{"id":2335483,"date":"2024-09-02T07:19:01","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T11:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/woke-video-games-are-massive-commercial-failures\/"},"modified":"2024-09-02T07:31:07","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T11:31:07","slug":"woke-video-games-are-massive-commercial-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/woke-video-games-are-massive-commercial-failures\/","title":{"rendered":"Woke Video Games Are Massive Commercial Failures"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwoke-video-games-are-massive-commercial-failures%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2335483&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In recent\u200b weeks, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-president-trump-gives-pardons-to-73-individuals-and-commutes-another-70-sentences-steve-bannon-is-included\/\" title=\"BREAKING: President Trump Gives Pardons to 73 Individuals and Commutes Another 70 Sentences \u2013 Steve Bannon Is Included\">gaming industry<\/a>\u200b has witnessed the\u2064 decline of &#8220;woke&#8221; games, with two particular titles facing significant failure\u200d upon release. \u2062&#8221;Concord,&#8221; a shooter from Sony Entertainment, debuted disastrously, attracting only 697 concurrent players on launch day and subsequently averaging just over 100 players online. This poor \u2064performance \u200cstands\u2064 in stark contrast to development costs estimated between $50-$200 million, leading to substantial losses for the studio. Similarly, Rocksteady&#8217;s &#8220;Suicide Squad:\u200d Kill\u2063 the \u200bJustice League&#8221; also flopped, losing Warner \u2064Bros. \u2064$200 \u200cmillion despite having a much larger launch player count, due in part to its perceived &#8220;wokewashing.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Another game, &#8220;Dustborn,&#8221; has been heavily criticized for its overtly liberal \u200dthemes and poor engagement, peaking at just 83 players since \u2063its release. Both games feature characters with \u2062progressive designs, which many gamers feel cater more to a niche liberal audience rather than\u200c the broader gaming community. Conversely, non-woke titles like the \u2062Chinese game\u2064 &#8220;Black Myth: Wukong&#8221; are thriving,\u200c indicating a potential \u200bshift in\u2063 player preferences \u2062away from politically charged narratives in gaming.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Wokeness might be on its last life in the gaming world if the past two weeks were any indication. Two woke games have utterly collapsed upon release, while a new aggressively anti-woke game is doing gangbusters.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Let&rsquo;s start with the negative. &ldquo;Concord,&rdquo; the new shooter from Sony Entertainment, looks primed to be one of the biggest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/paultassi\/2024\/08\/24\/playstations-concord-did-not-break-700-players-on-steam-on-launch-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">flops<\/a> in gaming history. The day of its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/phil-mickelson-signs-up-for-all-eight-saudi-rebel-events-with-30-million-up-front-fee\/\" title=\"Phil Mickelson Signs Up for All Eight Saudi Rebel Events With  Million Up Front Fee\">grand launch<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steamdb.info\/app\/2443720\/charts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">saw<\/a> an anemic 697 concurrent players worldwide, and that number has collapsed to an average of slightly more than 100 players online at any given time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While we don&rsquo;t have an exact budget for &ldquo;Concord,&rdquo; estimates of similar games put it anywhere from $50-$200 million. &ldquo;Concord&rdquo; hasn&rsquo;t made anywhere near that much in its pallid sales numbers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To put the scale of this catastrophe in perspective, consider another recent woke flop, Rocksteady&rsquo;s &ldquo;Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.&rdquo; That game debuted to a comparatively large <a href=\"https:\/\/steamdb.info\/app\/315210\/charts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">13,000<\/a> players and still managed to lose the studio <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/third-person-shooter\/oof-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league-lost-warner-bros-200-million-which-is-25-million-more-than-the-original-2016-movie-cost-to-make\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$200 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Suicide Squad&rdquo; was massively panned at the time for its blatantly woke elements, including a lesbian race-swapped version of Batman nemesis <a href=\"https:\/\/boundingintocomics.com\/2024\/07\/18\/rocksteady-confirms-next-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league-dlc-character-mrs-freeze-is-a-lesbian\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mister Freeze<\/a> courtesy of leftist consultancy firm <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/01\/09\/meet-the-leftist-consultants-spoiling-beloved-video-games-with-in-your-face-dei\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sweet Baby Inc<\/a>. But &ldquo;Suicide Squad&rdquo; was child&rsquo;s play compared to the PC juggernaut that was &ldquo;Concord.