Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown / Nacon
The developer of Test Drive criticizes those who evaluate the success of a game only by Steam statistics. He is upset by the way the data is actually distorted.
Nacon Studio has commented on the statements about Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown and the weak activity on Steam. Over the past 24 hours, according to SteamDB, there were only 288 people online, and at the time of writing, only 47. At the same time, the maximum peak activity was just over 5 thousand players. However, one of the developers, Sebastian Waxin, says that the statistics from this platform are far from the full picture.
«A lot of players are watching Steam numbers because they’re the only statistics available. But the Steam community for Test Drive Unlimited is not the biggest, and the difference can be very big between PS5, which is the most active platform for our game. So, we know people are looking at Steam because it’s the only numbers available, but trust me it’s not representative at all», — the developer says.
By the way, this is a classic situation for the gaming industry. Sales or the number of players are usually not disclosed, so everyone is guided by SteamDB or Steam Charts. And these services only show activity on PCs. Therefore, if a game «slipped» on Steam — it is concluded that it failed altogether. Although in fact, online activity may be higher on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, etc.
For example, we figured out how many Test Drive Unlimited: Solar players are currently active on Steam. But we don’t know anything about the console audience — particularly on PS5, which Nacon considers to be the main one. Vaxin didn’t even disclose specific figures for other platforms — which only confirms that the full statistics remain behind the scenes. Which adds skepticism to his words.
There are more and more questions if you just go to the game’s page in Steam. There, users are greeted with reviews of the game — only 37% of them are positive out of almost 5 thousand reviews. Nacon would probably say that player ratings on Steam do not reflect the whole picture. In other words, they’ve done a good job of it.
So, Steam statistics — it’s fast and convenient, but not always revealing. There are other examples of data distortion. For example, Ubisoft once revealed that 3 million people played Assassin Creed Shadows, but said nothing about sales. There’s also the matter of Game Pass, where you don’t have to buy a copy of a game if it’s in the library. In general, for most players, the exact statistics on online and sales will remain de facto hidden, as the studio’s reputation, share price, and investor confidence depend on it.
Source: Push Square
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