OnRush is a sales disaster - History repeating itself?
News has emerged this morning which states the former Evolution Studios director and a number of senior staff have been laid off from Codemasters following poor sales from OnRush. Even though it received generally favourable reviews from critics, it never set the charts alight in any territory. In fact, reports show it only sold 1,000 physical copies during its launch week in the UK, which is nothing short of a disaster for a AAA title.
There are a number of factors which lead to this game's poor performance. For starters, it targeted a niche segment of the market which... Doesn't actually exist. OnRush took the foundations taken by MotorStorm and merged it with features from First Person Shooters. Some decisions confused the gaming community such as having grid positions removed and eliminating any need to finish in first place. But given the game's nature of having a set of vehicles driving competitively alongside each other, it was still labelled as a racing game by the media.
Speaking of the media, that's also another factor which lead to OnRush being a sales flop; there was hardly any coverage. It feels as though Codemasters were relying on feedback from the Betas to build up a positive word of mouth to market the game. Unfortunately, that backfired as the general sentiment was that the mechanics of the game are difficult to grasp and the perceived value was far less than the £50 asking price at launch.
Interestingly, the sales disaster of OnRush proves that history does repeat itself. Rewind the clock back to Spring 2010, we have 3 arcade racing games which offer something vastly different from anything else on the market - ModNation Racers, Blur and Split Second. The situation is best explained by this fantastic article on GTPlanet but it is clear to see where the similarities lie - All games were critically acclaimed, enjoyed by those who played it but ultimately were sales disasters which proved costly to all those who worked on those titles. It is unfortunate to see the staff from Evolution studios being the latest casualty from trying something new, but fingers crossed the talent land on their feet soon and being work on new and exciting projects.
There are a number of factors which lead to this game's poor performance. For starters, it targeted a niche segment of the market which... Doesn't actually exist. OnRush took the foundations taken by MotorStorm and merged it with features from First Person Shooters. Some decisions confused the gaming community such as having grid positions removed and eliminating any need to finish in first place. But given the game's nature of having a set of vehicles driving competitively alongside each other, it was still labelled as a racing game by the media.
Speaking of the media, that's also another factor which lead to OnRush being a sales flop; there was hardly any coverage. It feels as though Codemasters were relying on feedback from the Betas to build up a positive word of mouth to market the game. Unfortunately, that backfired as the general sentiment was that the mechanics of the game are difficult to grasp and the perceived value was far less than the £50 asking price at launch.
Interestingly, the sales disaster of OnRush proves that history does repeat itself. Rewind the clock back to Spring 2010, we have 3 arcade racing games which offer something vastly different from anything else on the market - ModNation Racers, Blur and Split Second. The situation is best explained by this fantastic article on GTPlanet but it is clear to see where the similarities lie - All games were critically acclaimed, enjoyed by those who played it but ultimately were sales disasters which proved costly to all those who worked on those titles. It is unfortunate to see the staff from Evolution studios being the latest casualty from trying something new, but fingers crossed the talent land on their feet soon and being work on new and exciting projects.
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