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The game features a menagerie of hideous DEI characters with their pronouns proudly flagged in the corner. A simple glance at the character design indicates this game was not made for the average player but rather for radical leftists.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Following closely behind &ldquo;Concord&rdquo; on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-rep-boebert-criticizes-bidens-focus-on-woke-training-at-expense-of-national-security\/\" title=\"GOP Rep. Boebert criticizes Biden\u2019s focus on woke training at expense of national security\">woke train<\/a> to failure is &ldquo;Dustborn.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Described by Forbes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/mattgardner1\/2024\/08\/22\/dustborn-review-love-it-or-hate-it-it-dares-to-be-different\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">as<\/a> &ldquo;among the most unrepentantly liberal and left-leaning games out there,&rdquo; the game almost feels like a parody of wokeness. Unfortunately, interviews with the game&rsquo;s creator and developers reveal this is an earnest attempt at creating a woke magnum opus.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The team told gaming outlet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psu.com\/news\/dustborn-ps5-interview-keeping-hope-alive-in-a-world-that-hates-you\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PSU<\/a> in an interview that &ldquo;the idea behind Dustborn&rsquo;s setting and characters was also influenced by a series of political events that deeply affected us all, beginning in the summer of 2016, and continuing until &hellip; well, today.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>That political messaging is clear from the opening seconds of &ldquo;Dustborn&rsquo;s&rdquo; gameplay, major chunks of which have received deep scorn on social media. The game begins with a musical number where our heroic protagonists, all of which have some form of DEI cred, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7EqCh6gUup8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sing<\/a> about how native citizens &ldquo;won&rsquo;t last&rdquo; and will &ldquo;be replaced&rdquo; by refugees.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Other <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Scratch_Point_Z\/status\/1828424785371566515\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">woke nuggets<\/a> include the ability to cancel and bully opponents, get triggered, and call people racists.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>Like &ldquo;Concord,&rdquo; &ldquo;Dustborn&rdquo; had absolutely abysmal debut numbers, with an all-time peak of just <a href=\"https:\/\/steamdb.info\/app\/721180\/charts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">83 players<\/a>, while current player totals hover around the mid-20s.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In light of these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mind-behind-woke-disney-failure-gets-the-ax-but-the-bad-news-doesnt-stop-there\/\" title=\"Disney executive responsible for woke failures fired, more bad news follows.\">woke failures<\/a>, explicitly non-woke games are having a renaissance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese-developed &ldquo;Black Myth: Wukong&rdquo; has seen monumental success, selling a jaw-dropping <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/black-myth-wukong-sells-an-incredible-10-million-copies-in-just-3-days\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">10 million copies<\/a> in only three days. The game is based on the ancient Chinese classic <em>Journey to the West<\/em> and features a plethora of characters and items from the myth as enemies, companions, or accessories.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Notably absent is the forced diversity and politics many Western games have embraced of late, much to the chagrin of gaming journalists. Leftist outlet ScreenRant dinged the game <a href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/black-myth-wukong-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">for<\/a> &ldquo;lacking in inclusivity and diversity,&rdquo; while Forbes reported that creators who requested a review copy of the game were asked not to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/paultassi\/2024\/08\/18\/the-black-myth-wukong-no-feminist-propaganda-no-covid-19-discussion-email-is-real\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">include<\/a> &ldquo;politics&rdquo; or &ldquo;feminist propaganda&rdquo; in their coverage.<\/p>\n<p>God forbid a reviewer talk about the actual game and not their leftist bugaboos, right?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But as the gaming media gnash their teeth, the numbers speak for themselves. &ldquo;Concord&rdquo; may end up going into the history books as one of the biggest video game failures of all time while &ldquo;Black Myth: Wukong&rdquo; could shatter sales records.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The failures of &ldquo;Concord&rdquo; and &ldquo;Dustborn&rdquo; offer game developers a stark lesson: Nobody wants to buy these over-the-top woke disasters. Instead, developers should focus on courting gamers with the actual content they want, bereft of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-cnn-the-super-bowl-does-not-need-more-politics-it-needs-none\/\" title=\"No, CNN, The Super Bowl Does Not Need MORE Politics; It Needs None\">leftist politics<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As the old adage goes: Go woke, go broke.