ionscifi's picture
Warhammer v Marvel
Posted By:

Fast approaching year's end, there aren't many more big game titles on the calendar.

Two of those, Warhammer 40K: Darktide and Marvel's Midnight Suns, we've only visited occasionally. Each for occupying different extremes of the promotion spectrum.

Marvel's Midnight Suns

Marvel's Midnight Suns has put out 44 videos since July.

Our site covering more than games and also more than just that one, that's far too many for us to even watch, let alone comment on and include in our weekly show.

It's probably brilliant and much appreciated by fans eager to play the game but from a press perspective unbearably excessive.

Are many people watching them?

Not really.

Their biggest crowd, 753K, came for their announcement trailer in August last year.

Trailing that by a very wide margin, 163K came for their first animated short prequel and 162K came to see Scarlet Witch gameplay.

After that there's just a few above 100K.

We are Marvel fans, many things about this game look great and a tactical RPG we might have been interested in.

But not the card stuff.

Which is the core of this game.

On top of that there's the microtransactions.

Yck.

Have Marvel erred in its design and interest in the game is that low, or have they erred in overpromoting and the announcement trailer viewer numbers are indicative of real interest?

Warhammer 40K: Darktide

Warhammer 40K: Darktide developer Fatshark have been much more restrained in their promotion.

To the point that only the most recent few showed up on our radar.

They began their 4 class spotlight videos on October 2 which finished this week, with just a few others in the mix.

Their class spotlights (Zealot-Preacher, Veteran-Sharpshooter, Ogryn-Skullbreaker, Psyker-Psyikinetic) drew between 294K and 535K views, and their world intro trailer 957K.

Warhammer is a franchise we have no experience playing and see no appeal in.

But we know from commentary that this game's developers, Fatshark, are widely respected for previous Warhammer game, Vermintide 2.

Darktide has a ready and eager audience.

Lean promotion efforts may be rooted in that.

Marvel's Midnight Suns' developers Firaxis are also widely respected for strategy titles in the XCom and Civilization series, but not for any card games.

Marvel's Midnight Suns launches on December 2 on PC, Xbox One and X|S, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Nintendo Switch.

Warhammer 40K: Darktide launches on PC and Xbox X|S on November 30.

[ Main Image: Warhammer 40K Darktide - Psyker Spotlight. Credit: Fatshark via YouTube. ]

References

Fatshark (October 23, 2022). Class Spotlight - Ogryn: Skullbreaker | Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. YouTube.

Fatshark (November 13, 2022). Class Spotlight - Psyker: Psykinetic | Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. YouTube.

Fatshark (October 9, 2022). Class Spotlight - Veteran: Sharpshooter | Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. YouTube.

Fatshark (October 2, 2022). Class Spotlight - Zealot: Preacher | Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. YouTube.

Fatshark (November 11, 2022). Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - World Intro Trailer. YouTube.

Marvel's Midnight Suns (August 26, 2021). Marvel's Midnight Suns - 'The Awakening' | Official Announcement Trailer. YouTube.

Marvel's Midnight Suns (August 21, 2022). Scarlet Witch Gameplay Showcase | Marvel’s Midnight Suns. YouTube.

Marvel's Midnight Suns (November 1, 2022). The Salem Sisters - Prequel Shorts | Marvel's Midnight Suns. YouTube.