Despite being one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2010 Ninja Theory’s Enslaved: Odyssey to the West may have be destined to fail.
After the Tokyo Game Show 2010 when Capcom announced that Ninja Theory would be handleing a reboot of their popular Devil May Cry franchise, the Internet exploded. Aficionados of the series around the world expressed their dissatisfaction with the changes being made to the next installment of the game. Comments made by Ninja Theory’s Tameem Antoniades addressing the fan backlash didn’t help quell the situation either. In fact, Antoniades’ ‘I don’t care” response may have only added fuel to the fire as some gamers have opted to boycott Ninja Theory similar to the Tales of community in the West who had refused to support Namco products as long as the Japanese company expressed no interest in localising many of their titles.
Then again I may be giving Devil May Cry fans too much credit. There were other factors that worked against Enslaved: Odyssey to the West , including the game’s length, little marketing, and gameplay. It was also released up against other high profile titles last year, Castlevania; Lords of Shadow being one of them.
Whether or not Enslaved: Odyssey to the West’s stagnant sales can be blamed on Devil May Cry fans is anyone’s guess but if they ( DMC fans ) had any hand in the game moving just over 400k units worldwide, Ninja Theory’s DmC may not fair as well either.
