Two big game series revivals have underperformed, Embracer Group has said, with the Alone in the Dark reboot and Outcast: A New Beginning sequel both selling worse than expected.
As part of Embracer’s latest earnings report for the year ending in March 2024, the company noted that the survival horror reboot failed to sell in line with expectations, and the sequel to 1999 cult classic Outcast faced similar struggles. Both games came under the THQ Nordic brand, but have impacted the wider finances of the troubled company.
Other games did, however, meet or exceed expectations. Despite server issues at launch, Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection sold well, and South Park: Snow Day also “delivered within expectations”. Even better, Embracer said that Tomb Raider I-III Remasted “was positively received and performed above management expectations.”
Alone in the Dark had some moderately high hopes pinned upon it, with Pieces Interactive taking the early 90s survival horror pioneer and promising a Resident Evil 2 Remake style makeover. It featured Jodie Comer and Dariv Harbour in leading roles, while reimagining the setting and story.
Unfortunately, it just didn’t deliver. In our Alone in the Dark review, we said, “Alone in the Dark haphazardly follows modern genre trends where it once invented them. While it mostly succeeds at drawing players into a Lovecraftian mystery, it’s hard to ignore the underbaked action elements used to patch these story beats together.”
Embracer has gone from a growing force in gaming to a troubled company in just over a year. Having acquired a huge number of studios and publishing labels, the company has enacted sweeping layoffs and redundancies, cancelled games, and sold or shuttered studios. Most recently, it was announced that Embracer will split into three separate entities. This latest news and underperforming games in general certainly won’t help…
Source: Embracer