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Douglas Blair is a producer and special correspondent with &#8220;O&#8217;Connor Tonight&#8221; on the Salem News Channel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wokeness in the gaming industry may be nearing its end, as recent events suggest. Two games with strong woke themes have flopped dramatically upon their release, while a new game that takes an anti-woke stance is thriving. <\/p>\n<p>First, let&#8217;s discuss the disappointing news. &#8220;Concord,&#8221; a shooter from Sony Entertainment, appears set to become one of the biggest failures in gaming history. On its launch day, it attracted only 697 concurrent players globally, and that number has since dwindled to just over 100 players online at any time. Although we don&#8217;t have precise budget figures for &#8220;Concord,&#8221; similar games are estimated to cost between $50 million and $200 million; however, &#8220;Concord&#8221; has not come close to recouping those costs with its poor sales.<\/p>\n<p>To illustrate the scale of this disaster, consider another recent woke failure: Rocksteady&#8217;s &#8220;Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.&#8221; This game launched with around 13,000 players but still resulted in a loss of $200 million for the studio. At the time of its release, &#8220;Suicide Squad&#8221; faced heavy criticism for its overtly woke elements\u2014such as a race-swapped lesbian version of Batman&#8217;s foe Mister Freeze created by leftist consultancy Sweet Baby Inc.\u2014but it pales in comparison to what \u201cConcord\u201d offers.<\/p>\n<p>The character design in \u201cConcord\u201d features an array of unattractive DEI characters proudly displaying their pronouns\u2014a clear indication that this game was aimed more at radical leftists than average gamers.<\/p>\n<p>Following closely behind \u201cConcord\u201d on the path to failure is \u201cDustborn.\u201d Forbes describes it as one of the most unabashedly liberal games available and almost feels like a satire on wokeness; however, interviews with its creators reveal they genuinely intended it as a serious work promoting their political views.<\/p>\n<p>The developers shared that Dustborn\u2019s setting and characters were influenced by significant political events starting from summer 2016 up until now. This political messaging is evident right from Dustborn\u2019s opening gameplay sequence\u2014where protagonists sing about how native citizens will be replaced by refugees\u2014which has drawn considerable backlash on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Other elements include mechanics allowing players to cancel opponents or label others as racists\u2014all contributing to an overwhelmingly negative reception upon launch. Like \u201cConcord,\u201d \u201cDustborn\u201d also had dismal debut numbers with only 83 peak players recorded and current player counts lingering around twenty-five.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast to these woke failures, non-woke games are experiencing remarkable success. The Chinese-developed title \u201cBlack Myth: Wukong\u201d sold an astonishing 10 million copies within just three days after release. Based on the classic Chinese tale Journey to the West, it features numerous mythological characters without incorporating forced diversity or political agendas\u2014much to some critics&#8217; dismay.<\/p>\n<p>Left-leaning outlets criticized Black Myth for lacking inclusivity while Forbes noted that creators requesting review copies were asked not to include any discussions about politics or feminist themes in their coverage\u2014a clear indication that some reviewers prioritize ideology over actual gameplay content.<\/p>\n<p>As gaming media lament these trends, sales figures tell another story altogether: While &#8220;Concord&#8221; may go down as one of video game history&#8217;s greatest failures, &#8220;Black Myth: Wukong&#8221; could break sales records instead.<\/p>\n<p>The missteps made by both \u201cConcord\u201d and \u201cDustborn\u201d serve as crucial lessons for developers: there is little demand for overly politicized games; instead they should focus on delivering content gamers genuinely want without leftist influences.<br \/>\nAs an old saying goes: Go woke; go broke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1733,"featured_media":2335484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-12.11.35%E2%80%AFPM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[39897,36487,39898,39899,39896],"class_list":["post-2335483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-commercial-failures","tag-cultural-critique","tag-gaming-industry","tag-video-game-success","tag-woke-video-games"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-12.11.35%E2%80%AFPM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2335483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2335484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2335483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2335483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2335483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}