoretical game like that can prove that the Life is Strange franchise doesn't need Max and Chloe to thrive and flourish.
