Because it launched the discourse surrounding Harmony has virtually all been about its extremely low-player numbers. On its launch day it failed to attract in even a 1,000 concurrent gamers on Steam, and as I write this its 24-hour peak concurrent participant depend is a meagre 151 individuals.
All hope rested on the PlayStation 5 model. Folks acknowledged that in-game they had been seeing lots of people with the PS5 emblem subsequent to their identify, suggesting Harmony was doing much better on Sony’s machine.
However a brand new report by IGN claims that Harmony is failing miserably on console, too. In accordance with analyst Simon Carless of GameDiscover.co, Harmony is at present estimated to have bought ” round 10,000 items on Steam, and round 15,000 on PlayStation.”
That’s a grand complete of 25,000 copies. Based mostly on the sport’s RRP of £34.99 (and never counting the pricier Deluxe Version) that’s round £874,750. Take into account, Harmony has been in improvement for 5-8 years.
Circana analyst Mat Piscatella additionally spoke to IGN, stating that “Harmony ranked 147th in US PS5 each day energetic gamers throughout all titles, with fewer than 0.2% of Monday’s energetic PS5 gamers enjoying the sport.”
When requested about why Harmony has executed so badly, Mat Piscatella pointed a finger on the advertising. Based mostly on Circana’s PlayerPulse, it was estimated that solely a tiny proportion of potential prospects even new about Harmony’s existence.
Different analysts chimed in with varied different causes, touching upon it being a live-service shooter getting into a crowded market of nice video games which might be additionally free-to-play. Additionally they addressed the concept that individuals have restricted time and are already invested closely in different video games, each when it comes to money and time, and thus may solely be keen to check out a brand new recreation if their pals will be persuaded to attempt it as nicely, which is a tough process. Oddly, none of them talked about the art-style which has been virtually universally panned and was what initially turned individuals off within the recreation’s debut trailer.
As one analyst stated, “Harmony ought to have launched free-to-play – or at the very least as a part of the PlayStation Plus subscription – to have a combating likelihood in its overcrowded style.”
Only recently it was introduced that one other live-service title, Foamstars, goes free-to-play in October. Maybe that’s what Harmony does must do with the intention to at the very least have some small likelihood of discovering redemption. In reality, if the gross sales numbers are true and so little cash has been recouped, perhaps Sony ought to pull a drastic transfer by refunding everybody who has purchased it and instantly shifting over to a free-to-play mannequin. After all, it isn’t fairly that straightforward.
The recreation is meant to have at the very least just a few seasons’ price of content material within the pipeline, however with such low numbers, will Harmony final lengthy sufficient to ship them?
