In case you missed it, there's another Xbox exclusive on the market. It's called a keeper. Developed by Double Fine, it's the studio's first title since Psychonauts 2 and is part of their plan to develop more original titles rather than making sequels to existing IPs like Psychonauts or Brutal Legend.
Unfortunately, according to Steam concurrent users, many gamers seem to have “missed” the news that a new game has been released. It's been 24 hours since the title launched and things are looking a bit brutal. No, it's not that cruel.
Apparently gamers don't think Keeper is a Keeper.
On SteamDB, which catalogs concurrent players, patches and update history for games on the platform, Keeper managed just 191 players over 24 hours, with that record only being set in the last 37 minutes.
The game was in decline until the mid-80s, with its previous high being around 160 players before resetting its peak. It's worth noting that Keeper costs just $29.99. That's a far cry from the $60 or $70 that games typically cost these days.
On Steam, it only managed 65 reviews, giving it a “very positive” rating. That last part just adds to the confusion a bit. The game has a respectable 78 on Metacritic based on 42 reviews, making it a pretty solid title.
Of course, there will be more players participating in titles on Game Pass that release on different dates. But considering how quickly many users canceled their subscriptions due to the recent rebrand and subsequent price increase, it probably won't make much of a difference.
Combine low player counts with Microsoft's overall lack of marketing and you get the results we're seeing now. It will be very interesting to see whether these numbers force Double Fine to reconsider its originality strategy for the sequel. Obviously a Brutal Legend sequel would be great, but definitely not at the expense of the original title being lost.
