In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Compulsion COO and Producer Sam Abbott discussed We Happy Few‘s reception and how Early Access played a key role in its development. While Abbott reflected on Early Access, stating “if we hadn?t done [it], I don?t think We Happy Few would?ve been as successful,? that success isn’t without its asterisks. Currently holding a Metacritic score of 67, We Happy Few didn’t review well, despite all the hype. The disparity between expectation and reality was due to unrealistic expectations players had from that initial trailer.
We Happy Few isn’t the first game to shine on screen, only to elicit a different reaction once players were behind the controller. And in the age of social media, you never know what piece of marketing material might pop. Many gamers took that single trailer as a promise, rather than an act of promotion. Abbott reflected on this situation, warning developers that players are always buying their own idea of your game, rather than what’s detailed on the store page or your development blog.
When the game was launched in Early Access, the expectations of what it was were already set in people?s minds. It was a very interesting sort of situation, because people looked in isolation at that [trailer] and assumed that?s what the game would be, and ignored all the previous streams?which had millions of views at that point?and they ignored all the marketing material that was on the store page. ...